'Business support teams' from the CEO of a mid-sized law firm
Q16: I want to get the best value from my business support teams to help improve our efficiency? My partners appear reluctant to engage. How can I persuade them to listen to the quality advice of their business support teams?
RESPONSES
21 January - Partner, Mid-sized law firm
I'd suggest the solution to the problem lies in identifying why the CEO's partners are reluctant to accept his/her assessment of the quality of the management support offering.
The reasons may be many, ranging from general apathy to specific examples that contradict the CEO's views. Only by addressing those root causes of disassociation will the CEO clear the way for healthy and productive engagement with the business support teams.
22 January - Partner, Professional Services Consulting Firm
I had a conversation with a law firm Managing Partner today posing a very similar question, in this case particularly about the resistance being experienced by the Finance Director and his team to his efforts to improve lock-up. With the world crumbling around our ears it is truly amazing that there can be any doubt about the need to be as efficient as possible. This is a behaviours issue, first and foremost, and underlines my sad impression that too many lawyers of a certain generation only really respect other lawyers. They are the owners of the business, and it seems to be hard for them to take a steer from the hired help: hence the truly shocking statistic in the MPF Finance Section survey last year that only one in four Finance Directors are on the firm's Board. In another firm I visited a while ago the Finance Director recalled a very senior partner saying "I hear all you say, but I have never really trusted accountants, so I can't really trust you".
Behaviours are not changed overnight, but the behaviours are mostly underpinned by naivety regarding the commercial realities that many of us take for granted. Many law firm leaders bemoan the fact that their partners don't really understand the profit drivers of the business, the relationship between profit and cash, and the whole work-to-cash cycle. This is not really surprising, because these things have rarely been taught: the good news is that you can do something about that, and with a higher level of awareness regarding financial/commercial issues, many partners will understand the need to change their position.
My firm often speaks to groups of partners to improve financial awareness (this is not "training", you understand), and the feedback has been very positive from managing partners who suddenly find they can have more constructive and rewarding conversations with their colleagues. Not everyone will go along with it, of course, and this is where peer pressure can be a great benefit. Ultimately, of course, if all else fails, then the blocking minority need to be taken on, dealt with through the appraisal and reward system and ultimately, perhaps, encouraged to find a home where they would be more comfortable. If it is not a minority, then you have problems of a whole different order, which I will not go into here
This is all a rather crude over-simplification of the issues, but I believe it to be essentially true. Most lawyers are by nature or training sceptics, looking for flaws and risks in any proposition, but if you can make the compelling intellectual case to overcome the "why should I?", then you can gain their co-operation. Easily said, not so easily done, which is why a respected third party can often help (sorry about the advert!).
26 January - Head of Human Resources, Top 20 accountancy firm
Make sure your business support team activities are aligned to the business plan and produce a quarterly update to show how support teams have delivered against the plan. A coloured chart always goes down well!
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