High turn over - it could be a leadership issue
In my years of working in the legal profession, I have had the opportunity to work with many types of attorneys, most of whom were exceptional in their legal craft. One point that always stood out to me was the volume of staff turnover, largely in smaller firms. I wanted to understand why, especially when the attorneys themselves were so gifted.
Let’s look at what we know and can agree on with respect to staff turnover. Employee turnover costs an employer money and productivity, period.
Time and money to recruit, interview, and hire new employees.
Loss in management productivity due to the time to onboard and train new employees.
Loss in current staff productivity as they shoulder the extra work, which can also lead to low office morale.
Loss in customer service due to new employees getting up to speed.
With respect to the legal profession, here are some facts you may not know about staff turnover. According to the Association of Legal Administrators’ 2019 Compensation and Benefit survey, the average annual staff turnover in law firms nationwide were as follows:
DEFINITION OF LEADERSHIP
Attorneys who practice in firms that are smaller in size find themselves having to take on multiple roles. Not only are they expected to serve their clients, but they also need to provide leadership in the firm. Create the vision. Shape the culture. Mentor and manage employees.
In the study of Business Management, accomplishments of a strong leaders are as follows:
Inspiring people to follow them by sharing a powerful vision of the organization’s goals.
Building trust by keeping their employees informed of where they are heading and steps along the way.
Serving as a role model by setting the example on how people should be treated.
Encouraging and fostering teamwork to obtain the “vision”.
Becoming “agents of change” through their ability to challenge and do things differently and therefore helping people and organizations to grow.
I know many attorneys who hold these traits. They are inspirational, charismatic, and fantastic lawyers! But still, turnover is high.
WHAT STAFF LOOKS FOR IN A LEADER
I have my own experiences of times when attorneys did (or did not) step up and provide me with the encouragement, support, or recognition that I sought. However, my experiences may not be universal. To get a broader view of staff’s expectations, I reached out to groups of paraprofessionals nationwide and asked them what made their attorney a good leader and where leadership was lacking. I got a lot of great responses!
What positives their firm’s leadership provides them…
Acknowledgement. Receiving compliments on work performed.
Recognition that everyone one makes mistakes.
Treatment of everyone with respect--both clients and staff.
Awareness of staff issues and detection of times of extreme stress.
Constructive criticism, without condemnation.
Encourages staff to play to strengths and providing them with tools to perform.
Positive reinforcement. Giving credit where credit is due.
Where leadership is letting them down….
Criticisms on mistakes and blame for others’ failures.
Lack of respect. (Wanting to be treated like a human being.)
Inconsistency with new rules being implemented out of the blue.
Not listening to staff or addressing firm issues, ignoring them, or brushing them off.
Inability to change. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality, even if it could improve productivity.
Unclear communication. Needing to discuss attorneys’ wants and needs numerous times.
Rushing through meetings and conversations with staff not being heard.
Micro-management.
Unfortunately, the comments on the shortcomings of law firm leadership outweighed the positive.
WHY ATTORNEYS MAY NOT MAKE GOOD LEADERS
For over 20 years, Dr. Larry Richard of LawyerBrain, LLC has been studying lawyers’ personality traits. In “Leadership in Law Firms: An Experts Guide” common lawyer personality traits were applied to desired leadership traits within an organization.
After thorough evaluations, Dr. Richard found lawyers tested higher in the following personality traits than the general public:
Skepticism: Attorneys are trained to question others and their motives. They do not give “the benefit of the doubt”.
Autonomy: Attorneys like to be in control and not be told “what to do”. When they are asked to do something, they will decide if it fits their own criteria or agenda first.
Urgency: Attorneys are impatient and seek closure. They may finish other peoples’ sentences to “get to the point.”
Abstract Reasoning: Attorneys love to analyze and solve problems. They love to use their intellect.
On the other hand, lawyers tested lower on the following personality traits than the general public:
Sociability: Attorneys prefer not to discuss their personal lives, vulnerabilities, or relationships. In general, they do not pay attention to the personal lives of others. They tend to see relationships as “touchy-feely”, low in importance, or awkward.
Resilience: They are thin-skinned when they are faced with criticism, rejection or encounter setbacks. They get defensive easily and feel the need to justify their behavior to others. Lawyers consistently score low on this trait.
Empathy: To quote the article directly- “There are at least two kinds of empathy –emotional empathy and cognitive empathy. Emotional empathy has a connotation of stepping into the shoes of another person and feeling what they feel, as in ‘I feel your pain’. Cognitive empathy, by contrast, has a connotation of understanding another person – intellectually understanding their point of view, their feelings, how they might react to something, or why they behave in the way they do. Those scoring low on this trait generally pay attention to their own agenda when interacting with others. It may take them additional cognitive effort to shift their attention to enter the world of the other person. “
In comparing the desired traits of a strong leader with those of a savvy lawyer, you can see where Dr. Richard found a disconnect:
| LEADERSHIP TRAITS | LAWYER PERSONALITY TRAITS |
|---|---|
| Outlines shared vision and inspiration of desired future. Illustrates the potential of what can work. | Skepticism. Lawyers are trained to look for problems. It is their job to identify risks and focus on what will not work. They may have a “vision”, but will then break it down to find the flaws in it. |
| Builds trust with those who share and support a leader’s vision. | Skepticism is the opposite of trust. Lawyers are trained to question people and their motives. They will question repeatedly if a task has been completed. |
| Listens well to others. | Value is placed on high responsiveness in the legal field. Urgency is usually needed in managing a client’s matter. Urgency can interfere with a lawyer’s need to be open-minded and listen to others around them as they tend to be impatient and seek closure on matters. |
| “Agents of Change” from the status quo. Leaders will forge ahead without having all the information in hand.They are risk takers. | Lawyers are trained to avoid risk and to gather all information on a matter before moving ahead. With a low resilience rating, lawyers often avoid taking action until everything possible is known. |
| Fosters teamwork. Leaders know that they cannot accomplish a goal alone. They communicate desired goals. | Lawyers that have high autonomy scores like to retain control. This is further enforced by the profession itself and the need to protect and guard information closely. They are more likely to share information with those on a “need to know” basis. |
| Leaders are good at recognizing and celebrating the efforts and contribution of others. Even the small victories. | Lawyers with low “sociability” scores make them seem insensitive to others. They may avoid praise as it is too personal and “touchy-feely”. |
All attorneys differ on how they manage their firms and staff. There are attorneys who can simultaneously be strong leaders and savvy lawyers. However, in reviewing Dr. Richard’s findings we may have a better understanding of why there could be high turnover in smaller law firms.
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
Dr. Richard points out in his article most of the personality traits he discovered in lawyers are learned traits, as opposed to genetic. Skepticism, urgency, resilience, and autonomy are learned. Lawyers may default to these traits when dealing with the world around them to feel more comfortable.
Can a lawyer utilize their superpower personality traits in the practice of law and then shift them to strong leadership traits when dealing with their staff? Yes, but it would require a person to focus and practice on shifting back and forth and being aware of the moments when each is needed. People are good at learning and adapting new behaviors if they so desire.
One paraprofessional shared that her managing attorney had everyone take a DiSC® profile assessment. The attorney utilizes the information learned from the personalized assessments when interacting with the staff and assigning work.
If a lawyer recognizes they have strong personality traits as outlined above, they could look to another person in the firm (a fellow attorney, office manager, or lead paraprofessional) to shoulder more of the leadership role that the staff desires. It would be hard for them to pass over the leadership reins; however, if turnover is high, can they really afford not to?
There are no clear answers as to the high rate of turnover in firms, especially smaller ones. Evaluating current leadership and the message that is being sent to your staff is a great place to start.
adh-consulting, llc is a consulting firm which supports solo and small law firms in making their practices efficient and effective through admin/office management, metrics and training.
