When I became the managing partner of my firm, we hired an excellent general manager, who ultimately became our COO. I will call her Bev.
Bev had a background in business, significant experience in human resources and a great capacity for emotional intelligence, all of which were in short supply among our partners.
Many years ago, the managing partner of my firm, who I will call Sid because that was his name, had on his desk a replica of a dogsled with a team of dogs in single file. There was a pithy saying attached to the sled which read, “if you are not the lead dog, the scenery never changes.” Think about that for a minute. No, I mean really think about it. Take a moment to focus on exactly what every dog following the lead dog had to look at for the entire trip.