Careers

Julia Rowan offers practical guidance to help leaders run productive and enjoyable team meetings.Team meetings both reflect and create a team’s culture. In times of uncertainty, they provide an essential lifeline to staff as well as an opportunity for leaders to develop the future team that they need.But before we dive into the detail, bear with me for a short and useful exercise: write down a few words that describe your team. Next, fast-forward 12 months: write down the words you would like to use to describe your team. What did you write? More strategic? More independent? More collegiate? More thorough? More proactive? Now reflect on this: how are you using your team meetings to build that strategic, independent, proactive (insert your own words) team that you want?Leaders rarely view the team meeting as an opportunity to build the team they want. Team meetings are seen as a duty, not an opportunity.Create a strong centre of gravityLeadership is challenging, both in good times and bad, but the challenges are different. Right now, there is significant uncertainty: possible recession, business continuity challenges, staff safety and more. Organisations are trying to recruit, induct, delegate, manage and lead at a distance. Many team members are anxious.All of this, to be slightly controversial, in an environment where commitment to one’s profession can be more important than commitment to one’s employer. And that commitment is neither right nor wrong – it merely reflects the reality that all professionals need to stay accredited. Otherwise, their employment prospects are gone. But it all feeds into the need for the leader to create a strong ‘centre of gravity’ within the team and to make the most of the opportunity (there’s that word again) that team meetings offer.Let’s go back to our opening exercise. Let’s say that you want your team to be more proactive; you have two choices. You either tell them that you want them to be more proactive or, at your next team meeting, you ask each team member to give an example of their proactivity and how it worked out. The first option sits nicely under ‘good advice’, and like all good advice, it may or may not be heeded. The second option sends a powerful message: that members of this team are encouraged to be proactive.The purpose of team meetingsMy take on leadership is that it happens through a series of conversations, most of which are one-to-one – interview, induction, goal-setting, delegation, feedback, performance management, coaching etc. Each of these conversations has a specific purpose and opportunity. Team meetings are different and serve three main purposes:they allow for the exchange of information, ensuring that everyone is on the same page;they facilitate discussion, which leads to better quality decisions; andthey are usually the only time and place where the team is together and can ‘do’ being a team. They are the equivalent of the family dinner – a time to stay connected, support each other and, yes, have the odd spat.The team-building part builds the trust needed to ensure that the discussion and decision-making are high-quality; that all team members can speak up, air opinions and be heard. This, in turn, feeds into that all-important engagement and commitment to the team, which is particularly important when teams work off-site or virtually.Plan and run outstanding meetingsTaking the time to plan and run outstanding meetings is tough on leaders who are already under pressure. They may unwittingly adopt a ‘tick-box’ approach to their meetings: regular meeting? Agenda circulated? All in attendance? All updates covered? Action list distributed?Actually, if you are doing all of that, take a bow because many teams never meet (and hopefully the thoughts below will help you make your meetings even more useful and enjoyable). Or maybe you used to run meetings and then stopped. They took too long, nobody spoke up, or the same few people dominated. Now is a great time to reinvest in your team meetings.The tips that follow may help stimulate some creative thoughts about how you plan and organise your team meetings. Julia Rowan is Founder of PerformanceMatters.ie. Following a career that spanned finance, marketing and public affairs, Julia now works with leaders and teams throughout Europe to build strong teams.

Ronan Dunne draws on his experience at the highest echelons of business to share his six leadership lessons. When I first worked in London as a banker, I was promoted three times in a period of about 15 months. I was an eager and highly qualified Chartered Accountant but in the first 12 months I worked late every evening. Then, I started working on Saturday and Sunday. I worked my socks off and for the first year, it was a remarkably successful strategy – but then, I hit a wall. I had no more capacity. It was a completely unsustainable model and it did not take me long to realise that unless I could invent an eighth day in the week, I would need to change my management style. The lessons that follow are based on my experience as a Chartered Accountant in business, and one who often had to learn lessons the hard way. Some may be more relevant to you than others, but I nevertheless hope that you find them useful. Lesson 1: It is not what you do, it is what you make happen When Chartered Accountants start out in their careers, they are largely personal contributors. They have a very specific role and success is defined by the outcome or the output of their particular job. Increasingly, however, we realise that this approach is based on an old-fashioned, hierarchical business model. In modern society, and for millennials in particular, painting inside the lines is not an attractive proposition – even in your first job. So, discover as early as possible in your career that your success does not just depend exclusively on what you do; it also hinges on what you make happen. Your capacity to impact and influence is infinite but your output is simply defined by hours in the day, no matter how hard and fast you work. At every point in your career, you have the opportunity to impact and influence those around you. Key takeaway: Take the opportunity to make a difference when it comes your way. Lesson 2: To be an effective leader, build an effective team The capacity to exceed expectations lies in how you blend the skills and capabilities of those around you. Effective teams do not simply do what any other team would; effective teams harness the unique talent, perspectives, and experience of their individual members in a way that enables the collective to achieve outcomes that would not otherwise be possible. When considering team formation, we sometimes think “I need someone for finance, someone for marketing, someone for legal” and so on. But actually, if you build a team correctly, you create space for each person to bring their own personality and their own unique perspective to the team. That is the secret ingredient to superior outcomes. Key takeaway: Every person within the team has a unique contribution to make. Lesson 3: Exercise judgement as to when to exercise judgement This might sound like a play on words but in my experience, people early in their career often have a desire to impress their superiors. They sometimes seek out opportunities to act decisively, to jump in and make a decision in order to demonstrate that they have what it takes to be a manager or a leader. In fact, they often demonstrate their inexperience by attempting to find a moment to showcase their decisiveness and by consequence, unwittingly illustrate their impatience. Very often, the wisest thing to do is to explain why a decision cannot be made due to a lack of information or context, for example. By all means, look for opportunities to exercise judgement but remember that judgement can sometimes be best exercised by not deciding and explaining why. Key takeaway: When meeting with senior executives, remember that rushing to make an impact may make you look like an idiot. Lesson 4: Leadership should happen at every level In business, decisions are best made closest to the point of impact. An effective organisation therefore ensures that those who make decisions have the right context and the discretion to decide, because hierarchy on its own does not always work. In a team, the most senior member is not always the natural leader on a particular topic or project so to be continually effective, teams should encourage those closer to the issue to take the helm. That means cultivating the flexibility to have junior members lead the way. Indeed, the biggest challenge facing larger organisations is their established hierarchical models. Such companies recruit bright, young, and digitally literate people but in too many cases they leave after a year or two because they get completely disillusioned. Despite understanding more about behavioural trends or other issues that may be affecting the business, their opinion is never sought out because they are three or four levels down in the organisation. Leaders need to empower those people and accept a certain amount of risk. There must be permission to fail but even in organisations with a mild risk tolerance, this concept creates a space in which an organisation’s collective potential can be nurtured. Key takeaway: Acknowledging context is critical to effective decision-making. Couple that with delegated authority and permission to fail, and you have a solid foundation for a highly effective organisation. Lesson 5: Authenticity is the gateway to true leadership My view of authenticity is built on two ideas – one is a personal insight and the other builds on the elements discussed above. I became a CEO for the first time with O2 in the UK when we were on the cusp of a major recession. I had a successful career up to that point but when I took over as CEO, I struggled for the first six months because I spent a lot of time wondering what other people would have done in my situation. In many jobs, you are the subject matter expert but as CEO, you are a jack of all trades and often master of none. Then, I had an almost spiritual moment when I realised that I had 27 years of rich experience. It became clear that the only way I could do my job was to be myself. So, as a leader, you need to ask yourself: who are you? People rarely challenge themselves with this question. I describe myself as chief cheerleader and chief storyteller. I am an extrovert, a joiner-upper, an enthusiast – and I use that to be a front-row leader because that just happens to be my natural style. So ultimately, the best way to be successful in any role is to be yourself. The second thing is that when you are the boss, nobody asks you a question that they know the answer to. This leaves you with a strange obligation to know the answer to everything, but CEOs manage uncertainty amid many shades of grey and it can be quite liberating to realise that the CEO can and should say: “You know what, I am concerned about that as well.” If you do that, you help your people work things out, find solutions, and build answers to organisational challenges with a sense of togetherness. Key takeaway: Know your strengths and acknowledge that you do not – and should not – have the answer to every question. Lesson 6: Know the question before you try to answer it There is massive structural impatience in organisations and as a result, I see much more ‘ready, fire, aim’ than ‘ready, aim, fire’. Too often organisations run towards an assumption of what the question (and answer) is; they are in action mode immediately. But a little time working out the precise nature of the question will invariably bring you closer to the answer. Organisations consistently do two things wrong: they press ahead to answer a part-formed question, and they do not allow talent to flourish because hierarchy gets in the way. Key takeaway: Define the question clearly before embarking on the search for an answer. Ronan Dunne FCA is CEO at Verizon Consumer Group.

John Slattery shares his simple three-step process to help you make a career choice you will not regret. In adulthood, bar sleep, we spend more time at work than anything else. Our career will have a massive bearing on the happiness, success, and fulfilment we experience in life. It is critical, therefore, that we make the best career choice possible at every professional junction. Making a career choice is a complex process, and there are many nuances to consider. Inspo’s three-step guide to making good career choices is designed to steer you toward the right decisions for you. The three steps are as follows. Step 1 Create an uninhibited list of career choices One measure of success around career choice will be the absence of any regret upon deciding. For this to be the case, we must identify all possibilities that appeal to us as possible career choices. This will enable us to feel confident that we are choosing from a complete list. You may be able to identify all possibilities yourself. Alternatively, you may need to bounce it off one or more people to help you formulate the list. If so, chat with someone you know who will give you a genuine opinion as to what career options they think would be worth considering. You must also ensure that you build an understanding of what each role entails. You can then make an informed decision as to whether to pursue or discard each option (more on that in step three). The end-goal for step one is to feel that you have identified a complete list of career choices and to have an informed understanding of each option. Step 2 Self-reflect To decide on the suitability of each option, you must self-reflect. You will use the output of your self-reflection to evaluate each option that has emerged in step one. There are three elements of self-reflection to carry out: Vision Positive psychologists Scott Barry Kaufman and E. P. Torrance claim that inspiration is the attempt to realise a future vision of oneself. Making career choices that align with our vision can, therefore, create a sense of inspiration in our professional lives. Research also suggests that making a career choice that is connected to our vision can lead to higher levels of productivity, motivation, and positivity. Therefore, our vision is a critical evaluation criterion. Strengths and interest areas This focus area of self-reflection derives from a definition of meaning by positive psychologist, Martin Seligman. He defines meaning as “using your signature strengths in the service of something greater than you are”. Seligman’s research identifies meaning as the most significant contributor to happiness. Strengths and interest areas are a simplified extraction of Seligman’s definition, but tapping into these two areas will give us excellent access to meaning and joy through our work. So, as with vision, strengths and interest areas are crucial evaluation criteria. Priorities Our career choices must be grounded in the priorities that exist in our lives at the time we make a choice. They might be personal, such as a desire to travel or buy a house, or they might be related or separate financial priorities. Honouring our priorities through our choice gives us the best chance to meet our goals, ambitions, and desires. It is the final critical element of evaluation. Our end-goal for this step is to have a clear vision, a sense of what our strengths and interest areas are, and an understanding of our priorities in life. Step 3 Evaluate, pursue, and decide In the final step, you first evaluate each option against the self-reflection criteria. For each option, you decide whether you are going to pursue or discard that option. This will leave you with a shortlist of options. From here, you pursue each shortlisted option further by furthering your understanding and actively exploring opportunities related to each career option. As you do this, you check-in with yourself regularly as to which prospect feels like the right one. You continuously repeat this check-in exercise during this final stage of exploration until you feel ready to make your career choice. I wish I could offer you a process that guarantees success in your career choice. Alas, neither I nor anyone else can do so. What I can say is that I have seen, through my work, that this process helps people make good career choices – and I hope it can do the same for you. The referendum effect Career choices are an imperfect process simply because the ‘perfect choice’ is rare if non-existent. So here is a concept I call the ‘referendum effect’ to help define success when it comes to career choices. Let us look back to the two most recent Irish referendums – the same-sex marriage referendum and the referendum on the Eighth Amendment. In both cases, there was high-quality information available and thorough debate and discussion on the merits of both sides of each argument. This allowed people to make an informed choice at the polls. In both scenarios, the consensus was that the right outcome was achieved. However, in both cases, more than 30% of people voted against the outcome. For me, these referendums are a good metaphor for what you should hope for with your career choices – that is to collect high-quality, accurate information regarding your options, to self-reflect, and to discuss the issues with people you trust and respect. At the end of the process, you will hopefully have a substantial majority for one choice. That for me would be the best outcome you could hope for when making a career choice. There is another side to this metaphorical coin. Consider Brexit – the quality of information shared with the UK electorate was of questionable quality and clarity. In some cases, the information was alleged to be factually incorrect. Voters therefore went to the polls with much higher degrees of uncertainty and a narrow, unconvincing majority voted in favour of Brexit. It has taken Britain several years to make any type of progress on the back of the referendum result and all the while, a vast cloud of doubt looms over the outcome itself. This is a good metaphor, in my view, for a poor career choice – poor or incorrect information, lack of clarity on the options available, and a very uncertain choice. Given the importance of our career in terms of our overall happiness, fulfilment and success, there is only one approach to take. Take the right one. Given the importance that we’ve discussed our career has in terms of our happiness, fulfilment and success – there is only one approach to take of these two shared in the Referendum Effect. Take the right one. John Slattery ACA is Founder of Inspo.

Orla Doyle outlines the job search activities that reap the biggest reward. The Pareto principle states that 80% of outcomes are borne from 20% of the causes. It is one of the cardinal philosophies in business that ultimately guides business leaders in selecting the most productive inputs to drive maximum efficiency. However, this principle can be applied in many settings, including in the job search. See how you can harness the benefits of the 80/20 rule in your job search strategy to target the right company, the right culture, the right management team, and help you get a job you love. Wasted time The job market is a fickle beast, where the amount of effort you put in doesn’t necessarily correlate with the results you get. Working smart rather than working hard is vital. For instance, many people spend a significant amount of time tweaking their CVs and cover letters. While it is important to spend time on this, people often spend too much time, with any subsequent additions unlikely to move the needle. Interestingly, the majority of job seekers choose the job site route to apply for new jobs. Don’t get me wrong; job sites such as LinkedIn and Glassdoor are great tools to use when searching for a new job. However, churning out 10-20 applications per day on one of these sites is a lot of work that won’t necessarily yield the results you want. The truth is, nobody taught us how to look for our dream job. Most people don’t have a real strategy and as a result, everyone ends up doing the same thing. There are better ways to conduct your job search. It may require stepping outside your comfort zone, but it will ultimately raise your chances of making the right next step for your career. Both approaches described above are passive. There are more downsides to this than the time spent sitting back and waiting for an answer. In many cases, applicants later find that the job isn’t what they wanted or that compensation is too low or, in the worst-case scenario, they get no response whatsoever. Over time, this leads applicants to conclude that the job market is unfavourable, and they adopt a negative mindset. If you have been cranking out a large volume of applications daily without much luck, then you need a catalyst – a change in mindset, approach or methodology that places you on the path to career success. The psychology of spending time on inefficient job search tactics When you read the above, a fair question may be: “Why do people choose to put themselves through that?” The most common answer is that it helps people feel productive. Sending out ten applications a day across four job sites may not be the optimal way to land an interview, but at the end of the day, it helps the sender feel that they have done something or that they have put adequate effort into the job search. It’s a flawed perception, but a satisfactory outcome nevertheless for most job seekers. The other reason is that most people love passing the responsibility to someone else. The thought process here may be that if they want you, they will come back to you; if you spoke with a recruiter, they will come back to you when a relevant role comes in. In a competitive and globalised job market, though, this is rare. With the advent of technology, talent is now available across borders and the labour pool is larger than ever. Hence, if candidates are not accountable for their job search, it is an uphill battle to find suitable employment as hiring managers are likely looking at a dozen profiles that are similar or even identical to yours. To achieve success, you must be willing to do what the others won’t to achieve what they can’t. Applying the 80/20 principle So, what are the things that most people don’t do? Below are three things that you can inculcate in your job search. 1. Get specific Do you know what you want to do or, are you merely seeing what you can get? After some rejection, many people throw in the towel too early and start working their way down in terms of the jobs they are willing to accept. To prevent this from happening, get specific about the type of job you want, the size and the culture of the company, and the particular industry in which you would like to work. And then, do not deviate from that. Do you know the types of companies that hire for these jobs, the exact ones for whom you would like to work? Once you have this clarity, you will automatically be inclined to work harder to source those types of jobs and apply accordingly. You will increase your chance of getting results as your whole approach – from your CV to your references – is streamlined for the position you want. This is not to say that you should be rigid in your job search and operate within this one defined box. It is merely a tip to ensure that you are not aborting the search for your dream job before the appropriate efforts have been expended. Second, get specific about the goals of the particular job search tactic you are using. If it doesn’t work, stop and try a different channel. Many people continue to do an activity without ever stopping and asking: is this working? They adopt the attitude of “try harder” rather than analysing the results of a particular method. Set yourself a goal. For example, aim to secure five interviews through a specific channel. This could be achieved by utilising three different recruiters – but if it isn’t working, stop and take a fresh approach. 2. Network Relationships go a long way in the job market. The best jobs are often snapped up before they are even advertised on a public platform because the candidate had a good relationship with the hiring manager (or at least someone that knew them). A CV is a piece of paper that outlines your experiences at a high level. But, if you can have a conversation with someone where you articulate your expertise and ambitions, they now have a ‘face to the name’ on the CV and can understand your value proposition at a more holistic level. Start by developing a networking strategy (i.e. identify who can help you get to where you want to go and go to them directly). Other people won’t even know what they are looking for, making it impossible to know whom they need to talk to, or what they need to ask. As with all things, practice makes perfect – but it all starts with the first step. 3. Show, don’t tell The next time you have an interview, add an additional dimension to your preparation. Try to understand some of the problems the company or unit you are applying to is facing, and formulate a solution. This could involve producing a one-page document at interview, which outlines what you would do in the first 30, 60 and 90 days in the job to remedy the situation. Make no mistake: this is much easier said than done. However, a lot of successful applicants employ presentation materials where they can demonstrate what they bring to the table. Words are easy to say but tough to back up. Hence, if a hiring manager can concurrently see your work along with your words, you are automatically better than almost anyone else competing with you for the same job.   Orla Doyle is Head of Marketing at Lincoln Recruitment Specialists.

Dr Annette Clancy lays the ground rules for a successful spell of remote working. The work restrictions and social distancing introduced by the Government in response to COVID-19 may prove to be a watershed moment for flexible/remote working. The immediate shut-down of many workplaces forced hundreds of companies and thousands of workers to get creative about how to work and deliver services to clients and customers while observing public health protocols. As many are finding out, however, working from home presents a whole new set of challenges. So, how can we make flexible/remote working work? Keep going to work Not everyone has a home office or even their own room. Yet, you must still go to work. First, acknowledge the change in your work situation. It is not the same as going to the office. You may, for example, have to juggle childcare so be realistic about what you can achieve given the current circumstances. Discuss this with your employer and work around it for the time being. Then go to work. This is as much psychological as it is physical. Your home is an obstacle course of exciting activities, which throw themselves into your path before a deadline looms. Laundry, dish-washing, reorganising books (by colour, author or topic?) all seem to take on an urgency previously unheard of as the clock ticks closer to the dreaded deadline. You must defend yourself against this distraction before you begin. Create a workspace at home. This could be as simple as defining part of the kitchen table as the place where you put your laptop, phone charger and papers. Keep this clear of all other personal items. When you sit down at this space, you are at work; when you leave, you are at home. Maintaining this boundary is essential, otherwise work and home will become blurred. This is important when you work from home because it’s easy for work to bleed into your personal (psychological and social) life and before you know it, you are on your computer at 11pm and again at 7.30am. Keep communication channels open People go to work for myriad reasons. Obviously, there is the work itself, but we also develop our sense of identity through work; we make friends and develop relationships (some life-long). These relationships can feel threatened when we are no longer close to our work colleagues. People who work at home (even those who are used to it) can feel isolated and lonely. If your business uses technology such as Slack, Google Hangouts or Skype, for example, these are probably your go-to communication tools. But if not, it’s crucial to build in times when you check-in with your colleagues by phone, text or WhatsApp – whatever method works for your group of colleagues. Managers who have no experience of managing teams remotely will need to take particular care to check-in with their people as it is easy to lose contact in a remote working context. Keep things normal Social distancing can quickly turn into social isolation unless we keep some semblance of normality. We may not be able to go to the pub on a Friday with friends or go out to dinner with colleagues, but we can organise ‘virtual coffee dates’ or ‘remote lunches’ using Skype, Zoom or Facetime. This means organising specific times to be together online, but away from work. Of course, it isn’t the same as being in the same room. And yes, it’s a bit ‘weird’. But the main point here is to maintain social contact to ensure that workers do not succumb to loneliness, and for managers to engage in non-work conversation with their colleagues. Once you crack it, we may look back on this time as the research and development phase of a new way of working. Dr Annette Clancy is Assistant Professor at UCD School of Art, History and Cultural Policy.

Becoming a partner in the firm is often the goal when accountants go into practice, but it’s not a walk in the park. Jackie Banner outlines four key steps on the road to making partner. Making partner is the end goal for many who go into practice. The status, financial compensation, and endorsement of one’s skills and expertise are all obvious draws to progressing to this level. Then there is the opportunity to effectively become a ‘business owner’ with responsibility and influence over how the firm is run. This latter piece sounds simple in theory but requires the right considerations and capabilities to execute.  We can’t gloss over the technical competency that is required to make it to partner. Possessing exceptional domain knowledge in your chosen area of expertise is fundamental to any move upwards. Eagle-eyed attention to detail and a holistic view of the business as a whole are also required to consider yourself technically sound. With a rapidly changing business landscape, the burden of knowledge is significant, and can lead a potential partner to focus too heavily on the technical side alone.  The most common missteps that senior level accountancy professionals make in the race to partner have to do with the investment in their own leadership ability,  relationship management and ability to think like someone who’s running a business or a profit-and-loss account. Here’s how to tackle these key steps to making partner. Invest in your leadership ability Over the last six decades, leadership scholars have conducted more than a thousand studies to determine the definitive characteristics and personality traits of great leaders. Out of all the research, not one unanimous, best practice leadership archetype has emerged. Prevailing opinions on the best leadership styles are replaced as quickly as the latest iPhone. However, there are some common through lines in many of them that you can draw from. Whether it’s Six Sigma, values-led leadership, contingency theory (which in itself says there is no one ideal leadership style), communication methods, humble leadership or any number of other theories and best practices, be sure to establish a combination of leadership qualities that best align with you as a person and as a leader.  Signalling that you have the right level of ambition necessary is also required. This is demonstrated by how you carry yourself, your communication style, and interactions and relationships with colleagues and clients. Combine these with that aforementioned oft-ignored investment in yourself to build your own definitive leadership style.  Vision and strategy The most common piece of feedback we hear from nomination committees or hiring partners about unsuccessful final interviews is that the candidate lacked vision in their pitch. At this level, technical competency is assumed. You will be speaking to peers who are equally, if not more skilled than you. They want a business leader to sit alongside them; someone with a new perspective that can bring energy and excitement that will contribute to business growth.  Presenting a forward-thinking, clear vision that will grow not only your business unit but add to the company is perhaps the most valuable thing you can do to be perceived as someone ready to make partner. In practical terms, that vision should translate to an actionable business plan.  When preparing, think strategically about how you’re going to generate earnings, develop a client pipeline, and hit the figures that justify your being chosen as an equity partner. A partner needs to ascertain what those expected figures are for the firm with which they are interviewing. This means crafting a realistic three-year plan to grow revenues at a level that a partner needs to be commercially viable, which is firm dependent.  Relationship management We all need a sounding board to bounce ideas off of or to go to for advice. Therefore, your network and your professional relationships should be a priority on the road to partner. Partners, no matter what age or level of seniority, should have a mentor.  As Chris Outram discusses in his book, Making Strategy Work, you need ‘co-conspirators’ on whom you rely to give their support when it comes to internal decisions and information-sharing across business units. This extends to stakeholder management both inside and outside your firm.   Putting it all together In an increasingly “what have you done for me lately?” world, contextualising the human side of the job is key. Trust your team to deliver while driving them towards a coherent vision by demonstrating effective leadership and building a sustainable pipeline of business.  Sounds easy when you put it on paper, right? There is no doubt it is a huge challenge to make the leap but having a clear idea of what is required and how it should be presented is the first step on the road to partner.    Top tips on the road to partner 1. Have a plan – Set targets and milestones for yourself to track your progress and professional development. Decide what you want out of your career and then work towards achieving it.    2. Invest in upskilling – Find opportunities to develop your technical and soft skills. Invest in as many areas as are available to you.     3. Specialise your skill set – Practice experience is broad and often provides exposure to a wide range of skills and experience, which is great. However, drill down and become a subject matter expert where possible. Be the go-to person in your network for a particular subspecialty.   4. Be flexible – In any business, targets move, circumstances in your or your clients’ business can change quickly. When unexpected events arise or a strategy or project scope moves, always think of yourself as a support for change and not a barrier.   5. Say “yes” – There will always be an element of a job or a particular client you’d rather steer clear from, but don’t. Always say “yes” when asked to take on something new or different.   6. Define your client portfolio and market opportunity – The more distinct your client portfolio is from your peers or your partners, the more likely you are to become a destination for referrals, hold client relationships, and see significant fee income potential in line with expectations for equity partner level.   7. Find a mentor – Find a peer who you admire and who has made choices you respect. Someone who is willing to be your sounding board and provide advice on how to achieve what you want in your career.  Jackie Banner leads Practice Recruitment for Azon Recruitment Group.