Insights
The team at This Friday has lived and breathed professional services for many years.
Our insights are snapshots of what we’ve learned from the challenges and opportunities we’ve faced and how our experience can help build your business.
The impossible impasse – performance management and mental health
The days of straightforward performance management are over. Now there’s stress leave and psychosocial hazard to consider. People management expert Julie Scardamaglia discusses the current dilemmas and invites discussion.
The conversation you keep avoiding
Most performance problems aren't unnoticed, they're talked around: a soft check-in, a firmwide email, a conversation that's never quite direct enough to change anything. This insight looks at why avoiding the direct conversation can cost more than having it. Being clear isn't being cruel. People shouldn't have to guess what isn't working or what you expect from them.
BD is less about confidence
Business development is often treated as a talent some people have and others don't, but a recent panel of restructuring partners revealed it's actually a habit built through small, consistent actions over time. The real differentiators aren't confidence or charisma, but listening, following through, and starting close to home with the relationships already in front of you.
Leadership. Who wants it anyway?
Professional services firms have a leadership problem: fewer people want the job. Not because they can't do it. Because leadership used to be about output - now it's about people, and that's a much harder, more human role to sign up for.
Your brand is already being built.
Senior professionals who are very good at their work, trusted by their clients and respected by their firms, sat with the seemingly simple question: what are you known for, and is that by accident or by choice?
The title changed.
Performance review season is here. And somewhere in that conversation comes the BD question. How visible are you? What's in the pipeline? How are you tracking?
Hope isn't a goal
If your development conversations keep covering the same ground year after year, the problem isn't commitment. It's that the goal conversation never really happened. Julie Scardamaglia explains what it takes to set goals that stick.
When online just isn't on
While online learning works well for short technical updates, programs focused on leadership, behavior change, or peer learning are fundamentally undermined by a virtual format. The real value lies in side conversations, shared experiences, and a facilitator's ability to read and respond to the room.
You don't need more BD meetings, you need better ones
The problem often with business development isn't effort - it's what we're measuring. When firms count meetings, professionals perform for the metric. Activity gets mistaken for achievement, and genuine client insight never happens. Read why quality beats quantity every time in business development, and what firms and professionals can do to make the shift.