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My title is wrong in here… partner/principal level disagreements about firm decisions are healthy and normal. It promotes an organization with a diverse perspective and challenges everyone to respect alternative strategies to success.
I feel very strongly that partners were elected/hired to speak up. Partners who don’t speak up or have an opinion on an issue should not be business owners. I nominate people who share my values to executive committees, councils, etc.; I participate in the voting processes.
Depending on the topic, I usually will ask a lot of questions and voice my concerns to my peer partners to survey their feelings/understand varying points of view. I will speak up to the appropriate channels. There are certainly things that I do not agree with and don’t change. As long as it does not compromise my personal values, that’s okay; I signed up for a partnership, I didn’t start my own business. In my experience, the discussions lead to modifications in the strategy that make it more successful/balanced.
To the extent it directly impacts employees, I am usually very vocal about understanding and critiquing the communication plan. In the busy season hours example, I would request a sample hours by quarter/month/week from senior management. You should analyze this against previous expectations. Senior management should also be providing talking points to FAQs so you know how to field them. If they don’t give them, ask for them to put this together.
just an fyi, there are partners who want year round busy season hours because they already work those hours and think everyone else should too. Your assumption no one wants it is flawed; some people live to work. Due to tenure, stereotypically, many who hold these beliefs are in leadership positions or have disproportionately higher voting power.
There are things I disagree with it and I make it known. You do have to know where to choose your battles and explain why you disagree. You don’t want to disagree with everything but it isn’t a bad thing to voice opposition, you just have to approach it logically instead of emotionally. At the end of the day it is a business. You have to think like a business owner and sometimes tough decisions are needed.
I have left firms because my values and principles do not align with the direction the firm is headed. Partners have opinions and sometimes you need to put your emotions in check and understand the bigger picture. There are many instances in which once I start explaining why the decisions that are being made are happening, people tend to understand.
I think that is key. The why is not communicated a lot and so we are left to derive our own understanding. This was a very good explanation so appreciate your share
I don’t agree with everything my firm does, but I do believe in my firm’s values and strategic direction. If those weren’t aligned, I’d seek a change.
For the issues/topics/decisions I don’t agree with, I use the avenues in my firm - many were mentioned in previous responses posted. But I do trust our leadership generally, and understand it’s reasonable that different opinions exist in a firm my size, and I get on board by understanding the rationale.
Money talks
Money talks.
Keep your head down and do what they ask.
Let’s use a example. If your firm said, going forward we will have year round busy season hours and we expect everyone to hit them. What is your approach on communicating that as I assume no one including partner/principal wants busy season year round nor thinks it’s good. So would you communicate it as if you agreed with it and act like it’s a good thing, communicate it but share your view, or some other form.
I am getting to a point where I am part of the pushing of these communication and some are things I completely think are detrimental to people. I understand the purpose of whatever is being pushed but don’t agree. I feel this will be indicative of the firm going forward but I don’t think the answer is to leave the firm as every firm has their weird positions that you may not agree with but have to push. Same thing at companies as well. So just getting some thoughts on how people manage those situations
Odds this is at BDO?
This is not at BDO. Midsize firm but I turned it into a more general question as I’m sure every firm has this situation. If I want to be a partner, I need to understand how to navigate these situations appropriately