A big mistake I have noticed during interviews with lateral partners is how the stage is set incorrectly during the very first five minutes of the meeting. The biggest bomb a managing partner or hiring partner can drop which will instantly kill the potency of the meeting is to ask this question: “Why are you looking to leave?” Most of the time the partner who is presented by a third party recruiter, or headhunter, isn’t actively looking. They are just curious.

Ever since I began my headhunting career in 1995, I learned that the best professionals are not necessarily those who are actively looking. Instead, I am retained and engaged to actively seek those who are not looking but who are amazing. It is the authentic relationship that I build with these star attorneys that moves them forward and I do this by focusing on a single goal during my initial conversation with them: I get them to choose to open up their mind.

An open mind should also be the primary objective during this first meeting when you meet with a prospective lateral. You must probe through intelligent question-asking about what is missing from this partner’s career, and what frustrations and problems could be ameliorated should a transition occur. Focus more on asking than selling. Sure, you have to sell, but the key fundamental concept of sales is to discover and uncover the buying motives of your prospect, and sell to that.

For example, if the prospective lateral doesn’t feel that his practice group is a priority for his current firm, this very well may be enough to incite a move. Don’t start off discussing your open comp system or other aspects of your firm unless you know what is important to the candidate.

Think of a waiter in a restaurant. You don’t come in to the restaurant, sit at a table and he brings you a meal. Instead he brings you a menu and asks you what you are hungry for. A few minutes later he delivers a food choice that was in alignment with your gastric ambitions. You eat, and feel that happy because you received exactly what you wanted.

Conduct mock interviews with other partners in your firm. Be prepared prior to the meeting. If it’s an important use of time, then you shouldn’t practice with prospective laterals. With careful thought and appropriate questions, you will set the stage for a positive meeting and increase the odds of a positive result.

The newest recruiter to join the Attorney Search Group is Maya Jade Love, born November 19, 2011.

I could not stop laughing when I saw this.  Can you believe someone would dress their kid up like this?

Why do Partners Leave Law Firms?

As an attorney recruiter, I spend my day talking with partners about their motivations to move.  Here’s a short list of the usual responses I receive when I ask them why they are open to hearing about other things:

1) People Issues. This always ranks the highest and usually stems from leadership issues in the firm.  They don’t like the people in the firm, don’t trust them, or both. They don’t feel the support  from firm leadership (which could be just perception) and don’t have the desire to get to know their colleagues better.  So they drop out of firm social events, which hurts the growth of their book even more.  If they don’t like the people they practice with, then they won’t be as apt to receive or give internal referrals.  Remember, people make decisions based on subjective perceptions, not reality.  The perception may be that the firm is cold and harsh, when people are really just busy.  That’s why it’s up to the leadership of the firm to make an effort to actively engage with all partners on a regular basis.  Leadership development provides an excellent solution for this primary motive to move.  Managing partners and other members of the core team must take an active interest in moving the firm forward, articulating the firm values/vision/mission, and above all else, showing that the work of their team makes a difference.

2)They don’t believe their current firm wants to help grow their practice.   Sometimes this issue goes beyond conflicts or issues of client ownership.  I’ve heard partners complain that even political party politics gets in the way of them growing their practice.  Or the core focus area of the firm has been in a direction that they feel is sideways to them, and they have always felt like they are the red-headed stepchildren to everyone else.

3) They don’t believe their current firm has the capability to grow their practice.  It could be the inability to leverage work through associates, the quality of associates, or some other limitation that is built within the way the firm is structured, maybe even how it is geographically situated.  In some cases, it could be the firm’s reputation.  Or perhaps the structure or the practice group specialties do not lend to helping a particular group grow.  I have heard more than once that a group leader feels that he has grown as far as he can grow within his current firm, and is a prime target for a firm that can provide avenues for expansion and growth.

4) The size of the firm…it matters. Some people feel their small firm doesn’t have the brand to attract big fee clients or enough partners with whom they can cross-pollenate  the growth of their practices. Others feel isolated and just another small cog in the very large wheel of the amlaw100 and that their work as an individual gets overshadowed by a single rainmaker.  What’s best, a small law firm or a large law firm?  The answer: it depends.  It depends on who is asking and why they are asking.  Ether way, if you are looking to attract partners to your firm, you need to play to your strengths by identifying what is unique about your firm and how that uniqueness can provide opportunity to that prospective lateral partner.

Here are four tips on how you can increase the odds of attracting top legal talent and make your firm more appealing to prospective candidates:

1. Think of hiring as marketing. This is an area that may be challenging to law firms, just because they are law firms. It’s not in their nature to overtly promote so they shy away from that mindset. Historically they have steered clear from this perspective because of the way law firm marketing has evolved to avoid overly aggressive self-promotion. That’s understandable. But consider this: you can still have a marketing perspective in your hiring without seeming like a crass over-promoter. There’s nothing wrong with promoting yourself when you can offer value, and it doesn’t mean you have to adopt an in-your-face attitude. What it means is that you have to think like a marketer. Consider it this way: marketers have to focus on solving problems and adding value to prospects. For you, it’s about value delivery in the workplace. Ask this question: “What’s missing from the careers of most attorneys, and how can we fill that void? What value can we provide that they may not derive from their current environment?” As a professional career ‘headhunter’ or recruiter, I have been trained over the past fifteen years to think this way, to always sift out and uncover motives. I have found that some legal recruiters who used to be attorneys can be at a disadvantage in this business because most have never been trained nor worked in classical sales. They are still thinking and acting like attorneys.  Recruiting is akin more to high-level sales than practicing law.

2. Focus on what is different. Marketing begins with differentiation. I’ll never forget meeting with an internal hiring manager of a law firm when I first started carving out my niche in attorney recruiting. “What’s different about your firm?” I asked. She thought for a moment and just shrugged and said that they were like all the rest and not really all that special. I decided not to add them to my cadre of clients. If there’s nothing different and nothing special, then I can’t sell their environment, their strategy, their niche specialty, their cross-pollenation of business development among practices, or any other reason why someone would leave their current firm. If she didn’t believe it, then no one else would. There has to be something different to attract attention. For some firms, this differentiation is obvious, such as a boutique firm specializing in a unique niche. For others, it lies in the depths of their story, their history, and even, dare I say it, their culture.

3. Get clarity about your culture. Try hiring an attorney without using the word ‘culture’. You can’t do it. It’s an overused word but a critical piece of the attorney recruiting puzzle. But you have to clarify it and get your arms around it when you communicate it to your prospective hires. Don’t say things like ‘we’re really friendly’. Opinions and adjectives are weak and always suspect. Instead, tell stories. “We’re a family friendly law firm,” is what one managing partner told me. I asked him to clarify what he meant. I asked, “What would I see with my own eyes to where I would come to that same conclusion?” He thought for a moment and said, “On Friday afternoons you’ll hear babies crying in our hallways because people bring their kids to the office then.” That was a genuine fact. It was a different way of describing their culture and could certainly be a breath of fresh air to a prospective candidate. Story sets a visual image in the mind of the candidate and gives a kinesthetic element of believability when the conversation turns to discussion about culture. Here’s an exercise. At your next firm retreat, ask for stories. Ask for each parter or associate to come up with a story that describes why they like working there. They can’t use adjectives, but must convey facts. Collect them and sift out the best and most compelling and share those with your internal recruiters. Most internal recruiters of law firms need a little bit of help in this area. They can be the first entry point for a prospective hire, and that’s where the first impression of the firm is made. Sometimes it is weak. Add strength to it by training those who are involved in the onboarding of attorneys for your firm.

4. Use video. Video is commonplace among most industries, yet not in the law firm environment. It’s not expensive to film and upload videos to the site. The technology is cheap and easy enough to figure out. Take a video tour of your offices. Have video interviews of how your clients have benefited from working with your attorneys. Interview attorneys from their various perspectives and points of view. Newer associates, senior partners, and even the staff. When you hear the staff talk about working for attorneys, then you add a sense of believability to it. But what is most believable is to interview alumni attorneys who are currently in government or in-house. Better yet, interview alumni who are with other law firms. When they say that your firm is a great place, then it probably is.

During my four years at Annapolis, I would always hear combat veteran Marine Corps and Naval officers talk of how leadership is servanthood.  Most people probably think leadership is more of a glorious task of getting a chest full of medals.  But the real core is unglamorous servanthood. Marine Corps officers are always the last to get fed when in the field.  They want to make sure the troops have enough to eat.  Leadership is about putting the needs of others ahead of yourself. Serving others, as long as it is in the direction of achieving your corporate goals, is the true essence of super-effective leadership.  Leadership is about seeking out what motivates one of your associates who works for you in your group, and figuring out how that internal motivation can be harnessed to help the team achieve its goals, thereby giving a sense of personal achievement.

The only problem with all this is that the task of having a servant’s heart goes in the opposite direction of our mortal human nature.  I spend all day talking to attorneys, and I can easily segment them into two categories.  The first group thinks of nothing but themselves.  They are the arrogant and borderline compulsive narcissists who believe that it’s ‘every man for himself’ and will always put their own selfish needs ahead of others.  The second focuses on serving the team to accomplish the mission.   They clearly seek to provide value to clients and to positively mentor associates.  Sadly, the second category is rare, but those gems are out there and those are the attorneys who get my attention as a recruiter.

If a senior level attorney chooses not to change and grow in this way, then he will not be considered “followable” by his subordinate associates.  If he is not followable, then his team will only go through the motions of their tasks, leading to mediocre results and eventually low morale and turnover.  A real leader must be worthy of having followers, and that, more than anything, is a character issue.

A high performing leader in a law firm environment must possess both competence and character.

The first step of growing in leadership is to (1) have a prosperous heart.  A prosperous heart believes that there is room in the organization for everyone to achieve satisfaction.  Everyone can achieve the victory when the team does.  By ensuring that every single person in the organization wins when the firm wins, then you increase the probability of success of the team achieving its goals.  A prosperous heart does not hold the glory for itself.  Rather, at the end of the day, the leader with the prosperous heart appears invisible to the team.  A successful leader will have his team members carrying on about how they accomplished the tasks themselves. That’s what every leader should strive for.

The second step of growing in leadership is to (2) live in a way that is congruent with your heart.  What that means is that you need to clearly identify those values and principles which guide the way you do business and live your life.  Once you have identified those, you can develop a certain sort of code. In the boy scouts, they call it the Scout Oath.  In the military they have a code of conduct.  Once that calling has been identified, you can start making clear decisions within the framework of that calling or code.

The third step of growing in leadership is to (3) communicate this trust to your team.  Because you are living in a predictable sort of way in alignment with your heart or code or values, others around you will see this commitment.  If you are in a supervisory position, you need to articulate the values of your group.  By communicating the spirit of your unit to your team, you are creating silent accountability.  People who believe in the team will actually start following your very own commitment to those same values and principles.  By having a unified team whose heart is beating in the same way, trust begins to develop.  This trust is a byproduct of the leader’s personal growth and transformation at the soul level.  Leadership is a very personal issue, and cannot be institutionalized.  The true measure of success as a leader is the amount of trust and commitment that he gains from his fellow teammates.

Many new leaders will be surprised at how easy the tactical elements of leadership really are.  That’s because leadership is more of an issue of character rather than of competence.  It is still an issue of competence, but more of the key measurements of leadership are focused on character-related issues.  By taking these first three steps to developing a heart for leadership, you will have others around you take notice, and begin to see you authentically grow in your role as a leader.

A few years ago, The Wall Street Journal ran a piece about a new way that the U. S. Navy finds candidates for undesirable duty stations. It’s through an online bidding system, similar to Ebay.  It matches up geographically motivated candidates with open duty stations.  For example, it gives a sailor who is married to an Italian citizen a chance to bid for a two year tour to an area in Italy that most sailors would find undesirable. It is an effective and congruent concept, accomplishing the mission of filling openings with those most likely to benefit and contribute. But at the end of the article was a quote from a Commander saying that this was an absurd system of weakness and was chipping away at our Navy’s quest for seapower.

Perhaps this officer thought that legitimate empathy and servant leadership was a sign of weakness.  One of the first lessons we learned at Annapolis, though, was that true leadership in its purest form is indeed servanthood.  Throughout the four years at the Naval Academy, West Point, and the Air Force Academy, midshipmen and cadets hear the same mantra over and over and over again:  Take care of your people.  Take care of your people.  Take care of your people.

But what about mission accomplishment? Doesn’t taking care of your people get in the way of getting things done? What’s more important of the two?

I asked that question to Walt Boomer for an article I was writing when I had a column on workplace issues in a Gannett newspaper.  Boomer was the CEO of Rogers Corporation in Connecticut, a successful $300 Million manufacturing company.  He was also a successful leader in the military, retiring as a general wearing four stars on his lapel, serving as the Assistant Commandant of the United States Marine Corps.

“Walt,” I asked, seeking the final answer to this dichotomy. “What’s more important:  taking care of your people? Or mission accomplishment?

He paused, thought carefully, and gave me his answer.  “Taking care of your people, Scott.  Definitely taking care of your people.  If you have the right people in place and if you take care of them, they will accomplish the mission.”

In General Boomer’s succinct response lies the real fundamental key of successful organizational development.  First, put the right people in place.  Second, tell them what the mission is.  Third, take care of them.  And that’s it.  Real simple.

But here’s the problem in most organizations.  First, the wrong people are in place.  Second, they don’t know what the mission is.  Third, most managers are too preoccupied with building up their own political capital that they neglect the needs of their people.  And that’s it.  Real simple.

Here are three steps to take as you strive to grow in your own personal leadership development.

1.      Develop a strategy of hiring the best and putting only the best people in the positions that can benefit from their strengths.  This is an entire core competency and deserves the immediate and ongoing attention of every line manager.  If hiring strong employees is important to your organization, then train your line managers on how to properly do it. Without formal training on interviewing, most line managers end up hiring the best interviewer, not the best employee, resulting in a substandard work force.

2.      Communicate the mission to each of your employees.

3.      If you have the wrong people in place, you need to carefully avoid a critical mistake made by many well-intentioned managers: keeping the wrong people in place.   Make sure that your staff measures up to the reality of performance expectations, and not your perception of reality.  And if there’s an internal position where they can make a bigger contribution and have a bigger fun quotient, then by all means, make it happen soon.

Follow these action steps and you’ll always have troops eager to follow your leadership, and you’ll always accomplish your mission.

When you are admitted to the hospital, the first procedure performed is a check of your vital signs.  Your pulse, blood pressure, and temperature all are indicators of problems that might exist below the surface.

A key vital sign of the morale of your firm is the trust factor. What is the general mood among your colleagues with respect to trust?  Have you ever seen a trust violated in your office among staff and peers?

Read this compelling article by legal strategy consultant Patrick McKenna.

From my experience in conducting business development training to professional services firms, prospective clients aren’t as much concerned with the pedigree of a professional services provider as much as they are concerned with how that person or firm can solve their problem.  The educational and experience background might help to improve the value or perceived value, but the primary concern with the client prospect is how the resolution of that problem impacts them on a personal and emotional level.  How you sift through and uncover these needs is based on the Socratic method of obaining buying commitments from prospects.  Ask the right questions, and then show how your experience, education, process, and knowledge can solve that problem and get very clear on explaining the personal benefit to the prospect.

When you give direction, whether it’s to a subordinate associate or a paralegal, remember that they have a choice in their response and in the quality of work they choose to perform.  If we could rate that choice and their enthusiasm of work effort on a scale of 1 to 10, with ten being most enthusiastic, what can you do to ensure that their response is at the higher end of the spectrum?

Here are a few ideas:

1. Give them reasons why it will benefit the client.

2. Give them reasons as to how it will benefit them on a personal or professional level.

3. Always say the word ‘because’ at the end of your direction when doing this.

4. Ask them, ‘What can I do to help you do your job better?’

5. If they ask you for clarification, don’t tell. Ask.  If you tell them what to do then you are a boss.  If they come up with their own solutions, then you are a leader.  Say this:  “That’s a good question. What do you think you should do to solve that problem?”  Keep asking them questions to lead them in the right direction.  When they get the solution, it’s theirs and they own it.

When you look to attract top performing attorneys, especially those with a portable book, you need to answer only one question:  Why?  Why would it be worth it for them to disrupt their lives, add stress to it, and possibly lose some of their clients? There has to be a compelling reason why someone would go to your firm.  And you can start analyzing it by looking at what is DIFFERENT about your firm.  Differentiation is the beginning of all sales. Yes, sales.  You are selling your advantages and the hope of a better future to someone else.  You have to look at what is different about your firm and how that will benefit your prospect on a personal and emotional level.

Submitted by Cole Silver www.findcareersuccess.com

A business development strategy is defined as a process that allows one to concentrate on the greatest opportunities to increase revenues and to achieve a sustainable advantage. From my many years of experience in business and law, I have come to the conclusion that most business development strategies fail due to the lack of a “system.”

Do not make this mistake! Make your strategy failsafe by choosing the tactics you want to employ, but also be sure to have a system that keeps you consistently in front of your prospects. Without a system, you’ll flounder for direction and you won’t know what to do next.

To achieve a failsafe strategy, pick the ideas and tactics that appeal to you and that feel most comfortable. I highly recommend that you limit your choices to just five tactics initially and no more. The reason I suggest only five is because it’s best to keep your client development simple, focused and fun. Once the tactics you choose become second nature to you, you can add in more. But implementing too many at the start will dilute their effectiveness and become overwhelming.

Your system should concern itself with:

I. a method for visibility and consistency;

II. a method for obtaining data about prospects and getting them into your contact management database; and

III. a fun, easy and organized process to stay in touch and follow-up.

The follow-up system you implement should represent a “ladder” approach.  Using the tactics described here, first you may start with a nice to meet you note, then an article, then a call, and so on. This multi-step process is designed to give your prospects a taste of what you have to offer and what it’s like to work with you.

It will inevitably show them how much you care about the issues that are important to them, and that you are consistent, credible and committed to their success.

When they need a lawyer, advice or referral, you’ll be fresh in their mind as someone who has always been there for them.

That’s Priceless.

A refreshing post about ideal traits.  How does your firm measure up?

The following is an article that I wrote for my recruiter training business (www.GreatRecruiterTraining.com). The whole concept of business development transcends industries and is particularly relevant for attorneys who engage in business development activities, especially with higher level prospects.

Two Myths to Client Development: Client Control and Relationship Selling

There is no such thing as client control.  If you think you can truly control other people, then you should try raising a child.  Or maybe borrow one from a relative for a weekend.  You’ll soon find out that you can’t be the boss of them.  No matter how much authority you exert, they are still in complete control of their own decisions and actions.

When I first started training to the industry in 2003, I questioned the foundational premise upon which our entire industry has been built:  client control and candidate control.   I was the first trainer to come out and admit that it’s all wrong:  you can’t control candidates and you can’t control clients.  If you think you can and are still trying, then you are wasting your time.  I hate to say it, but this is the primary reason why so many recruiters are not successful in our business, and why traditional recruiter training is ineffective.  If it really worked, then everyone would be a big biller by now.

I’ll never forget the last vacation timeshare presentation I attended.  They said it was going to last only ninety minutes, but instead ended up going on for what seemed like an entire afternoon.  The self-obsessed sales rep tried to coax me into making a sizable investment in yet another week of vacation that I wouldn’t have time to use.  His futile efforts of trying to control me were followed by the grand entrance of the clean cut and nicely-scented sales manager, sporting shiny Ferragamos, starched shirt, dapper silk tie, and fancy French cuffs.  Articulate and polished sales presentations based on the bedrock of an empty and selfish spirit may be technically correct in the precision of speech, but if there’s no heart, no connection, no authenticity, and no congruence, then there will be no sale.

“Why don’t I just write a check,” I said to the sales manager about fifteen minutes into his review of what I had previously and repeatedly declined.

“OH! You mean for the vacation ownership package!”

“No, for your commission.  Why don’t I just go ahead and write out a check for the amount of your commission so I can be on my way.  I just get the feeling that’s all you really care about right now.”

They finally gave me parole and I walked away with a vivid and memorable lesson on how not to sell.  If they had found out what was important to me in a vacation, or if they had asked me to describe my ideal vacation, then that would have been a good starting point for them to showcase their value based on my needs, my desires, and my wants.  They would have begun the process of showing me their value, gaining trust, and building a relationship with me.  Instead, they followed a series of trite and manipulative canned and controlling sales tricks and ended up losing a customer.

Most recruiters and sales people believe that our business is built on relationships.  That’s only partly true.  Effective selling and recruiting is based more on the transference of value more than anything.

Look at it this way.  There’s a hierarchy of decision-making that your prospect subconsciously processes when you try to bring them along the path from skeptical prospect to raving fan.

1. First, they look at your value proposition. “What’s in it for me?” they ask themselves, and it’s the question that you need to think about and plan for prior to that sales call. You have to focus on delivering clear and obvious value, whether it’s real or perceived.  A lot of well-intentioned recruiters and sale people spend more time on relationship building with prospects instead of value creation. Your prospects, especially senior level executives, look to surround themselves with smart people who can solve their problems.  They need a problem-solver and value-creator, not another friend.

2. Second, they are looking for people they trust. After they have determined that you are worth having around from a pure value perspective, the next mental box they are looking to check is whether or not they trust you.  Can they safeguard their company’s secrets with you?  Do they know that you will follow through on your promises?

3. Third, do they like you? Finally, we get to the part that’s fun and exciting.  It’s the part that contributes the least to the overall client development strategy, not the most.  Once they determine you are a trusted advisor and provider of value and solutions, then you get the right to come within the circle of trust and start building an agenda-free friendship.  This is where the business gets exciting and heartfelt, and it’s the part that most big billing recruiters relish, but only through this proper sequence of intention.

Instead of trying to control clients, you should try leading them.  Forget about Client Control.  Focus instead on Client Leadership.  Leadership is about serving those around you; it’s about taking people on a journey that ultimate leads to something that gives them a benefit.  It’s about leading them through a series of decisions that ultimately make them better for having known you and deciding to work with you.  And when you focus on this, you’ll never have to worry about having to control anyone again.

When recruiting partner level candidates, what I’ve noticed seems to be most intriguing to them is the way I present the openness of my clients’ organizations when it comes to helping others.  One client has a distinct reputation of getting subject matter experts within their office to help other partners without the first question revolving around their percentage. 

Last week I recruited a parnter whose primary motive to move was the inaccessability of his colleagues to help.  For him, the emotional context of the workplace superceded all other motivations, including compensation. 

This isn’t something you can institutionalize.  It’s either there, or it isn’t.  And it’s a descending emotion that starts at the top.  The leadership of the office must intuitively mandate the openness of the office to helping colleagues.  And they don’t mandate it through meetings or memos.  They integrate it into their culture by first acting like that themselves.

What’s missing from most law firms? Quite a bit, actually.

When I was in my mid-twenties, I started consulting to organizations on leadership development when I was still an officer in the United States Navy.  I would travel around to various Navy commands near the Norfolk area, both civilian and military, and help improve their performance by developing innovative leadership models.  On the corporate side beginning in the mid 90’s, I conducted leadership studies through both my mangement consulting and also my executive search practices.  In working directly with companies to help grow their teams,  whether it was conducting a retained search for a vice president or delivering a keynote at a corporate convention or a retreat with the board, I gave my clients a model of building blocks that, despite their simplicity, are critical for growth.

Values.  Vision.  Mission.

It’s rare to find law firms that understand that legal skills and leadership skills are two separate core competencies.  They forget that these are human beings who need to be led, and that you can push people to a point before they start asking themselves, ‘Why on earth am I here?’

As a legal recruiter, I talk with partners every day about their options.  Every once in a while, surprisingly high at about one in five, I come across a partner who admits a lack of satisfaction with his firm’s practice.  It has nothing to do with the comp plan or the bonus program or the equity share. It has everything to do with something related to leadership.

How do you solve for this problem?  It’s simple and sounds easy, but it’s not.  Leadership is something that can be learned, fortunately, so you have to take time to study it and talk about it and get together as a group and learn it and apply it together.  The concepts aren’t hard to get your arms around, you just have to do it.  And you can’t say you don’t have time.  It’s kind of like saying that you don’t have time to get to the dentist to fill the cavity. It’s painful and sometimes expensive but you sure are glad at the end of the visit.  Contrast it with the consequences of not going and all of a sudden you seem like you can find the time.

Law firms are starting to face that consequence right now.  They scratch their heads and wonder why they just lost a three-partner group to a competitor and if they knew the answer they would have tried to solve the problem earlier.  But they don’t know the answer because their focus isn’t on leadership development.

Several years ago I was consulting to the founding partner of a professional services firm in New York City. The firm built an established presence in its niche for at least two decades, and had a sizable team of employees well into the hundreds, but it was struggling in both employee morale and retention. During my initial session with my client, I asked him what he felt his purpose or mission was for his firm. “To provide an income to me and the other shareholders.” I asked him if he felt that mission inspired his employees. “Probably not. But it’s not their job to worry about that. It’s their job to get back to work and do their jobs.”

I think we found the reason for the morale and retention problem, I thought to myself.

This client wasn’t the most open-minded individual I’ve ever come across, but finally through several sessions I was able to get him to see how morale, retention, and even operational performance were directly tied to the emotions the employees felt about the impact of their work. If they felt that the only reason they came to work everyday was to fill the pockets of a few rich older guys, then they would eventually quit and go to work at a place that offered more meaning.

My client soon learned that his employees didn’t come to work for everyday for him. They came to work for themselves. We looked at how he offered long term value to his clients, and re-focused the mission of the firm to offer value to others and articulated that among the team.

In the legal world, a managing partner needs to ask similar questions: What is the mission or purpose of our firm? Why do we exist? To practice law, they might say. Well, any law firm can practice law. If that’s all you can see that your firm does the you need to look a little bit further down the road at the impact of what you do, and then search for the meaning behind that. How does your law practice make the lives of others better? How does it make a difference in the lives of those whom you serve?

Kevin Fitzgerald, the managing partner of Troutman Sanders’ office in Washington, DC, says that he leads his office with an approach of building an environment where attorneys become the key trusted advisor to their clients. Through their expertise and counsel, they become indispensable resources for their clients. Because he bridges this gap and articulates that among his colleagues, it infiltrates the culture of the firm and helps to create meaning and purpose in the practice of law. In building this type of practice, Fitzgerald encourages his team to spend non-billable hours to build agenda-free relationships with clients so the relationship is enhanced and authentic and the client is served through that relationship.

When I would consult to my corporate clients, I would always begin my consulting relationship by asking this question: “What business are you really in?” We’re in the staffing business, they might say. One client of mine, a large regional staffing company, found that their entire industry had trained their clients to purchase services purely on price. Their client prospects would purchase staffing services from those companies who charged the lowest. I helped this client to evaluate its purpose, its true value to clients, and uniqueness as a company, and use that sense of unique purpose as a tool to not just add meaning to the the work of their staff, but as a tool to impact their sales process and culture. They found that when their sales team believed in a calling to their work more than just profit margin, they became more passionate in the belief of their work and probed for more opportunities to add value in their client’s companies. The result was that they consistently won business away from cheaper competitors. The whole exercise didn’t just impact employee morale, but it transformed their sales team from price quoting to selling on value.

When you look past what you do and focus on how that benefits others, then you’ve reached a whole new level of organizational performance. If you can align the hearts and minds and energies of your team with a higher calling, a worthy purpose or mission, then you will witness with your own eyes the long term transformation of morale, performance, and retention among your team.

In the next few posts on this blog, I’m going to offer a simple and step by step model that law firms can use to improve their practices.  My series of posts will be posted each Tuesday and Thursday of each week until I run out of ideas.  Check back for updates.  If you have questions about a post I wrote, please email me at scott@attorneysearchgroup.com.

As the trend shifts away from regional focus to practice groups in how legal teams are managed, it is important to clarify the roles and goals of the office managing partners and the practice group leaders, especially when they may be on a parallel path.  Law firm management consultant Patrick J. McKenna offers sound ideas in how to define these roles.  Click HERE for his white paper.

My son and I visited a book store this week in Asheville, NC, and in this article I will keep the name of that store anonymous. Let’s just refer to it as Starnes and Robles.

The upstairs children’s section has a vast selection of every children’s book imaginable. It’s truly a place of wonder for children, except for the new display of horror books at the entrance. Just immediately to the right of the entrance to the children’s section are two prominent displays of books. One is the Velveteen Rabbit. The other is a horror book whose cover has a little girl in a pretty little white party dress. Her blood-stained hands are neatly folded in her lap, and the contrast of the white dress, her hair in pig tails, and her blood-stained mouth certainly captured my attention. I couldn’t believe that they would put this book display next to a children’s book section. Perhaps it was a book for the macabre teen, but either way it conflicted with the brand they were trying to build for the children’s book section.

Every phrase you say with a prospect or an existing client

will either enhance or conflict with your brand. Every message you leave, every commitment you keep or don’t keep, and even every seemingly insignificant promise such as “I’ll email you the document this afternoon.” If it doesn’t get sent out that afternoon because you were too busy, then this tiny little inaction conveys a signal to your prospect that you don’t keep commitments and it conflicts with the brand of competence that you are trying to build.

What are the danger signs and early indicators of a difficult partner?

According to Joel Rose, management consultant to law firms, the following are the early warning signs of someone who could possibly cause heartburn and heartache in the office:

• Works too few hours, rendering time spent on clients as unproductive.

• Does not produce adequate revenue, although a hard worker.

• Hoards work due to inability or unwillingness to delegate.

• Readily assigns work, but does not follow-up or provide direction to other attorneys or staff.

• Holds the firm hostage by threatening to leave if things aren’t done “my way.”

• Accepts work that does not generate adequate revenue.

• Has experienced a reduction in, or elimination of, work due to external causes, i.e., loss of client due to merger or acquisition, deregulation, higher interest rates, etc.

• Devotes a disproportionate amount of time to pro bono, bar association, or personal business activities.

• Displays an unwillingness to communicate with other partners on business or substantive matters.

• Will not trust other partners to handle client work.

• Shows an unwillingness to permit others to handle matters in a different fashion.

• Was admitted to partnership and is unable to perform at the partner level.

• Lives beyond personal means and the economics of the office.

• Defends feelings of insecurity by taking every comment and criticism as a personal affront.

• Undervalues work performed and repeatedly discounts or writes-down fees and costs of services.

• Exhibits an excessive fear of losing clients, consequently committing the office to unrealistic timetables, deadlines, or fee estimates.

• Possesses unrealistic economic objectives for the office and for him- or herself.

• Does not recognize personal shortcomings.

• Lacks the ability to adjust to working with others.

• Is a senior member of the office with significantly higher earnings, but less than desired contribution to office profits.

• “Over-lawyers” client work due to lack of adequate volume.

• Manipulates the system by recording substantial fee-producing or billable hours, and then writes off many of these hours prior to billing the client.

• Simply does not work hard enough.

• Will not “cross-sell” or refer work to others within the office.

• With misapplied frugality, will not approve the expenditure of funds for essential items or services.

• Refuses to train associates and younger partners, or communicate with these attorneys, on client matters.

• Exhibits overly aggressive behavior and tends to “turn-off” other partners and clients.

• Lacks a sufficient commitment to the office’s objectives.

• Will not serve as a team member.

• Lacks professionalism within, and outside of, the office thereby damaging the office’s image and reputation.

• Will not share authority or control with others.

• Will not participate in office-approved activities, i.e., practice development, etc.

Rose gives several common sense solutions that firms of any size can implement to resolve the issue or to at least minimize the external damaged caused by a problem partner.  To read Rose’s full article, click this link:  http://www.joelarose.com/articles/difficult_partner.html .  His website is www.joelrose.com.

I can’t tell you how to practice law. But I can tell you why your prospective clients will choose you, or not. 

Every day I engage successful partners about opportunities to find opportunity elsewhere.  And every single time I find a partner who is open to this, especially one highly motivated to move, the reason is not based upon a pros and cons sheet or an intellectual balance of options. 

It’s based on emotion.

People make moves from firm A to firm B based on emotion and gut feel, not clinical analysis. 

Your clients are the same way. They ‘buy’ from you not because of your legal horsepower, but because of the emotional context tied to you solving their problems by achieving deliverables through your legal expertise.  Your knowledge, credentials, testimonials, reputation, and rankings will help open the door.  Their emotion will close it.

Here’s a perfect example of how emotion influences the buying process when selling to a sophisicated market, the CEO suite.  Watch this video of Don Draper spinning his magic. 

I spent the last few days of my vacation with the last few days of a relative in a hospice home.  The home was a lovely and peaceful setting for its guests and visitors. All except for the neighboring building next door.  I was enraged the first time I heard how loud they were.  Don’t they know that people are grieving over here?  How dare they.  The noisy white Montessori school was within earshot of the hospice home and only a few yards away.  The children laughed and screamed loudly without a single piece of quiet respect as they swallowed up the playground in a melee of activity.  Couldn’t the teaching staff show some courtesy by at least trying to keep the noise down?

I was curious at how all the windows and doors of the hospice home were propped open, especially those that were facing the Montessori school. And then I saw that even some guests were sitting outside of their rooms, quietly listening to the playful children.

And then I realized what was going on.  The playful sounds emanating from next door were not damaging but nurturing. Either through divine intervention or bad zoning, the relationship between these two facilities grew into a balance of healing and harmony, with the Montessori school doling out generous doses of energy and power to the guests in the hospice home.

We all affect each other in our relationships, even at work.  Each day you bring with you to work a potential to affect other people.  You bring the potential to create a synergistic and symbiotic harmony, whether you know it or not.  As a leader, you need to concern yourself with how you affect others.  Sometimes the things that you say or do to your co-workers moves them in a less than obvious manner.  You may not even realize it, but your influence has power.

Recently I was chatting with a candidate who wanted to leave her firm. She told me how the group leader rarely said positive comments to his subordinate attorneys, but when he did it was only in private in his office.  The time that he spent in the office was spent complaining about his fellow lawyers, publicly bringing attention to their faults in front of their peers.  She was devastated, humiliated, and demoralized. “He never knew how much he influenced all of us, and never understood how damaging his influence was.  And now he wonders why morale is so bad over there.”

If you supervise or manage even one or two co-workers, then you have been given a heavy responsibility, and the responsibility for the morale of this team sits squarely on your shoulders.  Here are three ways to develop positive feelings and improve the mood and morale of your staff.

1)    Catch people doing something right and bring it to their attention. It can be a spontaneous and verbal recognition of their effort, or you can do it through an annual awards banquet or a quarterly function that recognizes performance and achievement.  Either way, you can harness the power of social influence to shape the premises of what is accepted as strong performance.  If your organization has the ability, put these awards and stories in a newsletter or podcast format to distribute to employees. Interview or make recordings of these team members who have earned the recognition because of their performance speak for themselves, sharing what they did to receive the award.  This doubles as a training moment, and also inspires co-workers to stretch beyond their reach.

2)    Keep a positive and optimistic outlook.  Your mood is the thermostat of the team’s attitude, and everyone looks to you to see how you to gauge it. If you face a grave circumstance within your company, stay encouraging and offer hope with empathy to your colleagues and co-workers.  Hope always exists in everything.  It’s up to you to find that hope and share it with everyone else.

3)    Understand how much power your influence really carries.  An arrogant rolling of the eyes, a careless word, and a rude remark can point your team in the direction of apathy.  Each contact that you have with a member of your team will either add to or take away from the interdependent nature of your relationship.

The entire culture of your organization can be shaped and molded through the power of your influence that you wield as a leader.  Take care to influence it in a positive manner.

My son just joined the cub scouts.  Since I’m a second generation Eagle Scout, I’m proud of him and excited for him as he begins his journey of learning and adventure.

During his first cub scout meeting last week, I was surprised at how eagerly he jumped into the activities of the pack since he was new to the group.  It was a warm and welcoming group of boys, and the scoutmaster’s friendly presence made it an easy group to join.  What caught my son’s attention the most was the chance to earn badges for achievements, and that he could have them sewn on to his new blue uniform.

Grown-ups are the same way.  I’ll never forget seeing all the ‘hero bling’ of medals on the chest of the Vice Admiral who swore us in on my first day as a midshipman at Annapolis.  Maybe that will be me some day.  Maybe my peers will see what I’ve achieved and what I’ve accomplished.  Maybe I will grow in the esteem of my fellow man through this visible recognition of my accomplishments.  It motivated me and inspired me.

In your law firm environment, you may not be able to sew badges or pin medals on the suit of your associates, but you can still give them recognition.  Why is it so important?  According to Maslow, the need to be recognized is so high that he ranks it as one of our five fundamental human needs.  Not a want. But a need.  It has the same level of importance as food, clothing, water, and all the rest that fall on the pyramid of human needs.

Because it’s not as obvious, you need to be deliberate and intentional about doling out liberal doses of recognition to those who are under your charge.  And make it public.  Do it in front of their peers.  It doesn’t have to be formal.  Even a casual but enthusiastic ‘good job on your work product!’ when there are four other associates standing next to them gives you a tremendous amount of influence and leadership power.

Question: What’s the difference between a lawyer who can sell and one who can’t?

Answer: About five million a year.

Here’s my own definition of ’selling’ in a professional servcies environment, and this is from my experience as a former consultant and trainer on the topic of business development:

Sales is the process of uncovering prospect need and showing how your expertise can give them value. It’s the process of making decisions with which they will agree, and leading them forward in gaining mutual agreement that you can solve a problem which affects them on a personal and emotional level.

You don’t sell your services.  Instead, they are bought.  But sales is still a key part of communicating the value that you can bring to your prospects, and the best way to do this is to ask questions.  In the corporate world, the top performing sales representatives are the ones who pitch less and ask more.  By asking questions, they are like a physician trying to determine what the symptoms are so that way they can prescribe solutions.  Specifically, the questions you ask will lead you to uncover the very reason why your prospect will choose you.  They choose.  It’s all about them making the decision, not about you pitching.

The best way to explain this is to take the concept of SPIN selling developed by Neil Rackham.  First, ask questions about the SITUATION.  Then find out more about the PROBLEM.  Then ask questions about how that problem if unsolved will create more problems, in other words, what is the IMPLICATION if that problem is not solved.  Then finally, you can articulate your uniqueness, your value, and how you can solve your prospect’s NEED.