The costs of partner underperformance
Most firms think about underperformance in terms of financial results. In my experience, the biggest costs sit elsewhere — and remain largely invisible until significant damage has already been done.
This series explores those hidden costs through three fictional partners — Ace, Bill and Wolf — drawn from patterns observed over three decades advising organisations. A fourth piece examines the costs of complicity, alongside a practical framework for addressing these patterns before they become much harder to manage.
Ace
Competent, hardworking and successful — yet quietly creating problems she cannot see.
Read the guide →Bill
Strong numbers and happy clients become cover for behaviour that costs more than his billings.
Read the guide →Wolf
His decisions become the organisation's real values — setting the conditions for every other problem.
Read the guide →This guide is adapted from a chapter Graham Browning wrote for Managing Partner Performance: Strategies for Transforming Underperforming Partners. The fictional characters bring to life some of the most common behaviours encountered over three decades advising organisations on difficult people issues — alongside the consequences that follow when those behaviours are ignored or enabled.
