Leading your industry teams should be selected by the firms managing partner, or regional or office managing partners. Select leaders with these qualities:
- Have demonstrated the ability to grow the business.
- Are industry or sector subject matter experts who are active in geographic referral communities (i.e., lawyers or bankers relevant to their industry).
- Have strong leadership skills, including high energy, “walks the halls,” a passion for growth and leads by example.
Ensure industry team members are engaged
Industry team leaders should select or recruit a manageable number of core-team members (optimally six to 12). Each core-team member must be personally committed to growth. All major lines of business should be represented, along with marketing, a business developer (if appropriate), and administrative resources.
Schedule regular, productive, working industry core-team meetings. For larger core-teams, establish smaller subcommittees to drive workstreams or tactical plans, which is where the real work gets done. Team meetings should provide the opportunity to exchange ideas, report on progress, and commit to further work, either individually or in subcommittees.
Conduct formal team meetings
Industry leaders should conduct formal monthly or bi-weekly meetings of no more than one hour, with written agendas, using a core format. Meetings should consist of standard topics. When special topics arise, they should be included and addressed by the team. One core topic is a status report on the high-priority targets the group establishes in one of their very early team meeting, along with current opportunities. Divvying up high-priority targets among the partners in the group, with each partner establishing “target pursuit teams,” is also an early task for the industry teams.
Other standard topics are group and individual participation in conferences, trade association meetings or training events, and the potential for the industry group to sponsor their own industry events for clients and targets. These market-facing activities could be a combination of in-person and virtual or hybrid events.
Industry core-team members should have the opportunity to discuss their progress or contributions to winning new targets and market activities, and/or authorship of thought leadership articles or presentations. Everyone should leave meetings with an action item, and meeting minutes should be distributed.
The entire industry practice group, which includes all professionals who want to build a practice focus on clients in that industry, should be called together quarterly or at least twice a year, to hear from the industry and core-team leaders, learn about the progress and accomplishments of the industry, and network to learn from each other.
