Performance Is Everything

13Even Managing Owners Need Feedback

“Know what skills are most important for your Managing Owner to have and put them in the context of your particular circumstances.”

—August Aquila

Firms with true managing owners, those who spend at least 50 percent of their time dedicated to leading and managing the firm, need to be evaluated differently from production and line owners. We also believe that owners who serve on an executive or a management committee should be evaluated as outlined in chapter 11 but also under some of the same criteria we will discuss in this chapter.

In chapter 5, “Your Role as the Leader,” we discussed what successful leaders do. In this chapter, we offer our thoughts and the thoughts of some our best friends and colleagues on how to evaluate the performance of the firm’s leader(s). We also provide two exhibits, including a list of questions, that you can incorporate into your managing owner evaluation. We will conclude the chapter with some advice on why you need to formally evaluate the managing owner, especially in larger firms.

The View From the Top

In speaking to more than 150 managing owners during the last two years, we have come to the conclusion that it’s lonely at the top. There may be another owner or two with whom the managing owner has a close relationship, but for the most part, the managing owner has climbed a mountain with which others are unfamiliar nor for which they had training.

Just ask any managing owner about his or her job. They never ...