Foster Leadership in Your Firm

Robert is a successful real estate attorney in his firm. As part of the firm’s marketing efforts, a new initiative was formed to cultivate green energy client opportunities. The executive committee decided to form a new Green Initiatives Unit to cross pollinate these possibilities within the firm.

Robert decided to participate as a member of the committee and began attending monthly breakfast Green Initiatives Committee meetings. The committee members’ attendance at these meeting was spotty, the leader looked at his Blackberry every five minutes instead of facilitating the meetings, agendas were virtually ignored, and objectives still not set. So, after the third meeting, Robert quit the committee.

The founding partner called Robert into his office to find out why he had left the committee so soon after its formation. Robert hesitated to tell the truth. He didn’t want to alienate any of his partners, and he knew this was going to be a pretty sticky situation.

The founding partner handled the situation head-on. He encouraged Robert to take on the leadership of the Green Committee. The partner realized the acting leader had little ability or training in leading a group of people into focused action.

Robert didn’t have any formal leadership training himself, but he made a commitment and took it seriously. He read up on best practices in leadership skills, and did some studying of the leadership styles of successful leaders in business. He put together a leadership action plan. Within 90 days, the Green Initiatives Committee had a dozen active members, a panel discussion event planned with top leaders in the green energy arena moderated by a member of his firm, and a cocktail event hosted by his firm with a local emerging green energy company sponsoring the event.

Robert’s leadership generated tangible results including two pitch presentations, one to a green technology company and the other to a real estate developer focused on green building techniques.

Robert’s leadership unquestionably produced results for the firm, and for Robert. He was quoted in The Wall Street Journal, was asked to be the moderator of the panel discussion, allowing him to get well-acquainted and related to the panelists. Areal estate developer, after attending the panel presentation moderated by Robert, requested a proposal for his legal work.

The moral of the story (and what’s in it for you?):

Firms need effective leaders to help them survive and thrive. So it may be time to start fostering them in your firm.

The professions are being challenged more and more to provide services in new and unfamiliar ways. The structures of the legal, accounting and other professional fields have been strained by greater demands on the part of clients and governmental oversight. The shattered economy has prompted professional firms to become more and more competitive in their service delivery and offerings. Leadership is no longer simply a nice idea, but imperative for firms to sustain and grow their business.

However, if everyone is a leader, who will follow? What if you’re not a natural-born leader? How do you foster leadership among your staff? Here are a few essentials to launching your staff – or yourself – into some new leadership actions:

1. One person doesn’t have to lead everything, just one project thoroughly. Ask staff members to select a project that speaks to them and begin with a specific objective.

2. Have leadership employees select one or two leaders they admire, either in your field or in business. Have employees interview them (when possible) about their recommendations for leadership “best practices” and/or study a bit about their favorite leaders in articles or books.

Select some articles in a top business publication or a chapter or two of a leadership business book for some best practices and share. A primer for leadership is Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

3. Start with the end in mind. Ask employees to identify objective(s) and set milestone goals leading up to completion date of your primary objective(s). Have them create a calendar of events leading up to the by-when completion date.

4. Always have a written agenda for each meeting. A good practice is to have whoever is leading a meeting, send an agenda out 24 hours before the meeting. They should set guidelines for attendance, cancellations, etc. If people cannot make the meeting, the leader should set some requirements for how they will catch up on what was covered in the meeting and how they will fulfill their accountabilities.

5. Hold people accountable to accomplish the tasks to which they agree.

6. Walk the talk. Set an example for dependability, timeliness, and attentiveness to the process.

People will always feel some pressure when held to account on accomplishing goals. But this is where the leadership rubber meets the road: true leaders help others accomplish more than they believe is possible by encouraging them to work together, helping them stay clear about what is necessary and desired, and helping them to be more productive with greater ease when they are focused and working in unison.
“Leaders aren't born they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that's the price we'll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal.”
- Vince Lombardi