Archive for January, 2008

Motivating professionals: continuing in search of the Holy Grail

Published 3 January 08 HR , Motivation , Recruitment and selection 0 Comments

The war for talent is raging again. Firms are reviewing their ‘EVP’; Generation Y is providing a source of bewilderment or frustration, depending on your position and perspective; and most firms are struggling to attract and retain the ‘right’, or even enough, decent people.

There may well be a need for new and creative solutions to systemic issues such as ‘work/life balance’ and ‘alternative career paths’; and yes it may take some form of meltdown before all parties (including clients) are prepared to contemplate new paradigms of working; and yet, I can’t help thinking that a lot of the current wringing of hands fails to confront an inconvenient truth. Continue reading ‘Motivating professionals: continuing in search of the Holy Grail’

Ready, Steady . . . Stop!

Published 3 January 08 Law firm management , Personal effectiveness , Strategy 0 Comments

When it comes to putting your plans into action, it’s not the new thing you start doing but the old thing you stop doing that really makes all the difference.

It’s a truism that the hard part about business strategy in a law firm is actually getting it implemented. The same applies to departmental business plans, initiatives to improve know-how and drives to improve financial performance. Whatever you are planning, however hard it seems at the time to work out and get agreement on what to do, the really hard part is making it happen. The same applies to individual development plans and even those great ideas about what we all want to do with our lives.

Great implementers have discovered a secret. Continue reading ‘Ready, Steady . . . Stop!’

Questions to help you win work

Published 3 January 08 Marketing , Personal effectiveness 0 Comments

The average lawyer talks too much in what you might call selling situations. The art to winning work as a professional is to build credibility, rapport and trust in client relationships. And the best way to do that is primarily through asking questions and demonstrating that you are listening and tuning in to what the client is saying. Easy to say. Harder to do.

So, here are some tips on the art of asking the right kind of questions. Continue reading ‘Questions to help you win work’

Winning work from your competitors

Published 3 January 08 Marketing 0 Comments

When clients give you instructions, they have gone through a process of evaluating you and your firm against some criteria. Often this is done unconsciously and some clients might even deny that they do it, but they do. The sorts of questions clients consider are:

  • Can we do this ourselves, or do we need an outside firm to help us?
  • Do you have the expertise?
  • Will you be too expensive?
  • Will my boss think I’m an idiot for appointing you?

The more important the work, the more rigorous this process usually is. Continue reading ‘Winning work from your competitors’

But who should do the coaching?

Published 3 January 08 Coaching , HR , Law firm management 0 Comments

Everybody seems to accept that coaching can help make breakthroughs in people’s performance. What is less clear is where do you find people with the skill or will to actually do the coaching? Continue reading ‘But who should do the coaching?’

The tensions between Tops, Middles, Bottoms & Customers in law firms

Published 3 January 08 CRM , HR , Law firm management , Personal effectiveness 0 Comments

Tony Reiss writes: I’ve recently attended an amazing workshop run by Barry Oshry, a US pioneer in researching patterns of thinking and behaviour in organisations. He has put his finger on some of the systemic issues that cause so many of the tensions in firms and cause Customers to be disappointed in the service they get. If you’d like the whole story, read Barry’s latest book Seeing Systems (see the end of this article for details). If you’d like a synopsis of Barry’s thinking, read on. Continue reading ‘The tensions between Tops, Middles, Bottoms & Customers in law firms’

The new levers of profitability - part 2

Published 3 January 08 Fees , Finance , Law firm management , Pricing 0 Comments

This is the second of two articles on fixed and capped fees. In this one, we will look at some of the steps firms need to take to improve their financial performance in the fixed fee world. Continue reading ‘The new levers of profitability - part 2′

How to increase your chances of making the right decisions

Published 3 January 08 Decision making , Personal effectiveness 0 Comments

Many decisions are based on instinct or gut feel (this just feels right). Some are based on precedent (that’s what we did before and I can’t be sure of the consequences if we do something different). Other decisions are based on partial analysis (I’ve looked at the figures and they stack up). Paradoxically, important decisions about whether businesses should merge are sometimes based on whether the leaders could do business together, whilst less critical issues, such as new IT systems, can go through rigorous reviews lasting months.

Many leaders lack a framework for making decisions. The Sherwood model below is not designed to take away the usefulness of experience and instinct, but it provides a more rigorous analysis and helps you see the consequences of decisions. Continue reading ‘How to increase your chances of making the right decisions’

Picking the right person

Published 3 January 08 Bar , Interviewing , Managing chambers , Personal effectiveness , Recruitment and selection 0 Comments

Whether selecting people for trainee appointments, pupillage or senior posts in the firm or chambers you need to spend time in the initial stages planning the process and getting it right. Recruiting is often seen as a chore that takes up valuable billable time so you hurry through the process just to get it over and done with. Rushing recruiting will often result in a costly mismatch of person/role which takes even longer to deal with than getting it right in the first place. Continue reading ‘Picking the right person’

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