Hiring & Empowering Solutions

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Podcast: Hiring & Empowering Solutions Talks to Paula Freidland About Discovering the Inner Talents of Your Team

Today’s LIFE ALTERING episode on Hiring & Empowering Solutions, spotlights “Truth Teller” Paula Friedland who is making a huge impact in the lives (and businesses) of impact-makers across the country. Whether Paula’s coaching clients one on one, leading Soul Speaks circles, delivering Leadership keynote speeches, her unique and interactive methods will deliver results that your group will be talking about (and utilizing) for years.

Listen Now!

In this episode you’ll learn:

  1. How business owners can motivate their individuals who want to discover their inner talents, how to help your team “discover their inner talents”
  2. How to use the “relational presenting” technique–how to be present and speak from a deep place of truth.
  3. How to get a new employee coming in and starting out on their journey of supporting an entrepreneur—how to get present and begin speaking from a deep place of truth in an honest while respectful manner
  4. How employees who have so much welling up inside of them…they have ideas, they see where the “boss” is causing troubles (unconsciously) in the business and how a few 2 mm shifts can get them out of pain and overwhelm.. and learn how to Express yourself more fully and authentically

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Introducing Hiring & Empowering Solutions: The Podcast

I am beyond excited to finally share a project I’ve been working on for the past few months—a project that is very near and dear to my heart…and soul…

Hiring and Empowering Solutions: The Podcast 

After the grueling process of becoming an Amazon #1 Best Seller on their coveted Movers & Shakers list, I had this nagging feeling that there HAS to be a faster way to create consistent momentum. An immediate “2 millimeter in-the-moment booster shot” to keep our tribe on a forward-moving path, in real time.

Launching this podcast is a dream I’ve had for years! This weekly podcast is not only a place to talk about all of the business things—hiring, employees, bosses, leadership, marketing and revenue—but also a place to talk about the ever-present human aspects that impact your results. Stuff like energy, spirituality, relationships, family, health and freedom. Undeniably, there is a growing awareness of the importance of personal character and energetic measurement when studying organizational behavior….and through this podcast we are bringing that awareness to light!

Over the past few weeks I’ve been busy interviewing some of the most inspiring employees, trail-blazing attorneys, and national difference-makers in the personal development arena! I am ecstatic that today, finally, I can begin sharing some of it with you!

The first 4 episodes of the podcast are live right now!

Episode 1: How to Give Your Employees Permission to Fully Step Into Becoming an Intraprenuer
Take a deep dive into what it takes to support a start-up and grow it into a million dollar law firm…in just 16 months. Our spotlight guest, trailblazer COO Meredith Glendening of The Sechler Law Firm.

Episode 2: How to Stop Tolerating Underperforming Employees
Don’t be held hostage by a lack of emotional intelligence. Instead, begin to build a business model and team on your terms, with unapologetic, unrelenting standards. Featuring powerhouse “TheTrademarkGirl.Rocks” national trademark attorney, Kelley Keller, founder of The Keller Law Firm.

Episode 3: How to Get your Employees to Step Up and Lead
Based on our #1 Amazon Movers & Shakers Best-Selling book about how to hire future employees who are full of possibilities and opportunities. We discuss the need for employee empowerment in order to finally, once-and-for-all stop the revolving door of employees coming and going from your firm.

Episode 4: Mind Blowing Spotlights
Featuring my first personal development coach, the unshakable, unstoppable George Carroll of GC Training and Events, this episode delves into the process of uncovering, embodying, connecting and beginning to share your “Purpose Story” in a way that increases connection, engagement and—ultimately—enrollment with your clients, community and power partners.

Go ahead and subscribe already! And download these episodes now! ?

hiring and empowering solutions podcast

And after you’ve subscribed to our podcast, don’t forget to sign-up to receive our weekly blog, filled revolutionary techniques and tools for creating a future of possibilities, opportunities and empowerment to keep your law firm learning, evolving, and growing…from the frontline, up.

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Getting Out of the Decision-Making Vacuum and 3 Ways to Make it Happen

employee engagementTrust us…we get it. It’s easy to pull the trigger and make decisions from the comfort of your own leadership vacuum. After all, you know your firm better than anyone, which means you know better than anyone what your firm needs to grow progressively and sustainably…right?

Maybe so. But there is another group of people who are huge stakeholders in the success of your firm—your team. And they also have a pretty good idea about what your firm might need. And they’ve got ideas—great ideas, in fact—that you won’t be able to hear from the confines of your vacuum.

A recent study of over 100,000 U.S. businesses confirms that there is a direct correlation between how involved employees are in corporate decision-making processes and their level of overall morale, motivation and job satisfaction.

Simply stated, keeping employees engaged and empowered results in more satisfied, “go-getter” type employees who can really step up and make a difference at your firm. The benefits of involving your team in decision-making processes include:

• Improved levels of effort and commitment. Being involved in making decisions for your firm makes employees feel valuable, and when they feel valuable, they’ll take more ownership of your firm’s performance.

• Better day-to-day decision-making. Understanding how decisions are being made at an executive level will help them make better decisions at a departmental or individual level. They’ll be better equipped to align their decisions with the direct of your firm.

• Stronger bonds of responsibility. When an employee has his or her say in making a decision, the outcome of that decision—in one way or another—reflects back on them. Employees do NOT want a negative outcome landing on their shoulders. The responsibility that comes with decision-making will keep team members at the top of their games.

• It takes the heat off of YOU! When you make a bad decision, it’s easy for employees to place 100% of the blame on you. However, when team members take an active role in the decision-making process, bad decisions will compel them to analyze what went wrong and make better decisions in the future.

• Employee morale and motivation will skyrocket. If employees have the authority to make decisions, or at least be an active part of the decision-making process, they’ll feel like they make a difference, which is directly related to their levels of motivation and overall job satisfaction.

• It frees up YOUR time to focus on future-oriented initiatives. Empowering your employees to make business decisions eliminates the need to micromanage. If you trust that your employees are capable of making good decisions about various aspects of your firm’s operations and systems, then you can take on those higher-level initiatives you just haven’t been able to find the time for…

Convincing law firm leaders to get their firm’s employees more involved in decision-making processes shouldn’t be that hard of a sell—the benefits are powerful, as you can clearly see. However, the actual process of stepping out of your leadership vacuum and into a more collaborative role isn’t always easy. Ease into the transition by implementing these three tactics:

1. Assemble committees of action teams to brainstorm solutions for specific problems.

2. Send out a survey and allow employees to vote on decisions that could impact the firm as a whole.

3. Make sure there are clear channels through which employees can provide feedback to managers and leaders. Informal face-to-face interactions (i.e. water cooler chats), or even a suggestion box will do the trick.

Law firm leadership development programs, like our Team Empowerment Academy, can add another dimension to your efforts to get your team members more involved in making decisions for your firm. Our Team Empowerment Academy equips law firm leaders and their teams with the tools and techniques they need to take tasks off their attorney’s plates and make decisions that benefit their firms. After just 8-weeks, your firm can expect real, measurable results. Your people are your greatest asset, and our program helps them become more resourceful, more efficient and more profitable.

Ready to Start Engaging Your Employees?

Send an email to [email protected] about the challenges you’re facing at your firm, and we’ll contact you to schedule a free discovery session to brainstorm solutions. Not quite ready to chat? Take advantage of the offer to download our best-selling book, Intrapreneurs in an Entrepreneur’s World: How to Empower Your Employees to Step Up and Lead…completely free!

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Ready to Turn Your People into Profit?

customized team coaching and leadership developmentEvery member of your team is different…so, why are you using the same “canned” program to coach & develop them?

Employees care—deeply—about career growth and development opportunities. A recent Gallup poll reported that almost 90% of employees valued the opportunity to be coached and developed…but only 40% feel that they are consistently learning new tools and techniques at work.

Strong leaders know how important it is to develop their team members. They know it’s not just to improve employee engagement and retention, but also to benefit their firm or business’s bottom line. At the end of the day, effective leaders develop effective leaders. When team members are educated and empowered to step up and lead, it makes a real, measurable difference.

But you already knew that.

Did you know, though, that another thing strong leaders do is customize their team coaching and development approach based on the needs of each individual team member? In our 20+ years of experience training and developing law firm leaders and their teams, the firms that truly excel are those where each employee is coached based on their unique strengths and weaknesses. We do this in our Team Empowerment Academy. We assess each member of the team using the Kolbe employee assessment, and then determine the best way to assist each team member in developing new skills, all the way down to which skills they need to develop to become a more well-rounded employee, capable of making a big impact at their organization.

But strong leaders should be going above and beyond what we offer, taking the extra step in personalizing their approach so that it’s aligned with the characteristics of their various team members. And here are 5 ways they can do that.

1. Create a personality spreadsheet. Create a column for each employee, and make note of such information as: KOLBE, Strengthfinder 2.0, Enneagram, what you believe their full potential is; any feedback they give you about your management style; how he or she prefers to work; what their motivators are—money, time, public recognition, etc.; ways in which you believe you could advance his or her career; their goals; or any feedback you’d like to give them about their performance.

2. Actually USE your spreadsheet. Allot 15 minutes at the end of each week to reference and update your spreadsheet. If you have trouble remembering the interactions you’ve had with each team member over the course of the week, consider keeping track in a notebook.

3. Analyze your spreadsheet every month. As the leader of your firm or business, time goes by fast. And employees typically don’t speak up. Take time at the end of each month, over a cup of coffee, during your planning time to check in on where you are at with your people and performance. Invest in the dedicated time to assess your spreadsheet in order to determine which employees are steadily developing, which may need some additional direction or coaching, and what you can do to accelerate their performance.

4. Make time for informal “feedback sessions” with your team members. As you manage your spreadsheet and start to see patterns unfold, make sure you find the time for quick, informal, impromptu conversations with each employee. Show that you see what they’re doing and that you know what success looks like to them. These conversations will become a cornerstone of the way you work with each team member. Trust me, they mean a lot to your employees!

5. Use your spreadsheet during formal evaluations. If you’re making time to regularly touch base with your team members, then your “formal evaluations” will be less of a dreaded conversation where employees demand more money and you have to tell them why they’re not worth that much money and everyone walks away feeling misunderstood, underappreciated, and frustrated. Your spreadsheet can help guide your evaluation conversation by reminding you of the nuances that make your employees so great, as well as where they have room for improvement.

With Q1 nearing its close, now is the ideal time to evaluate your team, turn your people into profit, and intentionally invest the time to customize your firm’s approach to employee training and leadership development. And we can help with that—when you’re a member of our team, your time investment in all of this will feel much less overwhelming. Your people are your most important assets…and they can also be your most profitable assets, when properly coached and developed. Don’t let “but I don’t have time” stand in the way of developing your firm’s most important assets. Invest in your law firm. Create a firm where employee love to work, clients are delighted to hire you, and referrals send consistent business your way.

Contact Us to Learn More

Let us know how we can help bring your firm to the next, more profitable level. Use the brief form below to tell us about your challenges, and we’ll contact you to brainstorm potential solutions.

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Crushing Chaos in Law Firms: How to Create Systems that Make Your Law Firm Run Smoothly

Guest Blogger: Allison C. Williams, Esq.

creating effective law firm systemsA few months ago, one of our 66-Day Law Firm Turnaround clients mentioned that she was working with a “systems coach.” Our immediate response was…TELL US MORE!! We’ve been looking for a systems coach to partner with!! After conducting a power partner meeting with Allison Williams of Law Firm Mentor, I knew immediately that she has created a unique model that many of the law firms we’ve worked with over the past 22 years have a huge need for.

It’s rare that we have guest bloggers here, but when Allison and I got to chatting about her company’s systems and her own personal story, we had to have her write a blog—it’s just so in alignment with what we have been shouting from the mountaintops for years. And be sure to read to the bottom…Allison will be hosting Hiring and Empowering Solutions as her guest this coming Wednesday (February 20, 2019) on the Law Firm Mentor Movement Facebook LIVE. We’ll be talking about how to transform your law firm employees into leaders!

So here’s why we are so inspired by Allison and her journey…

When I started my law firm in 2013, I thought I had things all figured out. I crafted a plan using my trusty spreadsheet, gave my notice, rented my office space, and together—with 43 of my then 48 clients—I struck out on my own (with a partner). My secretary was coming with me, so I figured we’d be fine.

Then, “reality” hit the fan. My partner was a nice guy—but a nice guy who had greatly discrepant goals than I did. So, that ended quickly. My secretary, who could barely keep up with me as a super-billing associate, became terrified of what would await her as the lead (and only) assistant to me in the role of chief cook and bottle washer. So, she backed out the week before I left my employment, leaving me staff-less when I started my firm.

As a new solo, I had to run 43 files, take in new files, learn how to manage a trust account, order supplies, clean the kitchen, lease equipment, and—my personal favorite—be my own secretary while running to 16 different courts in my state-wide practice…all while trying to hire my next secretary. I had tens of thousands of dollars coming through my hands daily, and the fear of where it should be spent crippled me into living like a pauper, despite having plenty of money in the bank.

One night, I fell asleep driving 90 miles per hour on my way home, at the end of yet another 90-hour work week. And that was when I realized it. I was either going to kill the chaos in my business or, quite literally, it was going to kill me.

That’s where creating systems to make your law firm run smoothly comes in.

A system is an organized or established procedure, or a regularly interacting or interdependent group of items forming a unified whole. Quite simply, it’s a way of doing things that maximizes efficiency, reduces redundancy, and eliminates the need for conscious thought to be summoned for routine tasks, preserving that energy for the higher-order activities that clients actually pay us to provide (such as strategic management, complex negotiation, and multi-layered litigation processes). When people in business follow a system, the office runs smoothly, since crisis intervention is reserved for clients rather than office functioning.

What requires a system? In a nutshell, EVERYTHING requires a system! From how we answer the phones, to how we interface with new clients seeking consultations, to how we close client matters, to how we manage our trust accounts. Even the most mundane, routine activity (like opening and dispensing mail) needs a system.

Generally speaking, law firm owners should consider creating systems for each of the major functions in your law business, including Sales, Marketing, Intake, Communications, People (both employees and vendors), Work Flow (the legal work), Facilities and Money Matters.

Creating systems in law firms is not sexy. It’s not the “stuff” most business owners crave, but it will absolutely and dramatically improve the quality of the law firm and the life of the owner…when executed properly. And, the good news is, if the systems are in a constant state of flux, that means the law firm is growing and evolving steadily.

We couldn’t agree more with Allison and her systemic approach. Join Allison and I this coming Wednesday, February 20, 2019 on the Law Firm Mentor Movement Facebook LIVE. We will be talking about TRANSFORMING YOUR LAW FIRM’S EMPLOYEES INTO LEADERS!

Join us on Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Join Allison and I as we dive into a great conversation about law firm leadership and team development on Wednesday, February 20, 2019, at 12:30pm EST.