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Time-to-Traction: Accelerating Partner Performance in Professional Services Firms
Hiring or promoting new Partners is among the most critical decisions professional services firms make every year. The decision to advance someone to Partner or assign an existing Partner to a senior leadership role demonstrates the firm’s confidence (and hope) in the person as a leader. Rapid success signals that the choice was a good one, whereas slow progress can create doubts and lead to high opportunity costs. Understanding Partner Time-to-Traction—and how to improve it—is essential for professional services firms looking to maximize performance and Partner success.
What is Partner Time-to-Traction?
Partner Time-to-Traction is the time it takes for a new Partner in a professional services firm to get up to speed in their role. Improving (e.g., reducing) Time-to-Traction for new Partners—and Partners in new roles—is critical in enhancing the performance of professional services firms.
Why Time-to-Traction Matters for Partner-Level Hires
Time-to-Traction is particularly significant when firms hire at the Partner level (Partners, Principals, Managing Directors) externally. Often referred to as “Direct Admits,” these professionals represent the firm’s “biggest bets.” They are typically highly compensated and have been recruited because they bring something the firm needs more of—whether it’s an underrepresented background, a unique skill set like AI or cyber, or a strong track record in business development and account expansion.
However, the attributes that make these hires valuable can also become barriers that prolong their adjustment period, impacting their effectiveness and the firm’s agility—a true “double whammy.” Reducing Time-to-Traction not only saves time but also improves firm performance, client satisfaction, and team dynamics.
How to Improve Time-to-Traction: Kinavic’s Proven Four-Step Process
At Kinavic Leadership Acceleration, we specialize in reducing Time-to-Traction by combining our extensive experience in professional services firms with our proprietary Verity Leadership Assessment℠ data, which reveals what makes senior leaders successful in the world’s top firms.
We recommend the following four-step process to accelerate Partner integration and performance:
Step 1: Create a Data Map
Our Verity Leadership Assessment℠, powered by Hogan Assessments, compares individual tendencies to a proprietary dataset built from the highest-performing partners in professional services. This helps in two ways:
- The Partner gains a better understanding of themselves and their tendencies.
- The Firm gains insight into how to best communicate with and support the Partner.
Step 2: Identify Strengths and Critical Performance Gaps
Each assessed individual participates in an executive debrief with an executive consultant to understand themselves better compared to their role. Key questions covered include:
- What are your strengths compared to the role?
- What potential roadblocks might hinder success?
- How will you handle those potential roadblocks?
- What support might you need?
Using this data, we build proactive strategies to accelerate performance and prevent common pitfalls.
Step 3: Create Role Alignment
To ensure psychological safety, we don’t share individual assessment data with the firm. Instead, we distill actionable insights so that firms and sponsors better understand how to support and communicate with their Partner hires. This creates alignment on what success looks like and provides both sides with clear metrics for evaluating progress.
Step 4: Ongoing High-Impact Consulting
Partners work 1:1 with a Kinavic Executive Advisor to navigate roadblocks and accelerate performance. Unlike generic leadership coaches, our Executive Advisors are former CXOs, Partners, and MDs with over 150 years of combined experience. Through ongoing, data-driven consulting, we help Partners achieve sustainable, accelerated performance.
The Impact of Improving Partner Time-to-Traction: A Client Case Study
Here’s an example of how Kinavic improves Partner Time-to-Traction:
Problem to Be Solved: A prominent consulting firm faced challenges integrating Direct Admit Partners essential to its strategy due to their technical and industry expertise.
These partners typically took three to five years to gain full traction, and the firm had an attrition rate of 50%. To address this, the firm engaged Kinavic Leadership Acceleration to develop strategies for improving Time-to-Traction and retention.
Kinavic’s Approach: Leveraging our proprietary Verity Leadership Assessment℠ platform and deep industry experience, we identified several barriers that prolonged Time-to-Traction:
- Immediate Fit: New hires, particularly those new to consulting or from underrepresented backgrounds, struggled with the firm’s grow-from-within culture, and indirect communication style.
- Integration Process: Participants felt ineffective early on due to inconsistent support, conflicting procedural advice, and lack of a “safe” space to ask questions about how to succeed.
- Expectations: Many were unprepared for the immediate and unclear performance expectations, which created stress and hindered their integration.
Kinavic’s Recommendations: To streamline Partner integration and boost performance, we advised:
- Early Assessment: Identifying personal and professional strengths and obstacles to tailor a development roadmap.
- Active Sponsorship and Support: Ensure committed accountable sponsorship and strategic guidance for all new hires.
- Role Definition and Planning: Set clear role expectations and performance metrics.
- Account Alignment: Connect new leaders with relevant teams for better role clarity and operational integration.
- Role-Focused Enablement: Offer targeted training to close skill gaps and enhance role-specific competencies.
Enhanced Execution Support: Provide a structured framework for continuous professional growth and assessment.
Client Results
Through Kinavic’s tailored approach, our client experienced transformative results:
- Increased Performance: New leaders performed in the top 21% of their peer group, with a 15% year-over-year growth in assigned portfolios.
- Accelerated Productivity: Time-to-Traction was reduced from an average of 15-18 months down to 9-12 months.
- High Retention Rates: 99% of leaders remained in their roles or advanced at the 36-month mark, with a 32% reduction in early turnover of diverse hires.
Enhanced Engagement: Clients reported noticeable improvement in team engagement and followership.
Conclusion: Why Reducing Time-to-Traction is Critical
When Partners in Professional Services Firms perform better, faster, they are less likely to leave and more likely to help the organization grow and succeed. By understanding and addressing the barriers to gaining rapid traction, Kinavic positions leaders for success and aligns their unique capabilities with the firm’s strategic objectives, fostering resilience and superior performance.
Discover how Kinavic can predict and accelerate the Performance of your Partners. Interested in speaking with our team about improving Partner Time-to-Traction in your firm? Contact us today.
Juan Pablo González
Juan Pablo González is an experienced executive, advisor, and board member with over three decades working at the intersection of strategy and human capital. An expert in workforce topics, Mr. González combines his understanding of business and organization strategy with deep expertise in human capital disciplines.
