leading in Law vulnerably

Your role as a leader, then, is to enable your team to do the work that they do best.

If your law firm were an orchestra, your role is to be the conductor, not to be running between percussion, strings, and brass trying to play multiple parts.

But how exactly do you step out of the pit and onto the podium to let your key players perform their best?

This article will give you a guide to being a leader at your law firm.

We’ll cover the six top elements of a great leader:

1. Share your vision for your firm

   1. Enable your team to learn and develop

   2. Create open lines of communication

   3. Set clear standards and goals

   4. Offer mentorship and guidance

   5. Create a culture of trust

Let’s get started!

Share your vision for your firm

As the leader of your firm, you have a vision for where you’d like to take the business. Perhaps you’d like to attract new partners, open a second office, or become a top-rated firm in your area.

Whatever your vision may be, you need to share it with the rest of your team. Document your vision and speak to it regularly.

If you can’t articulate your vision for your firm, how do you expect your team to help you realize it? 

Publishing your vision and sharing it share with your team helps give everyone a sense of working toward the same objectives. Your vision should include a lofty, yet measurable, goal to work toward.

Whether it’s to become a highly-recognized firm, take on a certain number of high-profile cases, do more pro-bono work, or earn a certain amount of revenue, you need a sense of what you’re propelling your firm toward.

You should regularly communicate with your team about your vision and the ways the entire team is working toward it.

Your team should enjoy the same level of trust as your clients, and understand that if they do raise a concern, they can do so without fear of judgment or retaliation.

If an employee submits anonymous feedback, it should truly be anonymous. If someone comes to you in confidence, respect that confidence.

If you offer enough forums for your team to trust you, and do so genuinely, you’re more likely to have a lasting impact on your culture than any other effort you put forth.

A law firm filled with high-performing lawyers and dedicated staff is music to any law firm leader’s ears. As the conductor for your firm, you should be approachable, clear with your direction, and easy to trust in order to keep your top performers playing the tune.

Becoming a great leader for your law firm doesn’t happen overnight, and you shouldn’t try to do it on your own. One of the most important factors for any leader?

The ability to ask for help. Seek out guidance from others in similar positions, and learn from those who have come before you.

Holding regular “town hall” style meetings once a month (or even once a quarter), can give you the chance to update your law firm’s team on goal-focused measurables, overall performance, and keep your pulse on your team’s current culture.

Make these meetings fun and engaging with lunch and opportunities for conversation.

Town halls are also a great opportunity to give your firm’s staff, partners and paralegals the chance to question you.

Your vision shouldn’t be something set in stone, and questions from your team may inspire you to shift or redefine your vision, as well as keep them engaged in pursuing it.

If you’re not getting verbal feedback in a town hall setting, you can also offer a regular survey or digital suggestion box specific to your vision.

Let employees rate you on how realistic they think your vision is, whether they feel like they’re able to contribute, and if the vision is relevant to their professional goals.

Enable your team to learn and develop

Training is an essential part of any job, and most employees want more of it. This is especially true in the legal industry, which is a field characterized by drawing ambitious personalities.

A recent survey found that 92% of employees say that the right kind of formal workplace training positively impacts their job engagement.

Create a training program for your law firm’s team that allows them to engage at their own pace and with topics that interest them personally.

These topics should be largely focused within the team member’s specialty and what your firm needs from them, but it’s also valuable to offer the opportunity to learn about areas outside of their own specialty.

For instance, your paralegals might benefit from marketing and accounting courses, while your junior lawyers might benefit from case intake and management training. 

You don’t have to send your team offsite to offer them valuable training. Working with Carl Shawn Watkins Consulting , your firm’s employees will be able to learn skills like marketing, hiring, client intake, and more.

To create a culture of learning, you need to set aside hours for each employee to use for training. Incentivize course completion with prizes and rewards, and create a sense of friendly competition across your team.

As you work on implementing a training program across your company, make sure you can track employee progress on specific courses, create individualized training programs, and assign additional courses as necessary.

You should also see if specific certifications are included as part of your eLearning courses to increase your team’s expertise and increase your firm’s legitimacy.