Staff Meeting Success: Must Do & Definitely Don’t!
#1 “Must Do!” Hold regular, pre-planned and productive staff meetings. #1 “Definitely Don’t!” Without adequate preparation and the right facilitator to ensure employee meetings are productive, positive and efficient, don’t go there. I could stop writing now as the most critical points of my message are listed above. A checklist is offered below, however, with [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
Sampling of 2009 Characteristics Shared or Ignored by Successful & Not-So-Successful Law Firms
Sampling Characteristics of Successful Firms in 2009: An ongoing effort to improve management and leadership skills including having the most qualified (vs. most senior, etc.) leaders at the helm Creating written action plans, monitoring them regularly and holding everyone timely accountable to do their part Taking the need to market the firm seriously and doing [...]
Law Firm Leadership
By clicking here, you’ll pull up a copy of one of my articles on effective law firm leadership – an often talked about subject, but not as often practiced. This article also includes my simplistic self-audit for privately evaluating our own leadership characteristics. And, I suggest an easy way to immediately start honing any leadership [...]
Preventing Partnership (and Family!) Implosions
Hello to All! Copied below is a somewhat altered version of my September ’09 Lawyers USA column. It is a further expansion (and more polished!) of my 8/25/09 post on greed and unresolved disputes. Let me know what you think, what you’d add or disagree with and best wishes for a wonderful (and safe) upcoming [...]
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 [...]
Law Office Mental Health Policies for Well Known & Our "Other" Addictions
Alcoholism, substance abuse and depression; these three afflictions usually receive the most attention at CLE programs and in legal publications. This makes sense in light of the continuing (and alarming) rise in the numbers of attorneys suffering with these impairments. What we don’t hear as much about, statistically or otherwise, are the more subtle impairments [...]
