AMI Ownership Transition

Ownership transition is a top priority for your firm. However, transferring ownership is not the issue – it's transferring leadership. Many leaders know intuitively their real concern is not the mechanics of transferring equity. The firm's worth and a purchase process can easily be organized by a financial consultant or lawyer. The leader's deepest concern is that of transferring the practice of leadership, and the art of leading this particular firm, to the incoming leader.

AMI can assist you and your firm with:

• developing an ownership/leadership transition plan and process;
• identifying potential leaders;
• developing their leadership skills and personal leadership style at every stage in their careers;
• preparing the firm to manage the changes inherent in transition;
• high-level facilitation to help a new leadership group develop alignment, consensus, and coherence.

After working for more than ten years with hundreds of emerging leaders, AMI has identified three key points about ownership/leadership transition. Our work in assisting ownership/leadership transition is based on these points:

• Leaders are made, not born – given the right raw materials. AMI believes the charismatic capacity to sell work and make money is not the primary qualification of a leader. A leader's character traits will shape how that person attains the firm's goals, therefore by finding those who manifest combinations of integrity, ethics, courage, grace, dignity, compassion, zeal, loyalty and perseverence, the firm can find and develop leaders capable of achieving a wide spectrum of goals.

• Leadership seminars don't tell the whole story. What prospective leaders learn about leadership must harmonize with their real life experience in the firm. While classroom learning can be useful and easy to absorb, if it isn't grounded in the reality of their day-to-day experiences, future leaders will quickly abandon what they've learned. Leaders-in-training need to see that what they learn about leadership is backed up by the behavior and attitudes of the firm's current leaders. Today's leaders must embody the values they expect to see the next generation carry forward.

• This can't be done in 10 years. Preparing leaders is an ongoing, continuous endeavor that can take an entire career, not something that can be done in five years. Leaders can prepare for eventual succession by hiring entry-level professionals with the character traits and potential to lead, then preparing them not only in the months prior to transition, but right from the beginning and at every stage of their careers. Firms can resolve that leadership development be a key part of the firm's work, for instance by giving people leadership objectives along with growing project responsibilities.

For more information, contact Steve Isaacs.