HOW TO RAISE HARDY PERENNIALS

Take a green-fingered approach to nurturing

your next generation of talent

Ask yourself a question: even if you knew nothing about gardening, would you push a tender young seedling into an exposed patch of mud in the midst of well-established plants which greedily devour all available nutrients and moisture, then abandon it to the elements, and still expect it to thrive?

Probably not. So why is it then that in the average law firm, young solicitors are handed the 'prize' of partnership, told the future of the firm rests with them, and are then left alone to flounder or flourish, with scant business training, sporadic encouragement, and very little real support?

For most firms, both the future well-being of the existing partners and the potential of the firm as a whole lies with it's younger members. They need to do well if the firm is to prosper and grow, or at least maintain whatever level of success it has so far achieved. In marketing speak, the next generation represents the firm's 'new product development', and as such, requires significant investment.

Until the stage where partnership is imminent, many lawyers spend their working life focusing almost solely on fee-earning work, with their performance judged largely on hours recorded. Often, the only experience they have of 'business' and 'marketing' is what they have picked up from senior colleagues, or deduced from client matters and meetings.

Marketing in law firms is all about ensuring that every aspect of what the firm offers is designed to meet client needs. Partners have a crucial role to play. New business development rightly rests with them, and necessarily, they must take a leading role in managing relationships with existing clients.

Partners must also lead and manage those beneath them to deliver their best and work cohesively towards achieving the firm's overall goals and vision. Furthermore they are crucial players in shaping and developing that vision and must communicate effectively with their colleagues and the rest of the firm so that everyone is clear bout what they need to do, how well they are performing, and what needs to change in order to achieve more.

Delivering all this can present a daunting challenge for new or prospective partners and simply assuming they will model themselves on those who are already in post and pick up skills by osmosis is not an adequate solution.

For a start, the performance of some long-standing partners often falls far short of the ideal, and certainly doesn't need perpetuating in others. Even when partners are well-intentioned towards newcomers and intend to 'teach' them, time is short, work and clients get in the way and their feeling is, "Well, I was left to my own devices and survived, so they will too."

This attitude dangerously overlooks a number of significant factors which will heavily influence the success or failure of the next generation of partners:  

•  The market place for legal services has changed greatly in the last two or three decades; firms now need to market aggressively in order to prosper and grow.

•  Clients are seeking more specialized services at competitive prices; partners need to be able to manage and control relationships and manage and control the way the work is done.

•  Partners need to be proactive in their approach to growing the business and nurturing relationships; it is no longer appropriate to sit back and wait for clients to turn up and then tell them 'this is the way we do it'.

•  Law firm employees are now no longer happy just to have 'a job'. In common with employees everywhere, they are seeking improved work/life balance, respect, consultation, flexible working arrangements, recognition and reward and effective leadership from those who manage the firm.

•  The most efficient and effective firms are those where the culture has changed from a collection of individual partners who just happen to work alongside each other to a situation of true collaboration and team-working, where the focus is on the firm, the team, and only then, the individual.

When existing partners are asked what could be done to better prepare the next generation for these challenges, the most usual answer is 'training'. Yet very little training usually takes place and that which is offered is often fairly process-driven and not particularly well designed to address either the individual's strengths, weaknesses, and needs, or the key indicators for performance against which - formally or not - they will be judged.

Key performance indicators such as skills in marketing, client relationship management and staff development; contribution to firm-wide initiatives and individual "best practice" are all virtually impossible to impart in one-off formal training sessions. However, specific coaching and mentoring programmes which encourage each individual to set themselves challenging goals in these areas and devise and implement plans for achievement, can be highly effective for ensuring successful outcomes.

Such programmes help instil leadership and consistently raise levels of creativity and confidence through providing ongoing, one-to-one confidential support and a sounding board for action.

© Dianne Bown-Wilson, The BIG Question