While we were at the annual ALA meeting in Denver, we had the opportunity to talk with many of you and to attend educational and inspirational sessions by other speakers. We'd like to thank you for attending our sessions. Your enthusiasm and appreciation for our work is certainly gratifying. Judging by the reception we get wherever we speak to live audiences, there is a real need for change in talent management in law practices.

At our most recent presentations, we were asked again and again how law practices can hope to recruit and retain Best Lawyers when business and consulting firms are so willing to offer “more” and “better” opportunities. You tell us that leaders in your law practices resist change, causing serious competitive disadvantages in the search for top talent and clients.

We want to change the way law practices and lawyers function in the world for reasons that we’ve clearly outlined in our new book Keeping Good Lawyers: Best Practices to Create Career Satisfaction (ABA Law Practice Management Section May 2000). While you are enthusiastic about the concept of change, the question you repeatedly ask us incredulously is, “How is that possible?”

The short answer is that law practices must improve lawyer engagement with their firms-which primarily means that lawyers must have unwavering trust in leadership and a stake in the outcome of the practice. Of course, this suggests law practices must create and promote leadership qualities in lawyers and law firm managers.

Recently, a seventeen-year lawyer told us that she recognized her ability and willingness to change “is a gift.” She said many lawyers suffer from an inability to change. We believe the problem is not lack of ability, but lack of desire to change, or lack of understanding how to change practices that are no longer working well.

Perhaps the single most important discovery of the late twentieth century has been the certainty that what we humans think controls the quality and quantity of our lives. Lawyers are excellent thinkers. And, Lawyers are well equipped to be this country’s best leaders, but they must develop a mind-set that is conducive to leadership.

Barbara MacKoff, Ed. D., has co-authored a new book entitled, The Inner Work of Leaders: Leadership as a Habit of Mind (AMACOM, September 2000). Dr. MacKoff interviewed leaders in many different industries to determine whether they had common thinking habits that made them successful. She identified five such habits:

1. Framework - Successful leaders label and interpret stressful and challenging situations in a positive way. In the context of job satisfaction for lawyers, this means looking at the problem of attrition as a challenge of retention and preparing to change. What are you and your organization’s leaders doing to meet these challenges today?
2. Reflection - Successful leaders analyze their experiences and appraise their own behavior, then apply what they've learned to other daily activities. In law practices, successful senior lawyers can help retain other lawyers by analyzing the factors that make the firm an excellent career choice and then making those factors available to all lawyers.
3. Attunement - Dr. MacKoff found that successful leaders have an ability to set their own assumptions aside and to learn from others. Do your leaders have the habit of attunement? Are they willing to accept that lawyers have a variety of career and personal goals that must be met by the firm if those lawyers are going to stay with your practice? Or are your leaders rigidly fixed in the notion that the firm’s ways are the best and will not change?
4. Conviction - Successful leaders, and we would argue, successful lawyers, hold consistent values connected to a central purpose, described as "daring to be yourself." That conviction, however, can be a faulty shield to resist needed change. Conviction is not rigid adherence to policies and practices that no longer make sense in the current business climate. Instead, it is the pursuit of worthwhile values in the context of current thinking that makes conviction a virtue.
5. Replenishment - Not surprisingly, strong leaders manage their time after work to refresh, restore and replenish enthusiasm for their work. Lawyers often miss this step in the process and get burned out on the practice, overwhelmed by the constant demands of being in a client service business. Law practices often reward long hours and constant work without understanding that replenishment is as necessary for a long term legal career as basic legal education. Perhaps more so.

Dr. MacKoff's work gives us a framework for reflection, attunement and replenishment with conviction. Knowing is not doing. Knowing lawyers are dissatisfied with the practice and understanding why such dissatisfaction exists will not keep lawyers with you and help you build your team. Education is just the important first step. Developing leaders who will do something about the problems lawyers face, lead other lawyers to do the same and understand that change is a gift will make the difference.

PeopleWealth can assist your Professional Development staff on a regular or consulting basis to communicate effectively with lawyers and to help lawyers design and build successful careers. If you would like further information about PeopleWealth or our services, please contact our office, e-mail us: info@PeopleWealth.com

©PeopleWealth May 2000