Avoiding Law Office Management Chaos

Avoiding Law Office Management Chaos

Many law office boards and principals promote a person from their team to department lead or manager, thinking that because they are good at what they do, they will also be a good department lead or manager. The question is, “What management training are you providing to ensure success?” In most cases, the law office does not offer structured management training for new managers or leads. This is a big void in most law offices. Is it in yours? How skilled are your managers and leads? Have they gone through management training? If not, read the following law office management essentials. It provides key training topics a new manager or lead should learn and master.

1. Defining the Manager's Role

You promoted someone to law office manager or department lead. Now what? The first step is to define their role. What are their new responsibilities, how will you measure their efforts, and what are their goals? You must give a concise position description so there is clarity and understanding of responsibilities and performance expectations.

2. Establishing a Solid Law office Management Foundation

Now it’s their turn to start managing. They need to establish a solid foundation. Create their department mission, vision, values, goals, and structure. They need to have a success plan and begin developing the team. If your law office has department manuals, great! If not, you should have them as they are great training tools to help managers develop their teams and produce the results you seek.

3. Team Management & Communication

Management starts by getting to know the team and how to best communicate with each member. The new manager must conduct a team SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis and discover who is on the team. Are they A, B, or C players? A manager is responsible for the team’s performance. To ensure their success, the manager must know the ins and outs of how to help each team member excel. In addition, the manager must establish communication methods while realizing the importance of documenting events to keep the practice safe and out of legal trouble.

4. Conducting Productive Team Meetings

Conducting productive team meetings is no small task. It takes preparation, planning the agenda, opening and closing strategies, clear message delivery, and motivation to positively influence the law office team to take action. The new manager must discover the dos and don'ts of how to conduct a productive team meeting. If meetings are not well-planned, the manager will lose respect and trust. No one will want to attend future meetings.

5. Coaching the Team

Coaching is a big part of being a law office manager and one of the most difficult things to learn. Becoming a great coach requires a lot of education, practice, skill, and experience. The coach must prepare for coaching sessions and be ready for obstacles that could potentially surface during the session. We teach the ICARE coaching model to help you build a high performance team.

6. Team Training

Training is everything! A manager must have a training curriculum for technical skills within the law office. This is missing from most law offices. In many law offices, training consists of conduct training about interaction with clients and prospects. Training must extend far beyond that. Becoming a great trainer takes skill, practice, and confidence.

7. Building a High Performance Law Office Team

To build a high performance law office team, a manager must learn how to recruit, interview, and hire the right people. Positioning new hires for success means doing a proper new hire orientation and training new hires how to succeed as a member of your team.

8. Managing Law Office Team Communication

Law office managers are sometimes in a position where they must have difficult conversations with an employee. These types of conversations must be handled carefully with the right tone, message, and body language. Managing conflict and drama, dealing with negative attitudes, managing gossip, and reprimanding unacceptable behavior are not easy tasks. They all require training.

9. Motivating the Team

It’s the manager’s responsibility to ensure the team is focused, motivated, and producing positive results. The manager must know how to give constructive suggestions, offer empowering opportunities, and be a positive force. A great manager is one who provides frequent feedback while challenging the team to stretch, achieve, and excel.

10. Successful Law Office Management Habits

Developing healthy practice habits is a must for all managers. Some of those healthy habits should include conducting monthly performance reviews, coaching and mentoring the team, conducting positive meetings, while continually reaching or exceeding performance and guest satisfaction targets.

11. Understanding Law Office Finances

To continue a manager’s growth, it is important to teach finance. A manager should oversee the department’s budget, minimize expenses and team compensation expenses, while tapping into new revenue streams to maximize capacity and profits.

Imagine having a manager who is educated and performs all 11 law office management essentials! How much more successful would your law office be?

Visit www.JDpreneur.com and discover Law Office Management Essential tools and other resources to help you build your practice!

Lisa Haster is an Attorney, 2X Author, Trusted Marketing Advisor, Host to the Podcast "I'll See You at the Bar" and Founder of JDpreneur Marketing. Lisa works with lawyers to show you the NEW way of marketing your law practice by attracting more clients, increasing revenue to your firm and creating notoriety without expensive advertising. To apply for a complimentary “Ultimate B.A.R. Breakthrough Strategy Session" email Lisa at [email protected] or for additional FREE marketing training, visit her Blog at www.JDpreneur.com and subscribe to her podcast "I'll See You at the Bar".