Working towards
The business of law
The business of law
Lasting profitability is not a function of the amount of work delivered, it is a direct result of the efficiency in which work is delivered. The business of law not only allows, it requires Partners to think and act differently, to change their approach to clients, people and risk.
We work with you to create an environment where your relationships with your clients become true partnerships, where you do not have to be afraid to ever say ‘no’ to a client. You will get comfortable understanding people are your greatest asset, and you will be comfortable to let them roam under your guidance. Your approach to risk will change and you will learn to appreciate not all risks are threats, and not every threat needs to be avoided, mitigated or managed; some can be accepted as they are.
This is business: welcome to the business of law.
Our services are tailored specifically to you and your firm. Like your firm, our services are unique. We do not add to your already full days, we aim to make your days easier, creating more time for your leaders to lead and your professionals to perform.
Top law firms who continue to grow and remain relevant understand these three key performance enhancers…
The Three Pillars of Your Successful Firm
The Business of Law requires a different approach to achieve three key outcomes:
Be confident your strategic goals are ambitious, they drive an achievable strategy and your Partners know and accept the way their practice and personal performance is measured.
Your senior leaders believe they will be successful when the Firm is successful. Leaders believe in themselves and each other to lead the Firm into the future, and build your future leaders.
Trust in your Firm to continuously learn from your successes and failures. A learning environment gives meaning to training, feedback and coaching, and creates a lasting competitive advantage.
Together we can achieve these outcomes, and we can partner with you in three main areas.
Strategic Performance
Your strategic objectives are only the beginning. To achieve strategic success they require an achievable strategy, accompanied by performance measures for all your key leaders. We help you build the way and generate acceptance.
Leadership Development
Together, we will clarify what your brand leaders look like. We use this as basis for leadership development, growth and efficiency opportunities in your firm, as your leaders transition into business leaders.
Organisational Learning
Learning is ubiquitous, and the ability to learn needs to be developed. We will help you get results from your training, by implementing quickly, and creating the habits required for the new skills and knowledge to take effect.
Understand. Own. Replicate.
Strategic Performance
Change the way your Firm translates its strategic objectives, making them meaningful for leaders at all levels to set accurate performance measures and inspire the right mindsets and behaviours.
Many Firms’ strategic achievements are undermined by their operational performance. They are operationally successful – meaning they are profitable – which creates a sense of achievement. When you look at your Firms performance, what do you look at? Are you looking at set budgets, or are you measuring performance against your strategic objectives?
Your future matters and that’s why you have formulated clear strategic objectives. Did you use these objectives to formulated a realistic strategy? Is this strategy now part of your everyday operations and development, or has it been shelved, remaining a potentially inspirational, but non-productive document?
The foundation to success lies in translating your strategic objectives into a strategy, comprising plans and subsequent achievable actions. The pathway to success can be a joyful one and, when travelled well, will lead to a new or revised strategic objectives; a cycle based on continuous improvement.
A strategy will only lead to performance, if your performance measures directly achieve your strategic objectives. That is why we create the triangle of strategic objectives, strategy and performance measures
This sounds simple, and in a way it. To do this well, we first need to review the seven building blocks of a strategically successful Firm, and gauge your Firm’s progress in becoming a strategically successful Firm.
Leadership Development
Identify leadership development, growth and efficiency opportunities in your Firm, and you transition into your required and desired future image.
The performance and overall success of your Firm is a direct result of your leaders’ ability to lead with impact. Your framework will set you up to successfully evolve your Firm’s leadership mindset, providing performance focused guidance and direction to management processes and procedures. The focus, however, will be on your organisation’s current successes and competencies, we will work from a success anchor point to ensure success is not the objective, it is your starting point.
Good leaders know how to coach, and every great leader most likely has at least one coach. Not every great leader automatically develops great leaders, but they can.
Leadership development and leadership coaching are two separate processes, focusing on the same goal; leadership effectiveness and succession in the Firm. Like a strategy need an action plan, a leadership development framework needs implementation. Whether it focuses on the improvement of individuals, groups or teams, every leaders will experience a personal learning journey, as leadership often draws on the personal traits and personality of the leader. Chaining leaders result in changing lives, firstly the leaders own, then the people they influence.
Every leader is entitled to a personal development plan, which consists of training, implementation, feedback and coaching. This is the only way to create your future leaders, and maintain your competitive position.
We offer specific coaching programs for individuals, groups and teams. You will feel supported throughout our coaching engagement, as you will have access to your coach at any time. And most importantly, we will work with your leaders to help them find the joy and privilege in leadership.
Organisational Learning
Learning requires more than gathering knowledge and experience; it requires evaluation, feedback, implementation and sharing. Leaders play a significant role in the learning journey of every person in the Firm.
We are taught we can learn from our mistakes, and we should focus on addressing our shortcomings; this will make us better. True, we do get better when we learn from our mistakes, but often only to the level of not making the same mistake twice. How much do you learn from your mistakes and how much do you learn from your successes? Not often addressed, we can learn significantly more from our successes than we can learn from our mistakes.
Organisation learning makes your Firm better every single day. Learning is an ongoing process in your Firm, acknowledging anyone can learn from anyone. It is a deliberate process, based on your strategic objectives. It goes way beyond training and it is multi-faceted.
Firms are quite familiar with compulsory training, which makes sure the Firm remains compliant. Organisational learning focuses on maintaining a competitive advantage, and together with strategic direction and revenue generation forms your foundation for strategic success.
Organisational learning is a cornerstone of the Business of Law and addresses additional competencies to enhancing legal expertise.
The world has been focused on training, which – in isolation – often fails to offer a decent return on investment. Did you know, implementation and on-the-job coaching are more important than the actual training. Leaders will need to be involved to in organisational learning, especially because there is a significant benefit to them. Initially time and effort need to be invested to position people at lower level to make decisions right, this time is easily won back as gained expertise and efficiencies in the Firm no longer require leaders to be involved in matters which should have never been escalated to them.
The function of leadership is to create a learning environment to generate better business outcomes.
Why Work With Me?
My biggest point of difference
I am independent, my unique personal qualities and life experiences are my main point of difference. I help my clients learn and adopt new approaches by work with what they already have. I will show you how to shift from technical delivery to business leadership, and find a balance which helps you, your firm, the people you lead and your clients.
This includes a strong commitment to learn and understand people and processes, an ability to genuinely connect and engage, loads of experience and a passion to help find new solutions to enhance business and people performance.
Find out more about me…
In my book ‘The Privilege of Leadership’ you will discover my unique perspective on leadership. You will learn about my journey to find colour, which I started as a black-and-white emerging leader. This book is full of important distinctions and simple solutions that will help you to fully understand, own and replicate your own leadership success.
What My Clients Say
Some kind words from my respected clients
Redefine performance and productivity, to increase profit margins.
Deliver excellence better
Enhance understanding and appreciation from your clients.
- Reduce the day-to-day management of others
Create an incredible opportunity for exponential business growth.
