Next Generation Next Destination

SUCCESSION AND PARTNER TRANSITIONING PLANNING: A COMPELLING ISSUE FOR OUR TIMES

"Demographics are our destiny," reinvention is the new retirement," "win the talent wars" and be "the employer of choice."  Recognizing the challenges and opportunities, Practice Development Counsel's *Next Generation, Next Destination* program was developed by Phyllis Weiss Haserot and Richard T. McDermott in 2005 to achieve advance transitioning planning to benefit both senior partners and the professional growth of younger partners as well as their firms overall.

Welcome!!! Visit and subscribe to this blog for continuing insights on how to do it right and make your organization a better, more profitable and more successful workplace for all the generations of workers and clients. Please offer your comments and contribute to the discussion.

REINVENTION: JOB OUTLOOK GOOD FOR OLDER EXECUTIVES

Despite talk of recession, increasing demand as well as a shortage of highly qualified talent and sustained growth abroad are driving better than expected executive level job growth even among older executives. These findings come from ExecuNet's "2008 Executive Job Market Intelligence Report."

*  Employment professionals are in agreement: Over 70% of corporate human resource professionals and search firms believe there is a shortage of executive talent, and it is actually growing.

*  Continuing demand is coming from both an aging workforce and global economic growth.

*  Healthcare, high tech and business services are showing the highest demand.

*  A large proportion of employed executives aren't happy. 40% are not satisfied with their current jobs, most often owing to boredom or lack of advancement. It's not about money; compensation is the key dissatisfaction factor for only 12%.

*  Here's the good news for the Baby Boomers: 57% of corporate human resource executives say that age over 50 is not a negative factor in hiring decisions. 71% of search consultants surveyed said their clients are less focused on age than they used to be. This reflects attitudes in the U.S.

So there is room for optimism that the Baby Boomers are once again going to change the employment game and the attitudes of the evolving workplace. Perhaps not as much as Generation Y, but the Boomers are still a force both in numbers and their knowledge base, experience and judgment.

Now let's see those generations come to a meeting of the minds and hearts.

Phyllis Weiss Haserot   www.pdcounsel.com

ASSURE BUSINESS CONTINUITY WITH SUCCESSION PLANNING

The buzz about succession planning continues - mostly about how little of it is being done or too late. Here's an article linking succession planning to business continuity and listing 10 principles for doing it right. It concludes, "Any instance in which a client or customer relationship can be lost is a business disruption and a significant threat to revenues and the delivery of services. In a professional firm or services business, it can mean the difference between survival or not."

Is your plan in place?

REINVENTION OF PRACTICE AROUND A PASSION

It is always wonderful to hear of people who have successfully combined their passion with what they do for a living. The JD Bliss blog yesterday (April 29, 2008) had a post about 4 attorneys working in corporate positions to pursue their passions in sports, restaurants, video games and entertainment. Actually, a substantial number of lawyers have been able to do this, and they haven't necessarily had to leave private practice to do it. I have interviewed and written about 5 such lawyers in law firms of various sizes around the U.S. for a chapter, "Building a Practice Around a Passion," which will appear in the 2008 edition of "The Rainmaking Machine" (Thomson/West LegalWorks). It was exciting to talk with them and hear how they forged their own path with support from their firms. So it is possible.

I will also be leading a webcast on the subject on the West LegalEdCenter this summer.  I will post the specifics closer to the time.

Phyllis Weiss Haserot     www.pdcounsel.com

STARS NOT IMMUNE TO MANDATORY RETIREMENT

He was a long-time managing partner, then chair of the firm and led through a period of growth from 50 to 425 lawyers. At 72, and a star in his profession and the community, he left to join a 35 lawyer firm because he was faced with mandatory retirement.

Louis W. Fryman was not ready for retirement life. He had an active practice he loved, energy, his health, and clients and junior lawyers who seek him out. He wants to keep going indefinitely, according to an interview in The Legal Intelligencer (April 29. 2008). That makes sense according to recruiters and to me. His former firm is considering abandoning mandatory retirement, but Fryman has gone, very amicably, on to a new destination.

Legal recruiter Michael Coleman of Coleman Nourian in Philadelphia said that mandatory retirement policies were designed to "weed out" lawyers who had grown less productive and are "on the wane." That is not true of Fryman or many professionals over 60 or 65. Often the younger partners are eager to move their seniors out in order to step into their shoes, but that also was not the case with Fryman.

Tipping his hat to Fryman's new home, Conrad O'Brien, Coleman said he was impressed with the firm's recent decision to transition leadership to four younger lawyers. He went on to say that when they fail to plan for succession, firms fail. By both selecting new leadership and bringing in seasoned professionals who can help guide the firm's new leaders, Conrad O'Brien has acted to avoid the pitfalls of lack of leadership.

Bringing in highly reputed professionals such as Fryman at whatever age adds value beyond their professional capabilities and client following. Other desirable talent may be attracted to make lateral moves to be with high profile partners. And Fryman's equally high profile as chair and board member of many civic, arts and religious institutions in the city and state is likely to pay off in business generation and recruiting.

We are likely to see many firms rethinking their policies - not only for stars. In the meantime the savvy firms that appreciate and seek to attract or retain energetic and productive senior partners and executives as partners or in some other respected role are likely to reap the rewards.

Phyllis Weiss Haserot      www.pdcounsel.com

IS BOOMER RETIREMENT SOCIALLY UNACCEPTABLE?

Well, we've been hearing for a few years that the Baby Boomers were going to change how we think of retirement. An article in the New York Times special Retirement Section (April 21, 2008), "Whatever You Do, Call It Work," by William L. Hamilton  reports that there has surfaced a stigma to saying you are retired. The generation that has no concept of themselves as getting old (disclosure: I am one of those Boomers and also can't imagine being retired) is experiencing social awkwardness when asked "What do you do?" if they aren't working.

After conducting interviews for the article, Hamilton wrote,"...the social question 'What do you do?" is now as likely to be asked of those in their 60s as those in their 30s. And it you're retired, saying 'I'm retired' might not be an acceptable answer.

Some quotes from people interviewed:

*  A retired high school teacher and department head who was referred to as "retired" in her daughter's wedding announcement was shocked at seeing it in print. "That was the one word that stung."

*  "It's an identity thing. Even though I'm retired from all the primary things I was doing, one of the reasons I keep my hand in is my identity is tied up with what I did." (former learning disabilities specialist doing consulting and volunteering)

*  The retired CEO of two major corporations says when asked, "I do a variety of things," including advising public and private boards and managing family investments. "Retirement is not viewed as an occupation."

*  A partner who resigned from a law firm after a 33 year career at a firm is now working part-time as general counsel to a museum and as an adviser to his former firm. "My mother-in-law asked me 'Did I get fired?' when I left the firm. In a society with a premium on youth and energy, when people leave careers before 65, people wonder whether they were leaving voluntarily."

So  to deal with the awkwardness they feel, people are saying they are self-employed or an independent contractor, a portfolio manager, a pro bono worker or an active volunteer - something.

While some people readily admit they are happy in traditional retirement, we are seeing expectations change about how long people will or should remain traditionally productive.

Phyllis Weiss Haserot   www.pdcounsel.com

ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY REQUIRES SUCCESSION PLANNING

The consensus opinion of the panel on our April 9th webcast on succession planning for the West LegalEdCenter was that uncertain and poor economic times make the need for succession planning even more urgent given the potential loss of clients if their key firm contact leaves. The situation is magnified when prospective successors are not fully prepared to step in, and next generation partners and executives lacking business generation and client relations skills leave a firm on shaky ground.

So, given a strong business case, why are professional services firms as well as those in other industries slow to institute an ongoing succession and transitioning process that can prevent losses, add dollars to the bottom line and consequently enable leaders and team members to sleep better at night?

Is it lack of know-how? Lack of internal resources? Intimidation of dealing with sensitive issues and personalities? Or simply denial of the inevitable?

What are your thoughts?

Phyllis Weiss Haserot    www.pdcounsel.com

WHAT'S BEST-IN-CLASS SUCCESSION PLANNING?

Only 35% of small and medium-sized businesses have succession plans in place according to a recent survey and report, "The Looming Leadership Void: Identifying, Developing and Retaining Your Top Talent" by the Aberdeen Group. The research designates responding businesses as "best-in-class" based on criteria including:

*  Identifies high potential talent early

*  Gains support and buy-in from senior management

*  Establishes a "development" culture/mindset within the organization

*  Identifies positions where succession planning is necessary

*  Aligns succession planning with the company's overall strategy

*  Clearly defines skills and knowledge required for specific positions

Only 60% of the best-in-class organizations have a succession plan that is integrated with the company's strategic plan. (Twice as many large organizations do as smaller ones.)

Some sort of database of both active and passive succession candidates has been maintained by nearly 40% of the best-in-class organizations over the past year.

Both "hard" and "soft" skills required for each position have been defined by 50% of them.

Best-in-class organizations measure the skills of both successors and potentials through analysis of key performance indicators on a regular basis.

Source: Employee Benefit News, April 15, 2008.

MORE ON WORK LIFECYCLE REINVENTION

Getting back to Ryan Healy's post, "The New Work-Life Balance" on Employee Evolution (see my April 6th post here), he says that the desire to cut back a bit and spend more time with family during the most important years of their kids' lives explains Gen Y/Millennials' impatience and rush to move ahead quickly. He recommends working at an intense pace during one's 20s to get as far as possible and having a loose plan to shift gears at the time the family should be the first priority.

Many industries have begun to offer incentives for Boomers to stay on and keep working longer. We are bound to see this trend accelerate given the brain drain organizations face. They are making efforts to assure knowledge transfer, mentoring, and capacity for short-term projects or ongoing ones requiring shorter hours. Approaches are aimed at both stemming the brain drain of seasoned workers and also compensating for the high turnover of mid-level Gen Xers.

Since many Boomers want to stay involved and continue to contribute, perhaps a new informal workplace pact can result in which flexibility based on cooperation of the prime-time family-centric workers and the empty-nesters can provide for what each individual prefers and still retain the knowledge base and experience while increasing the willingness to coach and mentor. Perhaps, just perhaps, we are seeing the beginnings of a reasonable work lifecycle shift.

Phyllis Weiss Haserot    www.pdcounsel.com

REINVENTION OF WORK LIFECYCLE: FLEX IN THE MIDDLE

Sometimes the controversial makes a lot of sense. A post a few weeks ago on the Employee Evolution blog, The New Work-Life Balance, by Ryan Healy, a 23 year old relatively newly minted entrepreneur, examines the typical career and work intensity progression and concludes the system seems "a little backwards."

Healy wrote, "If you want to have a real shot at succeeding as an entrepreneur or in any other demanding career, you need to have the desire and ability to work 24 hours a day. And this doesn't leave much time for a personal life." He went on to say that the personal life of people in their 20s could take a back seat to work if you want to make that choice. But a personal life in one's 30s or 40s is likely to include a spouse and children, which should not "take a back seat to work." So if organizations expect young workers to wait around for 5-20 years before they are promoted to partner or VP, it happens just when you want to be able to spend more time participating in the most important years of your kids' lives, "only to retire when your kids are leaving home, heading off to start their career." What's wrong with this picture?

INVOLVE THE YOUNGER GENERATIONS IN SUCCESSION PLANNING

Most people think that succession planning is a top down activity involving management and seasoned professionals. I suggest it is better to involve the younger generations as well so that they can help create a vision for what the organization aspires to and what it is really looking for in long-term leadership.

If you think of succession planning as a continual process, one way to involve the younger generations in the firm is to hold at least periodic meetings with junior employees (associates and professional staff), invite them to ask questions, and listen to their input. By tapping into the collective wisdom at all levels, partners, shareholders, executives and managers will learn a lot about what can make their firms more successful and what are the most import\ant attributes the firm needs to foster. After all, the younger ones have a longer future ahead of them and they see and experience the world in different ways. By engaging them in this important activity, the organization will be more likely to retain their best talent.

While they are at it, partners, managers and supervisors should be looking for leadership attributes among the younger generations. Partners and managers need to allow junior people the chance to volunteer for or take on responsibility for significant internal projects. That's the way they will have the chance to prove themselves beyond their technical competencies.

Phyllis Weiss Haserot    www.pdcounsel.com