The Managing Partner's Top 3 New Year Resolutions
If managing partners were allowed to write a new year’s resolutions for their colleagues, it would be a 3 point manifesto:
- Get more work
- Make sure that the work is profitable
- Delegate more to ensure (2) is true and you have more time for (1)
The elements of this list would have been the same for the last few years, although the need increases: the challenge of squeezing profit is getting greater, the market place is more competitive and the junior lawyers are less inclined to sacrifice quality of life in return for future promises.
But what can managing partners do to enable their colleagues to do what they all agree needs to be done? What should be on their own list of resolutions?
The associated whitepaper (click here) develops the theme in detail, but to cut to the chase:
1. Managing partners need to get face-to-face with people and communicate the vision. Without a clear vision and associated strategy business development remains an inherently personal and defensive activity designed to maintain the status quo, not build bigger structures. The need is for partners to develop profitable, on-strategy clients. They need to be confident to get in the market and sell the brand.
2. Managing partners need to get a handle on profitability, both personally and organisationally. If the firm rewards chargeable hours and revenue generation, that will be the partner focus. Without a focus on profitability the firm will be squeezed between rising costs and static revenues. The Managing partner needs to identify those proxy measures which give a good indicator of profitability (it's always an inexact science, because not everything that is done is recorded or allocated) and then bring them up the management agenda for discussion and reward.
3. Managing partners need to champion legal project management. There is a first-mover advantage still to be gained from legal project management. It can engage junior lawyers, maximise profitability and reassure clients. The managing partner needs to lead the firm beyond the creation of pricing models and precedent banks into an arena where the scoping, planning and delivery are dynamic. The first step is to find a pilot where the partners can see the vision - which leads us back to point 1 - and not to get caught up in over comlicated gannt charts and process diagrams.
The managing partner cannot do all this on their own. They need an effective management team which accepts them as the leader, and who will share the enthusiasm and responsibility for putting the resolutions into action.
2012 will separate out the law firms who are led from those who are just a brand franchise. The Whitepaper will help you stay in the former catagory.
