Hiring & Empowering Solutions

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The Top 3 Bad Attitude Mistakes Not to Make if You Want Your Team Members to Work As Hard As You Do…

bad attitude hurting businessBosses, your attitude could be harming your business.

We know, who do we think we are? This statement is harsh. Remember, we’re “bosses” too…we don’t like hearing it any more than you do.

But, as business consultants and staffing experts, our commitment is to create impact, income, freedom and—dare we say—joy and ease for your business. Even when it means being a mirror and reflecting back to you some things you are doing to self-destruct your business. And creating those things all starts with your attitude.

Last week we were facilitating a 60-Day Employee Evaluation Onboarding call for a new attorney hire. The attorney owner was exhausted, frustrated, stressed, and overwhelmed with a large caseload, training a new employee, finding out another associate attorney on her team didn’t pass the bar, and well…just “business owner stuff” in general. The attorney dialed in to the call hot and heavy. All we had to do was ask, “How’s it going?” She didn’t skip a beat. “I feel like I am fighting alligators all day long and nobody in my office knows how to do their job.” Did we mention that the new associate and law firm manager were present? Mic drop. And then she said, “And you didn’t do your job either, sending me this attorney who doesn’t have the skillset or knowledge to do the job.” Again, did we mentioned the brand new hire attorney was sitting in the room? And it took us four months to find this superstar. If she walks out, the owner attorney is really going to know the truest definition of stress.

My response, “Excuse me?”

Attorney response, “Did I stutter?”

Now that she “felt better” because she blew off steam and was able to verbally vomit all of her stress and frustration, she was ready to talk about what was working.

Listen up: unless you’re trying to cause a mass exodus, don’t ever, EVER treat your employees like this. Bosses, your attitude is harming your business! Tony Robbins says, “An attitude of gratitude is where money and opportunity flows.” When your feeling like you need to explode (and trust us, we get it!) find a coach, a therapist, a spouse, a close friend…SOMEONE to unleash your stresses to prior to walking into your office when your hair is on fire. Don’t even walk into the office when you’re feeling this way—go find neutral ground and get it out of your system. Especially when there are new hires in the building, you’re still trying to enroll them in why your place of business was the best investment in their future they have made.

We know this isn’t how 90% of the attorneys we work closely with operate. But you may have an associate with this mentality— share your expectations and standards with them. Too often we get calls: the attorney owner is amazing but they are locked in a conference room all day; the managing associate(s) who we spend all day with are another story…

Here are the top 3 bad attitude mistakes NOT to make if you want your team members to work as hard as you do day in and day out:

1. Constantly telling everyone how many hours you worked, what time you got up, how you didn’t sleep, didn’t get to pee yesterday, what you have to do before lunch, and how you are never going to make it home tonight. We cannot tell you how many entrepreneurs do this. Obsessively. This is the most disempowering and de-enrolling, backfiring strategy we have witnessed. This is how your team interprets these complaints: keep busy and don’t offer to take anything additional on because we don’t want to end up negative, stressed, and burnt out like our boss.

2. Don’t verbally abuse your team. EVER. It only takes one bad day to break the trust you’ve built with your team members…and it’s next to impossible to regain it. Your employees don’t care who you are. They don’t care what title you hold. They don’t care how long (or short) you’ve been doing what you’ve been doing. They don’t care how respected you are in your industry. Employees simply won’t tolerate being verbally abused by a frustrated, exhausted boss. This is not the 1990s patriarchal tyrant manager era any more. Employees will not hesitate to give up every perk under the sun for respect and appreciation.

3. Don’t ignore your employees. Throughout the recruiting and hiring processes, when we ask potential new hires why they are looking to leave their companies, the one thing we hear over and over again is this: “we only hear from the boss when things are bad. I love the mission of the company, my co-workers, our clients, and everything we stand for. If only we could hear about what we are doing right, receive consistent feedback, support, and coaching on how to improve and grow. I can’t describe it, there is an energy in the office that feels like we are rearranging chairs on the deck of the Titanic all day.”

If you’re not showing up as a nice person, people won’t work for you. Sorry, but it’s the truth. If you’re ship is sinking, maybe it’s time to admit that your attitude might be to blame.

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Hold Your Team Members Accountable…to Each Other

micromanagement and accountabilityIf you are micromanaging your employees, please stop! Now. It is literally debilitating to your law firm or business. Micromanagement prevents your business from evolving with the times. It thwarts innovation. It pushes strong team members out the door, hinders workflow, disempowers staff, closes communication channels, and turns “teamwork” into a four letter word.

Shall we continue?

Micromanagement could be the biggest nail in your firm or business’s coffin. Do you find it difficult to delegate responsibility to team members, taking an if-you-want-something-done-right-you-gotta-do-it-yourself approach instead? Do you have high employee turnover, or do you get the feeling that your team members are walking on eggshells around you? Are you the only person at your business responsible for making decisions? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, well, we’re sorry to say it, but…you might be a micromanager.

But there is hope! Many a micromanager has been able to turn their leadership technique around and create a workplace environment rich with empowerment. Here’s how:

1. Hire the right people. The #1 reason why leaders micromanage is because they don’t trust their team members. Hiring quality people who you truly believe are capable of delivering the caliber of work you expect will reduce the need to micromanage them. One of the best pieces of advice we were ever given was this: hire people who are better than you. Put your ego aside and think about that for a minute. Hiring people who are better than you only stands to benefit your firm in the long run.

2. Hold your team members accountable…to each other. Nothing ensures quality control more so than peer pressure. Allowing your staff to provide anonymous feedback about the performance of other team members and departments will create a sense of ownership, and can help you implement systems that keep your team satisfied and productive.

3. Be clear about what you expect. If your staff doesn’t know what you expect, then how can they work towards it? So many times we see micromanagement emerge as a response to poorly communicated expectations. Be clear, give your team specific benchmarks and objectives, and eliminate the need to micromanage them!

4. Empower your employees. Providing your team members with the freedom to engage—meaningfully—in decision-making processes will help them “own their role” at your firm. They’ll be willing to go above and beyond because they know you won’t be sweeping up behind them, changing everything that they’ve done. They’ll be excited about their job, and will take the success (or failure) of your business personally.

5. Recognize your own bad behavior. So the saying goes, the first step is admitting. Once you recognize your own micromanaging tendencies, you can begin to change them. Working with a management consultant or executive coach can be a huge help for those with the tendency to micromanage.

No matter how you look at it, micromanagement is a huge problem that needs to be stopped before it destroys your firm. You want—no, you need—empowered employees who aren’t afraid to step up and lead. Forget about the robots who need to be told what to do, and how to do it. Hire cream-of-the crop-employees, empower them, and you’ll find there is no need to micromanage anything (or anyone) anymore.

Schedule a FREE Discovery Session

Is your firm or business struggling with micromanagement? Are you confident that you have hired amazing people? Are you confident that you have communicated your process for holding your team accountable…to each other? Maybe it’s time to hire your next (or first) superstar hire and empower them to take ownership of your business. Hiring & Empowering Solutions specializes in legal staffing, and offers the only Team Empowerment Academy (TM) in the country. Schedule a 30-minute discovery session with our co-founder, Molly Hall, today. Find out how we can support the evolution of your firm, and ensure its viability today and tomorrow.

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Employee Empowerment, Leadership Development & Other Telltale Signs of an Innovative Law Firm

employee empowerment leadership developmentInnovation and lawyering don’t always go hand-in-hand. However, any business growth guru (us included) will tell you that any business, in any industry, needs innovation to thrive. It’s through innovation that businesses gain and maintain a competitive edge, and law firms are not an exception to this rule.

In the legal sector, innovation ultimately enables firms to deliver better quality client services, more efficiently. It keeps law firms relevant in the rapidly-changing legal services landscape. Today, clients don’t just appreciate innovation—they demand it. So let’s give the people what they want! Here are five elements to help you create a culture of innovation at your firm:

1. Empowerment, empowerment, empowerment: We love employee empowerment. We love employee empowerment so much, in fact, that it’s part of our company name. When it comes to driving innovation, there is no faster way to stomp out the sparks of ingenuity than by failing to empower your people. Firms spend thousands of dollars finding, recruiting and hiring top legal talent—don’t waste your investment by telling these highly qualified people where to go and how to get there.

employee empowerment leadership development

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Empower your employees to follow their intuition and lead your firm to success—download our free e-Book, Intrapreneurs in an Entreprenur’s World: How to Empower Your Employees to Step Up and Lead and take the first step towards creating a future of innovation at your firm.

 

2. Acknowledge hard truths: Not every innovative idea is going to be a success—and if they were, how would you learn and grow? Failure is not the problem; failing to recognize when a project or initiative is dead in the water…is. Cut your losses, stop hemorrhaging resources, analyze why the project failed and what your team has learned as a result, and move on to the next innovative idea.

3. Foster a sense of community: Often times, innovation leads to change—and that is a scary prospect to many employees and leaders alike. However, when your team takes a collaborative approach to brainstorming or problem solving, the feeling that they are all in it together can overcome the fear of impending change and propel your firm towards game-changing innovation.

4. Set challenging goals: Simply stated, challenging goals push employees to perform at extraordinary levels. Challenging goals force innovation. Any firm can set goals that are realistic and easily-achievable. Truly innovative firms, however, will push their people into that sweet spot where a difficult objective results in the development of nontraditional solutions to traditional challenges.

5. Invest in leadership development: Without great leaders, innovation is sure to stall out. The leader(s) at your firm must be passionate about and capable of empowering employees. They must be able to humbly and graciously accept failure. They must be able to bring a team together, and set aggressive goals for them to reach. Do you trust your leaders to make decisions in the ambiguous situations that innovation will most likely create? Do your leaders have what it takes to make spur-of-the-moment choices, without much data to support those choices? Our Team Empowerment Academy is a virtual training and development program designed to equip leaders and employees with the tools and techniques they need to bring their careers and your firm to the next level—learn more about this one-of-a-kind program here.

If you think your law firm is exempt from the need to innovate, think again. Innovation is a requirement in today’s ever-changing legal environment, and your firm’s ability to gain competitive advantage and remain relevant absolutely depends on it.

Contact Hiring & Empowering Solutions

Hiring & Empowering Solutions offers recruiting and staffing services for small law firms and businesses. In addition to legal staffing solutions, we also offer employee empowerment, training and development programs designed to induce innovative thinking and, ultimately, improve your ability to deliver client services in a highly effective, highly efficient way. To learn more about how we can support your small law firm or business, contact us today.

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Employee Development Plans and Why All Small Firm Lawyers Deserve One

employee development planOver the years, we’ve connected a lot of amazing lawyers and legal support staff with a lot of amazing boutique law firms. But, over the years, we’ve also seen these amazing law firms make a big mistake: implementing employee training and development programs that focus on short-term success rather than long-term viability.

Don’t do that, okay?!?!

We’re all about instant gratification when it comes to signing that new client contract. Or repainting your conference room walls. But when it comes to legal staffing and talent management—trust us—it’s better to channel your inner zen and have patience with the employee training and development process. The long-term growth and profitability of your law firm depends on it and here’s why:

Your people are your greatest asset, and when they are properly developed and trained, they are able to cost-effectively provide excellent service to your clients—all with a results-driven attitude. This gives your your law firm a competitive edge and enables it to compete, even against big-name firms.

So, what does an effective employee development plan look like? Here are five training and development tips to implement at your law firm now:

1. Personalize an employee development plan for each member of your team.

Match each lawyer’s professional development goals with your firm’s long-term business strategy—this will ensure the development of a mutually beneficial plan that keeps your lawyers engaged while simultaneously working to reach your firm’s goals. Set benchmarks, along with action steps and desired timeframes, so yours lawyers can measure their own progress. Make sure you empower your lawyers and legal support staff with the tools they need to reach their goals, and thus, reach the goals of the firm.

2. Expand your employee training program.

This is especially important for newer lawyers, to help bridge the gap between law school and the real world. However, no matter how much experience an employee has, training them on a broad range of tools and techniques only serves to keep them more engaged while growing your firm.

Clients love our Team Empowerment Academy, which includes weekly virtual masterclasses on a variety of topics, plus over 200 additional tools and techniques to help expand your team’s skill set and empower them with whatever they need to grow their career…and your firm.

3. Rethink mentoring.

Strategically pair your legal support staff and lawyers with team members who can help guide them to the next level. This will not only equip your employees with the skills they need to provide high quality, cost-effective legal services, but will also help them gain an understanding of the underlying culture of the firm. Knowing how the firm works—from the front end and the back—will help your employees progress faster and work in a way that is cohesive with the rest of your firm.

4. Don’t forget about the soft skills…

Teamwork and collaboration. Leadership training. Communication. Time management. Business development. These are the skills that can turn a good employee into a great one! Clients depend on these value-added qualities, especially in a day and age where competition between boutique firms is higher than ever.

Have we mentioned our Team Empowerment Academy. Because teaching these soft skills is just another benefit of our amazing employee training and development program…

5. Retain your legal talent.

Retaining your talent will, ultimately, be a byproduct of properly training and developing them. But if you don’t properly motivate and empower your legal team, well, you’ll lose them. And turnover is not only expensive, but oftentimes also results in dissatisfied clients.

Do yourself and your firm a favor and focus on long-term employee development plans that serve to benefit your people as individuals and your firm as a whole. With the proper training and development program in place, your employees will be empowered to step up and lead your firm towards a successful future.

Contact Hiring & Empowering Solutions

Interested in learning more about our Team Empowerment Academy or our staffing solutions for the legal industry? We’re always happy to touch base about the services we offer and how we can help save your firm time and money. Complete the brief form below and one of our management consultants will get in touch shortly.