By Jay Russell, Principal at Lotis Blue Consulting
Building the Right Team to Support Your Practice is Critical to Optimize Results
As firms grow and evolve, partners often face a pivotal question: what kind of business support do we need to unlock the next stage of efficiency and growth? It’s not just about adding headcount; it’s about defining the right capabilities to help practices run like high-performing businesses.
From Task Execution to Business Enablement
Many firms begin by hiring administrative support—professionals who ensure operations run smoothly and partners remain focused on client work. This is essential, but it’s also only part of the equation. As the business becomes more complex, firms need to think beyond task execution and invest in roles that can translate strategy into operational performance.
The Capabilities That Drive Practice Performance
To scale effectively, leaders should ask: What do we need from our business operators to improve profitability, resource utilization, and client impact? The most effective business operators demonstrate a mix of analytical, commercial, and operational acumen across several key dimensions:
- Operational Discipline: Build repeatable systems for scheduling, budgeting, and tracking key performance indicators.
- Financial Insight: Understand revenue dynamics, manage budgets, and connect utilization and pricing to profitability.
- Resource Planning: Align staffing and capacity with client demand and partner workload to maximize productivity.
- Business Development Enablement: Support targeting, pipeline tracking, and proposal development to ensure growth is proactive, not reactive.
- Strategic Alignment: Translate firm-wide goals into actionable plans within each practice or sector group.
These capabilities help turn practice groups into performance engines—measuring, managing, and improving what truly drives success.
A Strategic Staffing Decision
Ultimately, the question is not “Do we need an admin or a practice manager?”—it’s “What kind of operator do we need to create leverage and growth?”
If your primary goal is efficiency and relief for partners, prioritize administrative skills that ensure seamless execution of day-to-day operations.
If your ambition is growth, profitability, and scale, invest in professionals who bring business intelligence, process discipline, and strategic foresight.
The Leadership Imperative
The right operating talent extends partners’ reach and sharpens their focus. By designing roles around the capabilities your firm needs most—not just traditional titles—you create the infrastructure for sustainable growth.
In short:
- Start with where you are going
- Then define what capabilities you need from your support system to get there.
- The right combination of operator capabilities will help the practice compete, grow, and evolve.
