ADDRESSING COMMUNICATION
What can be done to address the need for e;ective communication when email is keeping most of us tied to our
desks with little time to think about what might seem nice
to do? First, let’s acknowledge the importance of what
lawyers and sta; think about communications within
your ;rm. Second, take a moment to consider how your
;rm is doing on o;ce morale, recruiting and retention of
lawyers and/or sta;. If your ;rm is typical, 60 percent of
lawyers and sta; say improvements are needed.
SO, WHERE TO START?
Arrange a meeting of your leadership team. Invite
the leadership team members to discuss the importance
of e;ective o;ce communications and to consider how
they communicate. Do they know, for example, that the
components of communication are o;en surprising?
When you deliver a message to an employee, the tone
of your voice comprises 38 percent of the message, your
body language constitutes 55 percent and the words you
use represent a mere 7 percent of the message. So how
you deliver the message is at least as important as the
message itself. Ask the leadership team about their views
about communications in your o;ce and how they think
they are doing in ( 1) keeping employees informed, ( 2)
spending time with those they supervise, and ( 3) developing the lawyers and sta; they supervise.
1CREATE THE TEAMS A team approach to improve o;ce commu- nications ensures commitment to the plan
and encourages team members to work together on their
individual plans for improvement. ;e legal supervisory team could be led by the managing partner or an
administrative management team, and be comprised of
practice group heads or committee heads responsible
for associate reviews. ;e sta; supervisory team could
be led by the administrative manager, and be comprised
of the functional managers responsible for supervising
secretaries, accounting, library, administrative and other
o;ce-related workers. Hold preliminary meetings to
introduce the subject of o;ce communications and provide an opportunity to discuss whether the participants
agree that a need for enhancement exists. Assuming that
they do, a kick-o; meeting introducing the communications plan will emphasize the importance of the goal and
cement the commitment of each team to the overall goals
of the ;rm.
Work as a team. You will need to bring together the
various elements within the ;rm to create an environment
that values e;ective communication. Start by developing a
communication plan that includes everyone in your ;rm
who has supervisory responsibility. A suggested communications action plan includes several key elements, each
centered on an action step. For an in-depth description
of the actions steps, why they are important and how to
implement them, see the table at right.
ACTION STEPS AND HOW THEY WORK
Action Step Purpose How to Do
Identify a team
leader and the
members for each
team—one team for
legal supervisors
and one for staff
supervisors
Create a team
of legal and
staff supervisors
to evaluate
and address
communications
Invite legal and
staff supervisors to
a kick-off meeting
to discuss the
goal of improved
communication
RESOURCES: Communications Generally “Management by Wandering About (MBWA),” mindtools.com/pages/article/new mindtools.com/pages/article/new TMM_72.htm
Assess what the
teams do well and
what needs to
improve
Provide an
individual starting
point for each
person on each
team
Use free online
assessment tools
Assessment Websites
DiSC: 123test.com/disc-personality-test
Myers-Briggs:
personalitypathways.com/type_inventory.html
Develop a training
plan for each team
Identify specific
communication
skills each team
will work on
Use professionals
and in-house
expertise
Measure success
Use free online
measurement tools
Assessment Publications
Emotional Intelligence 2.0, Travis Bradberry and Jean
Greaves (TalentSmart, 2009)
StrengthsFinder 2.0, Tom Rath (Gallup Press, 2007)
Provide each team
member with a
status report on
their improvement
