Please enjoy this blog post co-authored by Kristin Rhodes, Director of Practice Management, Paul Hastings LLP and Amy Wegener, Executive Coach and Consultant — Leadership Development, Planning & Strategy—Career Advancement.
No matter where you work, consensus-building will help you get things done. At law firms, however, this process may have unique challenges and advantages due to their structure and culture. In this blog, we will discuss the challenges and opportunities for building consensus at law firms. Then we will cover the critical skill of building relationships to gain alignment. By understanding the goals of your stakeholders, you can accomplish your goals together.
Challenges and Opportunities
Building consensus in a law firm can be difficult, but is critical and achievable. To start, the distributed partnership model requires buy-in from the firm’s partners on big decisions. If partners in leadership roles fail to satisfy the rest of the partnership, they are pushed out. Next, it takes time. Particularly for global firms, project leaders must deal with different priorities, cultures, and communication styles. Because lawyers sell their time, any hours spent on non-billable tasks cut into their immediate profitability as revenue generators. Finally, the overall structure of the firm may inhibit quick progress. The less empowered the leadership team (Chairs, Managing Partners, Chiefs, etc.), the harder it is to implement top-down reforms. Concurrently, the factors that make consensus building difficult at the top of the firm trickle down throughout the rest of the organization.
On the flip side, certain elements of a law firm make consensus-building easier. First, many lawyers are dealmakers. They negotiate and reach consensus for a living, and with that, their expectation is that stakeholders will make concessions to achieve success. Second, firms are often leanly staffed, so to the extent you must negotiate with all stakeholders, there are fewer of them. And finally, because partners have some flexibility to conduct their business as they see fit, firms tend to be less bureaucratic than other large organizations. You can use all these characteristics to your advantage to gain consensus: appeal to the deal-making side of your constituency and focus on the key relationships that will determine your success.
Leveraging Relationships
Why are relationships so important in this lean and demanding environment? First, remember that relationships in law firms are everything. Successful law firm partners and attorneys understand that the quality of their client relationships directly impacts their success. Similarly, as a business professional at a law firm, it is incumbent upon you to also build relationships, not just within your own team and department, but across the organization. Strong relationships create trust, which in turn, enable you to communicate more effectively and, ultimately, create alignment.
How do you build that trust? Start with active listening: understand what is motivating your colleagues and the attorneys at your firm. What do they need to achieve and what are your shared goals? Don’t underestimate the value and the power of having a solid relationship before you lean into a project. Next, offer to help: what can you do to make their lives easier? Build goodwill by starting with what you can do for them (and not the other way around). At the same time, be genuine– any support that is more attention-seeking than helpful will break that trust. You may also have to start with more tactile and less strategic work. Your peers will likely accept– and appreciate –help on less-visible, but important, tasks.
Next, ask for input and feedback. While not everyone’s ideas will be agreed upon, give everyone a voice and bring your new collaborators along for the ride. Create a joint communication plan so that everyone speaks in the same voice. If conflicts arise during the process (and they will!), address them transparently by being honest and open.
If you have laid the groundwork of a foundation built on trust, your new collaborators will (likely!) give you the benefit of the doubt. If you skip a few steps, they may misinterpret your good intentions. For example, if you communicate poorly with your coworker and they loop your boss into an email, you may assume they are suggesting you did something wrong. But if you have a strong relationship with that person, you would likely give them the benefit of the doubt… maybe they are trying to give you extra visibility with your boss…maybe they were working with your boss on something else and wanted to bring all the parts together. Further to this point, email leaves plenty open to misinterpretation. If you have anything slightly controversial to discuss, a phone call (or even better, stop-by in-person) is best. A real conversation allows you to read the other person’s tone and/or body language and provides a chance to address an issue together in real-time.
Building consensus in a law firm is achievable. Strong relationships are the foundation for getting anything accomplished. Taking time to build trust with your colleagues will be time well-spent.
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