It’s that time of year. Performance reviews are underway and somewhere in the conversation is a question about business development. How are you tracking against your BD goals? How visible are you in the market? What new instructions do you have in the pipeline?
Ask most firms how they measure BD and the honest answer is: not well. A coffee here, a referral from an existing contact there, the occasional new matter that came in because someone already liked you. It is well-intentioned, but often not a clear picture.
But the measurement is not the real problem. That runs deeper. In professional services, the path to leadership is almost entirely through technical excellence. You do great work. A partner notices and starts feeding you theirs. You deliver, you get promoted and you do it again. It is a system that rewards skill and reliability. What it often doesn’t prepare you for is the requirements of leadership.
At some point the work stops being handed down. You are expected to go and find it yourself. To be visible. To have a point of view that clients find compelling enough to call you rather than someone else. To build relationships that are strategic, not just social. And to bring your team with you, developing their skills, their networks, and their own client relationships along the way.
For many people, nobody told them this was coming. And nobody taught them how. The technical skills that earned the promotion are still essential, but they are expected, not the differentiator. What separates leaders who grow a practice from those who plateau is something quite different – a personal brand that means something in the market, relationships that are genuine and deliberate and the kind of client trust that brings repeat work and referrals.
Not everyone finds this easy. Many brilliant professionals find the networking circuit draining and avoid it. Others turn up to events, tick the box, and wonder why nothing comes of it. Without clear guidance, people attend the wrong events, go through the motions, and walk away with little to show for it.
It’s easy to assume the existing clients are fine. They are still calling, the work is coming in, no complaints. But relationships left to run on autopilot have a way of quietly shifting. By the time you notice a client pulling back, the relationship has usually been cooling for longer than you realised.
Then there is the team. A leader who cannot clearly articulate their own value will struggle to help their people find theirs. The skills needed to build a personal brand, to network with purpose, to have conversations that open doors are exactly the skills a leader needs to model and mentor. You cannot give what you do not have.
None of this is reserved for the naturally extroverted or the effortlessly charming. These are learnable skills, practical, coachable, and transferable. Most firms invest in developing the technical expert but few develop the person who has to walk into a room, build a relationship and win the work. It is left to chance, instinct, or the assumption that experience alone will do it.
So, if your performance review asks how your BD is going, it’s worth reflecting on where the gaps are and what support might help you close them. If it’s an area you want to develop, say so. A good performance review is a conversation and if you don’t ask you might not get.
