Leaders who want to build a culture of collaboration should begin with themselves, modeling the right behavior by contributing to others’ client work and sharing credit with those who participate in their own.
Top leaders can also take some simple steps to help partners build trusting relationships with one another—for instance, holding retreats that allow them to forge connections. Four months before the annual retreat of Caldwell Partners, a small executive search firm, the CEO asked all partners to name a potential client and to identify a colleague they could work with to try to win that account. At the retreat, the CEO set aside time for people to team up and flesh out their client development approaches. The best firms also pair lateral hires with a successful homegrown partner who’s responsible for introducing the newcomer to both other colleagues and clients, thus spreading the coaching function beyond the top executives.
When hiring, leaders need to resist the temptation to bring in high-performing but selfish partners, who might be a toxic influence, and instead seek candidates who have a track record of working across boundaries. To gauge that, ask applicants to give several concrete examples of how they contributed to others’ client work and how they built teams to serve their own clients. Candidates who brag about their ability to transfer clients to your firm should send up a red flag. Ask yourself, if clients are so attached to these candidates individually, does that mean that no other professionals at the firm were involved in serving the clients?
Leaders also need to be careful about the signals they send when commending players for great outcomes. If a partner made a big sale but did so as a lone wolf, the leader should not only refrain from celebrating the win but talk with the partner about better ways to achieve the same outcome.