The selection of a managing partner in a professional services firm -- especially in accounting and law -- is just too important and too complex to leave to chance. With the scale of the challenges firms are facing, no firm can afford not to identify and develop a group of partners with the ability to successfully take on the role of managing partner in the future. This monograph lays the groundwork to show firms how to do it -- based on hundreds of interviews with already highly successful managing partners. The right person to lead a major geographic, cross-cultural expansion isn't necessarily the right person to take tough decisions to correct reducing financial performance or to deal with significant changes in the firm's business model in response to changes in technology and low cost competition. For firms, the key is to identify a number of potential managing partners and give them experience of operating in different contexts, which can then be used to determine who is most suited to the challenges the firm faces at the time of the managing partner's appointment and during their likely tenure. Making the right call, choosing the right managing partner, is critical to every firm's future success. Successful managing partners are strong and effective leaders. Leaders whose picture of the future excites and energizes the firm's partners and people, who help everyone, clients and people, to exceed their expectations and whose personal performance personifies everything the firm stands for. There's no getting away from the fact that being a managing partner is a tough job. But with clarity around the behaviors that deliver success, every managing partner now has a chance to truly make a difference