Author: Fiona Hancock

From my early days as a grad at PwC (date redacted!) to current day as an org psych partnering with professional services firms, this sector has always been a key focus. But the talent landscape for professional services is shifting, and to keep pace, our approach to talent and succession must shift with it.

Right now, many professional services firms are grappling with the same challenge: holding onto great people, and inspiring the next generation of leaders. Despite being in the business of strategic advice, we often fall short when it comes to our own internal talent strategies. So what’s going wrong, and what do we need to do differently?

The disappearing mid-tier

Mid-tier professionals are hard to come by, whether they’re moving off-shore, or seeking better balance with an internal corporate role, many are leaving just as they’re becoming succession-ready.

Why?

• Burnout from relentless delivery expectations
• A lack of meaningful development opportunities
• Career pathways that feel outdated or uninspiring

And even those who stay often find themselves stuck. Brilliant technicians, yes, but not always equipped for the leap into commercial leadership. The step from expert to business builder is a big one, and one a challenge fewer are willing to step into.

We need to rethink retention strategies and traditional career pathways. Are we providing the support, stretch, and structure that future leaders need to truly step up? It’s time for more honest career conversations, ones that explore aspiration, build confidence, and connect people with a vision of leadership they can engage with.

High potential or high profile?

We need to take an honest look at how we are identifying “high potentials”.

• Visibility bias means the loudest voices get noticed, while quietly strategic thinkers are often overlooked
• Lack of clear and transparent criteria leads to inconsistent decisions
•  Performance ≠ Potential. Technical brilliance and high billable hours don’t equate to the potential for a leadership role

What’s missing?

• Clear, future-fit definitions of leadership potential
• Evidence-based tools to differentiate potential from performance
• Development focused on commercial capability, emotional intelligence, and strategic agility

The way forward

To identify and grow the capability needed to future-proof your firm, it’s time to do some things differently:

Here’s how to position talent and succession planning for long-term impact:

1. Create a Growth Culture: to build a succession approach with longevity drive a broaden the mindset of “development is vertical promotion” through continuous on-the-job learning and exposure to stretch experiences to trigger aspiration and build readiness.
2. Define the Framework: differentiating performance and future potential can be hard. Defined potential criteria provide the clarity and robustness required to minimise unconscious bias and subjective decisions.
3. Conduct Objective Evaluation: thorough evaluation against defined criteria is essential to gain objective insights. Outputs support succession judgements and inform individual development planning.
4. Deliver On-going Development: on-going development action is critical for the succession plan to future proof leadership continuity and capability development.

Professional services are changing. The way we develop talent and plan succession needs to change too.

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