Always look to the health of the firm's infrastructure. The managing partner should have power to allocate income. Without it, he or she can't do the job. If the firm has an income-allocation committee, the managing partner should definitely be part of it. The elements of a workable compensation plan have to be based on performance, and the reward for results must be substantial.
Nothing speaks like money.
If you're measuring, recognizing and paying for it, you're paying attention to it. To implement action to obtain a firm's goals and objectives, a compensation plan has to be flexible enough to move with the needs of the firm and motivate partners and staff to meet them. For example, if your firm is growing by leaps and bounds and you're having recruiting problems, compensate staff for bringing talent into the firm. If you never discuss bad debts or receivables, then you're going to have a lot of bad debts and receivables. But if the firm pays people a bonus based on how well they eliminate bad debts, it provides incentive.