Does Your Employee Evaluation System Need a Boost?
How do you conduct employee evaluations in your office? Think it could use some updating and/or revamping? If so, please see a recent article written for republication in my workshops, seminar presentations and in Lawyers USA: Does Your Employee Evaluation System Need a Boost (or perhaps a total overhaul)? And, as always, many thanks for [...]
Making Fertilizer from Office Poop
As our awesome grandkids would tell you, we scoop lots of poop on our mountainside horse and donkey ranch. If we had a nickel for all our scoopings through the years, we’d likely be more than financially set for life. I’m retained by professional firms to serve as their investigator, coach, consultant or temporary administrator. [...]
Enhancing & Maintaining the Value of Paralegals
How can paralegals maintain their profession’s highly valued niche within the legal system? How do paralegals enhance their individual value to law firms and legal departments? What behaviors decrease their value? How can paralegals collectively enhance their profession for those following in their footsteps? How Can Paralegals as a Profession Maintain Their Highly Valued Niche [...]
Successful Law & Other Professional Firms: Shared Characteristics
Successful law firms — and actually all professional firms and successful businesses — seem to share many common characteristics regardless of their size, areas of practice or location. A few months back I posted a“shared characteristics” list for 2009 firm success stories. I’ve updated and posted below a somewhat updated mini-article and checklist: Seminar attendees [...]
Personnel Smarts (starter checklist)
Hold regular, uninterrupted meetings with employees (i.e. We should never multitask during these meetings…employees like clients/customer deserve our full, undivided attention!) Enforce (or ignore!) rules fairly and consistently across the board Treat employees in the same manner you expect them to treat clients/customers & in the same ways you like to be treated Give ongoing [...]
Employee Terminations: Self-Audit Tips from Hiring to Firing
Employee Terminations: Self-Audit Tips from Hiring to Firing…..okay…I know personnel management and especially employee firings are NOT desired or enjoyable subjects for most of us…but it is reality. You can read my partial list of recommendations on the hiring process, the management and supervision of employees and the termination of them when things just [...]
Voice Mail Greetings & Attire In the Professional Office
Gotta get vent a bit about one of my pet peeves in the professional office. I cringe when calling a professional business, doctor’s office, law firm, etc. only to hear voice mail messages by receptionists or female assistants that appear to have intentional sexual drippings….you know the ever-so–soft, ssslllooooowww, melodic, sometimes raspy female voice. Sorry [...]
Employee Considerations in Law Firm Mergers
I just sent the suggestions copied below to an attorney looking for merger tips to pass along to a client law firm about to merge w/another firm. Doing so made me realize how often in mergers (whether law firms or other businesses) there’s too little attention paid to our employees and what they are going [...]
More on the Management of Telecommuters
Greetings! I’ve previously blogged about telecommuting in regard to handling in-house employees who may be disgruntled over remote working employees (http://lawbusinesstips.com/2009/06/24/telecommuting-disgruntled-co-workers/) and experiences shared by other companies (http://lawbusinesstips.com/2009/07/08/telecommuting-cost-savings-cisco/). Today, I found this blog post that is also worthwhile reading about the management of telecommuters: http://bit.ly/3NxO3N. In addition to the tips and discussions found in the [...]
Lawyers USA Online:Nancy's Crusade Against Word,"Non-Lawyer"
Just got the link for my most recent column for Lawyers USA (click here) which I first wrote about in my blog. Wishing everyone a great day in spite of any one or thing that may try to louse it up for you! Don’t let’em!
Respecting Employees: Do You Talk It, Show It or Both?
Ongoing business success stories can only be achieved with certain cornerstones in place. One of these critical foundations is feeling and showing respect for your employees. If it’s genuine (and not just the politically correct thing to say), leaders and managers consistently demonstrate this in many ways including: RESPECT IS 24/7 ….. you appreciate, value [...]
Telecommuting & Disgruntled Co-Workers
Good Afternoon…here’s an informative (quick reading) blog post on telecommuting: http://bit.ly/ZFF0N entitled: “Telecommuting: How to Approach Your Boss.” A few words re my two cents worth on this subject….it’s been my experience that it’s often more difficult dealing with disgruntled co-workers who are NOT telecommuting than it is to convince your employer to let you [...]
My Personal Crusade to Cease All Use of the Word "Non-lawyer!"
A couple of Twitter “tweets” I saw today referenced a lawyer disciplined for allowing “non-lawyers” to do something that only a licensed attorney should have done. I really dislike the “n-l” word so suggested in my reply “tweet” that surely we could all find more respectful words to use when referring to someone who does [...]
Post Work Day Ramblings….
This is a brand new blog and hopefully we will soon get a dialogue going on whatever interests we share….today, I started sending out what I call “ProgressBuster” tips on Twitter (@lawbusinesstips). These will include those things I’ve seen through the years (over and over unfotunately) as a law office/business consultant that hurt (and often [...]
