Blog: Your Team Archive
Do you know what all great leaders have in common? They are willing to get out of their fish bowls. What I mean by that is great leaders adapt their behavior. They are aware of how they are perceived by others, and they learn to adapt their behavior in a variety of ways. Why is that so important?
Think of adapting your behavior like learning a new language. If you’re visiting another country, you’ll have a much better time if you learn the language of the country. Learning a new language is one way of adapting. And if you want to be a better leader for your law firm, you need to understand the language of the people who work with you. Yes, you and everyone on your team speaks a different language – a different behavioral language. You’re all swimming in different fish bowls. So, how do you get out of your fish bowl? The DISC behavioral assessment is one way.
Click here to read more about how law firms are using DISC to enhance effectiveness and build better teams.
If you still think retention is mainly about money, find out how much it is costing your competition to get people to leave you. That’s called your “poach rate.” If your poach rate is less than 20 percent, it ain’t the money, honey! People who love their work, love their boss, and love their company don’t leave unless the offer is coming from the Godfather.
- John Putzier
So you’re ready to rethink your associate and staff compensation systems. That’s a good thing. Many law firms give little thought to how their compensation plans are structured. And while everyone wants to be well paid for their work, in terms of compensation, the old saying is true: Money isn’t everything, and it definitely isn’t the only thing. I’m not saying that monetary compensation isn’t important. It is. What I’m saying is that if you’re focused solely on dollars, you’re not likely to attract and retain the best and brightest associates or staff.
In his book, Drive, Daniel Pink explains that based on years of behavioral and motivational research:
When organizations use rewards like money to motivate staff, ‘that’s when they’re most demotivating.’ The better strategy is to get compensation right – and then get it out of sight. Effective organizations compensate people in amounts and ways that allow individuals to mostly forget about compensation and instead focus on the work itself.
While this may sound very counterintuitive, think about it for a moment. Pink isn’t suggesting that you underpay your people. Rather, he suggests that you pay more than average. Paying your people at or above what the market is paying is important to both attracting and retaining great people. But competitive pay is just one – rather small – part of the compensation equation.
In fact, database research maintained by the Saratoga Institute of 19,700 exit interviews and current employee surveys conducted from 1999 through 2003, found that compensation issues represented only 12 percent of all reasons employees leave their jobs. In The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave: How to Recognize the Subtle Signs and Act Before It’s Too Late, Leigh Burnham reports the findings of the Saratoga Institute which make clear that money alone will not keep your best people from leaving you.
So when you think about compensation for your staff and associates, you’ve got to think about more than just dollars. Here are just a few of the hidden reasons, other than pay, why employees leave, according to Burnham:
• The workplace was not as expected: Have you ever put on your “best face” for the interview process and hired someone whose expectations of what working at your firm is really like were unrealistic?
• Too little coaching and feedback: When was the last time you spent an hour each month with your key people – staff or associates – just to coach and develop them? One hour a month is less than one percent of the typical 160 hours an employee works in a month.
• Feeling devalued and unrecognized: How often do you say “thank you?” How often to truly acknowledge a job well-done?
• Stress from overwork and work-life balance: Does your firm offer flex time? Are your people stressed out because you’re addicted to the adrenaline rush of working on a deadline?
• Loss of trust and confidence in leadership: Are you really leading your firm? Or are you so caught up in the work that you don’t really have time for your people?
Compensation includes the sum and substance of what it means to work at your firm. So, when you evaluate your compensation systems, be sure to include non-monetary compensation, and don’t leave your firm vulnerable to the poachers.
“Phyllis Mindell, an acclaimed expert on professional communications, shows women how to transform themselves by transforming their language; shed weak words, phrases, and gestures; empower themselves to win attention and respect; and get their ideas across with confidence and power.
Perhaps the best teacher of how the power of language can transform is an unexpected one: Charlotte the spider of E.B. White’s, Charlotte’s Web. Mindell demonstrates how Charlotte communicated messages that gained national attention and saved a friend’s life. As a model, she combines female strengths of wisdom and compassion with the determination and power to make a difference.” Read more or buy it…
Categories: Law Office Management, Leadership, Your Team•
on February 15th, 2010•
Have you ever had any staffing or personnel problems in your firm? If you’re like most attorneys, the answer is a resounding “yes.” Who hasn’t had to deal with personnel issues in their practice? Nobody. And if you’re like many attorneys, you’d rather be grilled before the Supreme Court than address personnel issues in your own office.
Well, I have good news and bad news for you. First, the bad news. Ignoring personnel issues won’t make them go away. Sticking your fingers in your ears and saying, “Nah, nah, nah. I can’t hear you,” didn’t really work when you were a kid. And its professional cousin, simply ignoring personnel problems in your office, makes them even worse.
Here’s the good news. You can learn to lead your firm and build a truly championship team. There are three simple steps. Caveat: Simple doesn’t mean easy.
- Get very clear about what you expect from your people – both with respect to performance and values.
- Evaluate people not only with respect to their performance; measure how well their values (i.e. how they behave) fit with your firm’s values.
- Get rid of anyone on your team whose values are inconsistent with your firm’s.
The hardest call to make is to let someone go who is a stellar performer, but who violates your firm’s values. – Someone who churns out the work and generates revenue for the firm, but is consistently late. – Someone who is great with your clients, but rotten to other staff members. – Someone who is “very experienced,” but who creates a miserable experience for everyone else in the office.
“We made our leap forward when we began removing the people who hit the numbers but violated our values and making it clear to the entire company why they were asked to leave – not for the usual “personal reasons” or to “pursue other opportunities” but for not sharing our values. Until an organization develops the courage to do this people never have full confidence that these values are real.”
- Jack Welch
For a great read on making the hard calls in your firm, check out Up Your Business, by Dave Anderson.
Categories: Leadership, Your Team•
on November 6th, 2009•
I talk with my clients a lot about the importance of working with “A” clients. Why? “A” clients are a pleasure to work with, they listen to your advice, they pay their bills, and they refer other “A” clients to you. “D” clients on the other hand . . . well. The other great thing about “A” clients is that you love working with them. While there are some universal truths about “A” clients, like the ones I’ve listed above, every attorney can add to the list with specific characteristics that are key for their “A” clients. One more thing: “A” clients also generate most of your firm’s profit. It is very important for you to know what constitutes an “A” client for your firm.
It’s equally important for you to know what constitutes an “A” player on your team. And you need to let your team members know what you expect – clearly and unambiguously. Why not create specific, written criteria for A, B, C and D players? Let your team know what it takes to be an “A” player. Create a written agreement, ask them to sign it, and commit to being an “A” player. Then, if they should start to fall short of the mark, you can pull out the agreement and use it as a coaching tool to get them back on track.
People cannot excel if they don’t know what’s expected of them. Let your players know what you want from them, and they will either hit the target or they won’t. But at least they’ll be able to see it.
Categories: Your Team•
on April 8th, 2009•
Before I went to law school, I was a professional musician. I played the guitar and sang. Still do – sometimes. Music has always been a really big part of my life. In fact, my first TV memory was when the Beatles were on the Ed Sullivan Show. (I was only four years old, and after the show my dad bought me the “Meet the Beatles!” album. I still have it.) I think of just about everything in terms of music. So when I think of a law firm, I think about it in terms of a band and all the “players” in the band. So how’s your band? Are you totally awesome or would Simon Cowell shame you off the stage of American Idol? I hope you’re thinking, “We are totally awesome! We ROCK!”
But if you’re thinking, “Geez, we’d be laughed off the stage,” it’s time to do something about it. Here’s what you can do to get started moving from laughing stock karaoke wannabes to rock stars.
First: Start paying attention to your players. Do you have the right people in your band? I can’t stress how important this is! Think of the Beach Boys backing up Mick Jagger or anybody other than The Boss fronting the E Street Band.
Second: As the leader of your band, you get to write the songs and pick the playlist. You decide who plays a solo, and when. You even get to demand only green M&M’s in your dressing room. You get the picture. You’re the leader. You set the stage for success. You’re The Boss . . . literally.
Third: Practice, practice practice. No matter how good the players, the band will never be awesome without lots and lots and lots of practice. That means you, too, Boss. So, meet with your band every day. Make sure everybody knows their part. Make sure the bass player is in step with the drummer and everybody is playing the same song at the same time.
Start doing these three things on a really consistent basis. Then give your band a “shout out,” or raise your lighter (or your cell phone, depending upon your generation) in the air because you’re on your way to stardom.
Of course, like any great band, the practicing never stops. But taking these first three steps will get you moving in the right direction. Rock on.
Do you know that, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, the #1 reason people leave their jobs is because they do not feel appreciated on a day-to-day basis? And according to a 2007 Gallup Poll, most employees have not received any recognition in over a year! In his book, How Full is Your Bucket?, Tom Rath explains that giving sincere recognition to employees creates what he calls “engagement.” Employees who are engaged are happy, productive, successful – and typically stay in their jobs.
While the idea of engagement may sound very warm & fuzzy to attorneys, it’s clear that engaged employees can make a huge impact on the firm’s bottom line. A recent Time magazine article reported that Royal Bank of Scotland found that a 10% increase in overall leadership effectiveness resulted in a 3% boost in customer satisfaction and a 1% reduction in employee turnover. That translates to $40 million saved in costs to retrain workers.
OK, so maybe your firm isn’t as big as Royal Bank of Scotland. But if you could increase client satisfaction AND reduce employee turnover AND benefit your bottom line by creating more engaged employees, why not give it a shot? The good news is that creating engaged employees will cost you nothing more than time, attention, and your sincere desire to start catching members of your team when they are doing something right.
Click here to check out How Full is Your Bucket? at www.Amazon.com.
Categories: Your Team•
on September 5th, 2007•
I just finished reading The War for Talent. If you’ve ever had any hiring or staffing problems, I would highly recommend that you read this book. OK, so I’m recommending that everyone reading this post should read it.
Aside from numerous references to Enron – it was written before Enron’s collapse – it’s full of so much great stuff, I know I’ll be blogging about it again in the near future. But for today, chew on this quote from the founder of Visa.
“Hire and promote first on the basis of integrity; second, motivation; third, capacity; fourth, understanding; fifth, knowledge; and last and least, experience. Without integrity, motivation is dangerous; without motivation, capacity is impotent; without capacity, understanding is limited; without understanding, knowledge is meaningless; without knowledge, experience is blind. Experience is easy to provide and quickly put to use by people with all the other qualities.”- Dee Hock, founder and CEO emeritus of Visa
Categories: Your Team•
on June 20th, 2007•
OK. I admit it. I’m a total Starbucks addict. I’m sipping a grande bold as I write this. And I know that my last post was also about Starbucks. But I just bought The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary, by Joseph A. Michelli. (By the way, did you know that if you’d invested $10,000 in the Starbucks IPO in 1992, your investment would be worth about $650,000 today?)
As I read the book last night, I reflected on attorneys I’ve known over the years, and the ongoing staffing issues they’ve faced. Here’s what Starbucks International President Martin Coles has to say about creating a positive, team-oriented workforce: It doesn’t happen by accident.
“We’ve spent a lot of time with our partners (all employees are referred to as ‘partners’), both in the selection process and in helping them understand what we stand for as individuals, and what the company stands for as a whole, and the difference we intend to make,” says Coles.
According to Michelli: “It is by design, not by default, that Starbucks leadership creates a powerful experience for its partners. It is expected that partners will pass on the dignity and respect that they are afforded into interactions with their customers.”
Are you creating your team by design or by default?
