Notes from the Front Lines

Now that my conference and CPE teaching schedule for 2012 has officially come to a close, I’m in the process of filtering through the notes I’ve compiled at each itinerant stop in an effort to  gauge just what were the most frequently debated topics and questions I’ve  fielded since my journeys began in earnest back in April.

Tossing aside some lighthearted Zen koans such as “why is college football’s annual Bowl Week actually 16 days long,” or “how come Hawaii has  interstate highways,” obviously the majority of inquiries centered in the timing of succession and transition such as when, where, why, and how.

But more than a few times, I was asked about training and mentoring younger staff and how to burnish the promising ones for a chance at partnership. I have always found it ironic that in times of an economic downturn, that the first two departments that fall victim to funding cuts are training and marketing – which are exactly the two units that should be left alone.

Now, while training is not in our wheelhouse of consulting services, I do offer some unsolicited advice when dealing with younger staff – particularly the Millennials, those 20-somethings who number roughly 80 million.

First off, they are not going to work 2,500-2,800 hours to make partner like the previous generations in the profession have done.

Secondly, while they don’t mind occasionally doing the requisite “grunt work” that entry-level and younger employees do, they are only going to sit for so long in a cubicle and be ignored. They’re opinionated, extremely smart, and do not take kindly to being ignored and not challenged.

Make them part of the process by assigning them to committees or projects. They can multi-task light years more efficiently than most Baby Boomers and their “e-skills” as far as all things technology can only serve to help your firm – so take advantage of them in that capacity.

And lastly, make your firm a fun place to work, not a venue they dread returning to on a daily basis. Remember, their networking skills are far more advanced and sophisticated and they can post resumes to hundreds of job boards in a matter of minutes, so if your firm is not a fun place to work, they can easily migrate to one that is.

And provide training, and then more training. On more than one occasion, I’ve heard a managing partner bemoan, “What happens if I invest all this money in training and they leave?” A somber replay to that is what happens if you don’t and they stay?

And maybe a far brighter than I Millennial can tell me just why does Hawaii have interstate highways.