Are you stuck in your partner role? Feeling a little too comfy? Even if you can’t see it, people around will spot it, and that’s not a good thing if you want a successful partner career.

I know it feels good – you worked hard to get here, you know how it works, know all the tricks.

But, let’s face it: to move ahead, partners have to make their mark.

They need to step up. Or the danger is to get stuck and other partners pass them by.

That’s hard to accept, even for the most selfless.

The 5 indicators of stuck partners

Over the years as a leader and a coach, I have come to recognise these key indicators that partners are stuck in their role:

1. They stay quiet in meetings and hardly ever volunteer their perspective. When asked, they respond in generalities.

2. They provide some politically correct answers when asked: “So, what do you think what’s pressing here? What should we do?”

3. They drown people in details or use one-word descriptions when asked what they do and leave you no wiser.

4. They state that they are not interested in ‘firm politics’. That’s why they pride themselves to focus purely on the one thing that matters in their eyes: client service. And, and this number

5. They are so busy with client service they lose sight of everything else: specifically, what they want and what’s required to achieve it. They simply can’t make time for it.

A common theme

It all overlaps to a common theme. Usually, stuck partners have total clarity on what they don’t want, but very little on what they want instead. Little idea of what they’re aiming for, or planning to do to get it.

Sound familiar? Know some of them?

Be a partner and give them a steer: They better wake up and refocus, otherwise they will stay stuck right where they are.

Forever.