All of that feel-good HR stuff has no impact on your P&L, right? Three things you can do immediately to connect the right way to manage your staff to an improvement in your firm's P&L: Short and sweet - there is a direct connection between managing/leading your team and the growth of your firm's revenues and profits. As obvious as that sounds, many Managing Partners go glassy-eyed when they hear about things like 'managing', 'leading', and 'engagement'. They have "that stack" of things that they need to get to "whenever they get some time"; usually in that pile is something that they got as a mailer or a forwarded note that someone from their bar group shared with them or some other sources. What does that item say? "Develop your staff's annual goals!"
"Ways to connect with your team and enable them to escape that 'big firm' grind of constant work and no connection" "How to give actionable feedback to your team" Usually, this is accompanied by the latest version of wisely nodding, caring, senior executives mentoring their young, eager staff. And, yes, there is a price tag associated with this halcyon image. What are my 3 things and how can I help you avoid putting this into "that stack"? 1. Run your team through the Welch Grid (or some version of it):
Our pal, Tim Fulton, has a great example at his website (https://smallbusinessmattersonline.com/tools/welch-grid/). In essence, this is a tool that enables you to understand (at a macro level) where your team lies on a two-axis matrix - effectiveness and culture fit. Mapping your folks into one of these four cells enables you to get clarity on who is a keeper and who needs to be given the opportunity to explore other opportunities. Elsewhere. Away from you and your firm.
2. Take your team and come up with a plan:
After you work through the Welch Grid, you should have a team of folks that get it and can/will produce. Now what? That team of folks needs to be engaged with and cultivated - think of a garden. You don't just buy a bunch of seed packets, throw them at your yard, walk away and expect to have a bountiful harvest! Prepare the ground, fertilize it, water it, weed it, etc. We have found that this is a great time to sit down and look at the job descriptions for the different roles under consideration. Take those job descriptions and really think about whether they need to be updated or whether they reflect the actual situation – if they do, great. If not, here’s another great opportunity to sit down with your team and review their role and involvement with your business. Regardless, taking that step of translating a static document into something that is living and breathing is the goal here. Each functional area within the description can receive particular scrutiny – and here’s where the economic activity can benefit. Whether it a business development component or a cost reduction aspect, the plan you develop with your team should manifest some means by which revenue increases or expenses are reduced. 3. Execute the plan:
I guess this is where the rubber hits the road. A lot of folks can get through numbers 1 and 2 above - the difficulty of number 3 is the same difficulty that has us piling clothes on exercise machines in our bedrooms, paying gym fees to gyms we don't go to, etc. It's about execution and perseverance. We have found that when owners/leaders commit to carrying through on the above, week after week and month after month, the growth in sales and profits come as well. Quickly. The biggest unspoken benefit we have seen in all of the years we have been doing this with our client base is the following: people like it. I mean really like it. The unintended consequence of paying attention to people and (dare we say it?) CARING about them is that they tend to not want to leave. When they don't leave, you have reduced organizational churn which results in reduced expenses from not having to find, hire, and bring up to speed new folks. The happy, in-place members of your team continue to grow and cultivate their relationships with their clients and both they and the clients sink deep roots into your business. Let's talk about your business and work together to address what you know you need to do to grow; it's springtime now, isn't it?
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