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We Analyzed 18,000+ Partners in Professional Services: What the Data Reveals About the Highest Performers
Partners are the biggest investments professional services firms make in performance and growth—but what separates the highest performers from those who struggle to gain traction?
Along with our partners at the Retained Executive Search firm, Beecher Reagan, that was the question we set out to answer by analyzing the highest performing PPMD (Partner/Principal/Managing Director) placements. The goal was simple: Bring more science to the art of developing successful Partners.
If we could do that, how could we use those insights to better predict and accelerate Partner performance in professional services?
That journey led us to study data from 18,000+ PPMDs and eventually develop the Verity Leadership Assessment℠, powered by Hogan Assessments—Kinavic’s proprietary, data-backed approach to identifying, selecting, and developing high-performing Partners in professional services.
Here’s the story behind the study, what the data tells us about high-performing Partners, and how to use this data to better predict and accelerate the performance of your Partners.
The Methodology Behind the Study
In partnership with our colleagues at Beecher Reagan, we asked a simple question:
Why is it that some Partners succeed at integrating and successfully meet their performance metrics in the expected timeframe, while others don’t? What could we learn from the highest-performing Partners about what it takes to be successful?
We contacted the folks at Hogan Assessment Systems to help us.
Hogan Assessment Systems is the global leader in leadership personality assessment, with over four decades of validated research and assessment data from more than 11 million people.
Using 28 scales and 124 subscales, Hogan’s methodology measures three key aspects of personality:
- Normal personality characteristics – How someone typically behaves in a professional setting.
- Career derailment risks – Potential performance risks under stress.
- Core value drivers – Motivations and factors influencing leadership style.
To conduct the study, we identified a group of consulting Partners who performed in the top 20% of their peer group. Hogan analyzed the personality traits and behavioral tendencies associated with these exemplary performers.
As a result, Hogan built a competency model that mapped the common personality traits to the behaviors needed to drive performance in the Partner role.
Next, Hogan compared the commonalities of these high performers to their database of 18,000 consulting Partners who had completed the Hogan Assessment, further validating the data.
What resulted was a unique algorithm that took individual personality assessment data and mapped it to the behavioral indicators of performance for a consulting Partner.
That proprietary algorithm became the Verity Leadership Assessment℠, powered by Hogan Assessments—the only assessment to be developed specifically for professional services leadership.
The Verity Competency Model: 5 Traits of High-Performing Partners
Through the study in partnership with Hogan, the newly developed competency model illustrated 5 core competencies that were predictive of high-performance in a Partner role:
1. Business Development
Associated traits: self-confident, adaptable, driven, results-oriented, money-motivated, relationship builder
High performers will:
- Be achievement oriented, stay up to date on business trends, and seem insightful.
- Be imaginative and creative, open to change, and understand the big picture.
- Value the bottom line and opportunities that make money.
- Have good social skills and be skilled at influencing others.
- Adapt to the changing market, be open to trying to new ventures, and project confidence.
2. Competitive Drive
Associated traits: high achiever, strong work ethic, winning/growth mindset, goal-oriented
High performers will:
- Care about growth and development opportunities and be achievement oriented.
- Be active, upbeat, and unafraid to make mistakes and take on new ventures.
- Have confidence, energy, and clear goals, but will not be so aggressive or overly competitive that they are not willing to listen to others.
- Value recognizing and celebrating wins.
3. Executive Impact
Associated traits: EQ, professional maturity, self-awareness, self-control, optimistic
High performers will:
- Think strategically about the business and be open to change.
- Value influence and carry themselves in a leaderlike manner.
- Adapt well to changes, handle stress well, and be calm and self-confident.
- Have strong social skills and interact well with strangers.
- Be proactive and helpful towards others, especially as changes happen.
4. Trust & Collaboration
Associated traits: extends trust, collegial, effective communicator, keeps things confidential
High performers will:
- Be good at maintaining relationships, earning trust from others, and encouraging teamwork.
- Hold themselves and others accountable and be dependable to keep things confidential.
- Value working with others and having frequent communications, and be energetic, social, and adaptable.
- Communicate well and be practical without being eccentric.
5. Service Orientation
Associated traits: effective listener, client-responsive, gives back, cares about the greater good
High performers will:
- Value helping others and will create an environment that emphasizes customer service.
- Be good listeners, sympathetic to others’ feelings, and help when asked.
- Avoid taking unnecessary risks and be responsible and reasonable.
- Earn others’ trust and be socially sensitive towards others.
Verity Use Cases: Predict and Accelerate Partner Performance
While Verity provides highly contextual data, it must be paired with role context and synthesized into actionable insights to have the greatest impact.
At Kinavic, we utilize a 3-part process to synthesize learnings from Verity data into Traction Plans that accelerate performance:
The Verity Process
1. Partners complete the Hogan Assessment suite.
Hogan Assessment data provides valuable insights into personality and psychometrics—including strengths, values, and tendencies under stress or pressure.
2. Data is benchmarked against the Verity competency model.
After a Partner completes the Hogan Assessment Suite, our Verity algorithm is applied to their individual Hogan Assessment data.
Partners receive personalized readouts in each of the 5 competencies that serve as indicators of how their personality data compares to the benchmark data for top-performing Partners.
While scores do not guarantee success or failure, they identify critical opportunities to leverage strengths and address barriers to performance.
3. Personalized Debrief with a Kinavic Executive Advisor.
Because Partners respond best to bespoke support, delivered by professional peers, we don’t automate this process or assign junior resources. Kinavic delivers tailored, high-touch debriefs conducted by Executive Advisors with 25+ years of experience as industry leaders.
Every debrief is designed to synthesize assessment results into actionable strategies to leverage strengths and address performance barriers to maximize results.
This is where role context comes into play—when Verity data is paired with role context, Executive Advisors can discuss how a Partner’s psychometric is likely to affect performance.
Every Partner who completes Verity and performs a debrief with a Kinavic Executive Advisor is provided a readout document that concisely outlines personalized performance acceleration and risk mitigation strategies. That information can be shared with a Sponsor and leveraged during ongoing performance coaching.
Case Study: Leveraging the Verity Leadership Assessment℠ to Drive Business Results
The value of Verity isn’t just about assessment—it’s about applying insights gained from Verity to drive business outcomes.
For example, a direct admit Partner is hired into an established $500m consulting Partnership to build a specialty technology practice
From data supplied by Verity, this Partner’s profile reflected:
Business Development: 96 (Maximum of 100)
Competitive Drive: 99
Executive Impact: 97
Trust & Collaboration: 61
Service Orientation: 52
After pairing this data with clearly defined role expectations, the Partner and their Kinavic Executive Advisor create a Traction Plan to leverage strengths and address barriers.
That plan includes:
- Leveraging this Partner’s strengths in Business Development and Competitive Drive by involving them in new business pursuits immediately—limiting frustration from sitting on the sidelines.
- Recognizing barriers to Trust & Collaboration and Service Orientation, pairing this Partner with a Sponsor to help them build trust with their colleagues and quickly help them understand and navigate the new firm culture
- Meeting with their performance coach every 2-4 weeks to monitor performance signals, assess progress, and adapt strategies accordingly.
Using a performance acceleration framework like this, we’ve partnered with firms to successfully:
- Improve Partner time to traction
- Increase practice and revenue growth
- Boost Partner engagement and reduce turnover
- Build and retain the next generation of leaders
- Align key leaders to their highest and best use
Struggling to identify and predict what drives high-performing Partners at your firm? Discover how the Verity Leadership Assessment℠, paired with our performance acceleration framework, can help your Partners perform better, faster. Contact us today.