The role of a managing partner tends to include huge variety, with a blanket of responsibilities covering people, finance, marketing, business development, compliance, technology and a great deal of problem solving. Professional life can seem like one endless meeting.
The job requires a constant changing of mental gears and, for most of the year, intensive and unstinting effort. The workload is typically very high, and does not often allow time for quiet thought and reflection.
Then, during the summer, and especially during the school holidays, a change occurs. Inside and outside the business, many of the people who attend the endless meetings are absent, enjoying vital rest and relaxation, visiting other places. Welcome gaps appear in my diary. Time flows between them.
One insight I take from this is about the nature of motivation. Very often, we are prompted to act by circumstances. We have to do something, even if we have a choice of options.
But what about when there is no immediate call to action?
The goals, choices and actions taken to achieve those goals must be generated from within. Imagination is required. Self-discipline is required to overcome torpor, preventing these moments turning in to hours, and the hours in to days.
I was recently intrigued by the choice of a colleague, who is about to qualify as a chartered legal executive, following completion of the project element. She is hard working, ambitious and driven to improve and develop. Her choice of project is to survey Paris Smith, to ask us what motivates us personally. The results will be fascinating.
I think this ability to summon motivation from within is a key factor in the success of individuals and of businesses. We all recognise the people that have this drive, perhaps most obviously in the world of sport.
My take on motivation is that circumstances dictate short term immediate action. We react, sometimes because we must. Others will act because they look for positive action, something to be done to improve something or someone, perhaps themselves. They are those who we describe as “going above and beyond”. The energy these people give is vital.
Collectively, longer term aspirations require time and reflection to properly form, before we decide on the actions which are most likely to bring about those goals. That is one of the reasons that we retain a separate Board at Paris Smith, which is primarily responsible for strategy, rather than action.
I also believe positive ideas flow best from a healthy mind, and that the best fuel for mental resilience, wellbeing and happiness is physical health, exercise, positive communication in healthy relationships, and the right environment.
This is my summer top ten list of how this precious time is enjoyed:
- Evening bike rides in the sunshine – the New Forest is glorious and provides inspirational space for thought
- Time outdoors and away from the desk
- More time with people and for people
- Easier visits to all our offices in Southampton, Winchester and Bournemouth
- Al-fresco dining, especially Italian
- Renewed appreciation for the myriad benefits of living on the South Coast, an area that has access to everything
- Helping plan the onboarding of our new cohort of trainees and graduate apprentices – the drivers of the future
- Removing the anxiety of knowing jobs remain unfinished, to free the mind
- A bit dull to some – but closing off the accounts for the prior year and embracing the feeling of a job well done
- Mentally resetting for the year ahead, embracing the responsibility but cherishing the opportunity to do good for our clients, colleagues and the communities we serve in the Central South
The efforts and the rewards are a little different, but the relationship between the two remains the same.