Leadership Development for Lawyers

Several legal marketers have been discussing leadership development on its list serve.  Here is my response to one member's question about starting a leadership development program in their firm:

Thank you for launching a discussion topic that is close to my heart.  I've been working with law and architectural firms for almost 20 years.  These professionals are smart, energetic, creative, insightful and mostly great people.  They come up with great ideas and aggressive plans.  Why, then, do so many practice groups, regional offices, and task forces struggle with getting things done?  Was is just that they are compensated and rewarded for billing hours?  Can it be that firms are really just lawyer-hotels with portable practices?  Why is that a few groups and offices grew smartly and rapidly, but other wobbled along, struggling to replace the associates or partners that have left?  Why does the conversation almost always go silent this time of year when firm leaders ask, "So, who should we choose as the next leader for XYZ practice group?"

My conclusion is that it comes down to leadership.  About 5% of lawyers in firm management have developed adequate leadership skills.  Their skills are often recognized and they serve in some sort of practice group, office or firm management role.  Unfortunately, we need more than 5% to grow the many practice, industry and client teams prevalent in large firms.   --more --

And, it's not just lawyers. As we discussed at the LMA Leadership Forum earlier this month, Marketing Directors and staff are often in the position to lead and implement change.  We are asked to lead, but often without the credibility or authority needed to shift a culture.  Why has CRM Software implementation been so hard to implement over the past ten years?  It goes against the cultural current and requires effective leadership to navigate these waters.  Most CMOs didn't have the authority or skills to 'lead from the middle", and we didn't have backing from firm leadership to make it top priority.  Client teams, client visits, client surveys....same story.   We need effective leadership not just within the lawyer ranks, but also among the C-level and Director level staff as well.

So, what does a firm do to grow good lawyers?  How can we create a pipeline of leaders within our groups, firm, and staff departments so the question becomes, "Whom among our top three emerging leaders is right for this challenge and time in our firm?" rather than having to choose between rainmakers (who would reduce their yield by focusing on leadership) or high billable partners (who would reduce their hours by focusing on leadership).

Once I heard an introduction of poet David Whyte that sounded something like this, "Our company is facing unprecedented change.  We are in uncharted waters.  We don't have the vocabulary, the language, to deal with our new reality.  We look to poetry and literature for new words and thoughts to help us navigate our way.'

Like the corporate world, I think law firms need a new leadership vocabulary.  Most law firm leaders learned management from those who came before them - and many of them were not the pinnacle of leadership.  Some firms have turned to institutions of leadership education for custom programs.  Harvard University and Wharton are both working with some of the country's largest law firms to provide executive management and leadership education.  The Center for Creative Leadership, who has a beautiful campus here in Colorado, is now working with the largest firm in the world to equip their top practice and office leaders.  While this is hardly a trend, firms are realizing that the lack of leadership is being felt in under-productive practice areas, higher turnover of partners and associates, and an obstacle to firm goals such as healthy growth, a diverse workforce and high job satisfaction.

My firm is about to launch an attorney leadership development program in January 2008. We spent years researching our options, and a committee of attorneys, professional development professionals and a marketing guy made a set of recommendations to our management committee.  Here are a few things I learned in the process:

1.  There is not an outcry from lawyers for leadership development.  Many partners already see themselves as either adequate leaders or they don't care.  Leadership education is best sold as a privilege and a 'fast track' to other benefits.   Leadership Development (LD) needs absolute buy-in from the Managing Partner and the Management Committee, including recognition that LD will take time away from admin and billable hour expectancies.

2.  While it is important that the Managing Partner and Managing Committee participate in LD, the real benefit is when front-line leaders like Practice Group and Office Leaders participate. Ideally, a firm should consider levels of LD, including LD for all associates, LD for emerging leaders, LD for front line leaders, LD for top level leaders and LD for staff directors. 

3.  LD starts and ends with self awareness, as Jayne mentioned.  The best programs include 360 evaluations for leaders that are skillfully and tactfully interpreted for lawyers.  Honest feedback is tough for all of us, especially lawyers and those that work for them.  You can't skip this element.  Many programs use Myers Briggs, Highlands Assessment, Emergentics, or other tools for self-awareness.

4.  I believe the LD is best delivered as a combination of group instruction/experience and one-on-one coaching.  As a graduate of two community leadership programs (Leadership Buffalo and Leadership Denver), I am a big fan of common group experience.  By creating a group experience in leadership development you are developing a common vocabulary, common expectations, common insights and energy of leadership in your firm.  Collectively the group establishes the "<your firm name here> Way of Leadership" that, if practiced, becomes conscious culture.  Subsequent LD classes build and expand on this vocabulary. 

5.  Coaching is critical too.  Everyone has their leadership frontier - the edge of their experience and challenge where they grow.  Insightful coaching helps the participant stay on this frontier and focus on specific activities and experiences to help her/him become a more effective leader.  A personal leadership plan is developed and worked on between coach and coachee. 

6.  While there are many companies, consulting groups and institutions that provide LD, few have in-depth experience with the strange and unusual breed of law firms.  Some have limited experience.  Some law firm consultants have limited LD experience. Few have both.  While I don't think that experience with law firms is a must, the LD provider needs to spend time to understand the unusual management and political structure in most law firms.  Any good LD provider should propose a 'get to know you' phase where they meet in-person with a wide swath of people in the firm before they create a LD curriculum.   Law firms that insist on years of experience training lawyers will be disappointed. 

7.  Our short-list of LD providers had three distinct organizations.  We interviewed faculty from the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL.ORG).  CCL is recognized as the premier leader in corporate executive leadership development.  They have operations worldwide and educate about 40,000 executives annually.  CCL's Leadership at the Peak program is a five-day program that focuses on self-awareness, assessment, challenge and support.  CCL has recently created a custom program for a very large international firm.   CCL proposed a four to five day, off-site program, followed by individual coaching for a period of several months.  You can learn more about them on their web site.

We also interviewed a local consulting group, NorthStone Consulting (northstonegroup.com).  NorthStone's founder has a Ph.D. in Leadership Development and founded the executive leadership development program at a local university.  He is currently the Chair of Leadership Studies at Northwestern University.  Adam Goodman and his partners presented a multi-month program with six to eight half day or full day workshop.  Each workshop would focus on a critical leadership element or skill.  We would work with them to determine which skills were most appropriate for our firm.  Coaching and personal leadership development plans would also be part of the 6 to 8 month program.

Finally, we met with Charles St. John of The Results Group (www.go2results.com).  Charles is one of the top-ranked trainers using the "Leadership Challenge" program, based on the book by the same name by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner (www.leadershipchallenge.com).  Leadership Challenge focuses on five elements:  1. Model the way, 2.  Inspire a Shared Vision, 3. Challenge the Process, 4.  Enable Others to Act and 5.  Encourage the Heart.  After reading the book (must read), I thought that this curriculum was a great match for law firms.   Charles' proposal was a mix of group classes, individual coaching and at least one group project focused on a real issue that they could tackle together over an eight month period.

I won't tell you whom we chose at this point, but I will say that each group had a sound process, good content and great faculty.  Our selection was based as much on chemistry with the faculty as on any other criteria (process, cost, experience, curriculum, etc.).   The process was very conversational and I believe each group created a custom solution for our firm.  One of the more interesting proposals was that we create several programs for different audiences.  We will have some sort of leadership education next year for associates, staff directors, practice group leaders along with an intensive, 8-month course for emerging, front-line leaders.

There were also many excellent coaches and trainers that we considered, but we did not interview.  I wish we could have hired several groups, but resources are limited.

Six years ago when I started thinking about leadership development programs for lawyers, the managing partners, consultants and fellow marketers looked at me, smirked, and usually said, "Great idea, but lawyers aren't ready for LD.  They know there is room for improvement, but the pain is not there to effect change.  Hard sell.  Good luck."   While I don't think LD in law firms has reached the tipping point, I do think that firms like DLA, Reed Smith, Nixon Peabody, Baker McKenzie and my firm, Holland & Hart, are seriously investing in LD on an annual basis.  Other Amlaw 200 firms will follow as they realize that issues like associate satisfaction and turnover, partner mobility, increased pressure for increased hours and rates, and even staff-level turnover greatly impact their ability to compete effectively, and that the answer is not in escalating compensation, but in creating a better place to work through effective leadership.

Perhaps your firm is not quite ready for a full-blown front-line emerging leadership development program.  May I make a suggestion?  The Center for Creative Leadership offers an open enrollment executive program called Leadership at Peak.  The program is offered at all of their campuses.  We've had many of our managing partners and management committee chairs, as well as a few other leaders participate in this week-long program.  It is challenging and intense, but everyone I know who has participated in it has come out with a much higher level of self-awareness, focus, and ability to lead a team.   I know of one firm that sends Director-level (including CMO) management to CCL as a bonus for a successful year.    I think all CMOs and marketing directors should have a chance to participate in a CCL program too.  Ask about this at your next review/contract negotiation.  Another alternative would be to engage Robert Fortunato as a leadership coach, for either you or one of your front-line leaders. 

If you or one of your leaders is in interested in CCL, drop me a note and I'll introduce you to some of the folks that are working primarily with law firms.

Finally, it's been a while since I've updated it, but I blog on this topic at www.leadershipforlawyers.typepad.com.  There you will find some other resources about how lawyers can become better leaders.

"The thing I like about leadership is that it is an on-going process.  You can always learn more about how to be a better leader." -  John Ryan, former Chancellor of the State University of New York, Admiral - US Navy (retired), and President and CEO of CCL.

Comments

[Executive Coaching Services]

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