Feature

posted 25 May 2006 in Volume 9 Issue 1

A strategic approach to coaching

While the concept of coaching and mentoring has gained currency among legal professionals, few would see it as central to a firm’s business strategy. The time might now be right, however, to change that outlook.

By Nigel McEwen, former managing partner of a central London law firm and the founder of Cresco

Even a decade ago, asking many partners about their firm’s strategy would have resulted in a blank look.

Firms might have specialised in a particular sort of legal work but the concept of strategic direction had very low recognition. Nowadays, the partner would (hopefully) be able to talk about sector focus, differentiation and even segmentation of the marketplace. The vast majority of law firms have understood the need to identify their strategic focus over the past decade and have clear objectives in terms of their market position and market share.

Times have moved on and, for many in management positions, the major challenge now is the actual implementation of the firm’s chosen strategy. This is where the going can get tough as beautifully designed business plans always, at some point, need to meet the real world – and by that I mean people and their attitudes, personality strengths and weaknesses, personal insecurities, and inevitably the highly reasonable but strongly felt desires not to change. This is the world where so many managing partners, heads of department, HR and marketing directors spend so much time and effort exhorting, persuading, cajoling, even pleading – only to be met so often by the refrains of “I am who I am”, “take me or leave me”, “why do I need to change?”.

Behaviours can of course be influenced by financial rewards and this is frequently the carrot that is used in attempts to alter mindsets. ‘Good behaviour’ is undoubtedly promoted by bonuses or larger shares of the profit pool, and there is no denying the power of money as a weapon in performance management. But a purely financial approach is unlikely to achieve any permanent changes in personal traits and when stressful situations occur, those traits will typically become entrenched. It is against this background that an increasing amount of interest in the legal sector is being shown in coaching and mentoring models of development, which, according to many studies, demonstrably produce long-lasting levels of high performance.

So, just how can a coach help in the context of executing the business plans of law firms? First, some background: business coaching has been recognised as a distinct discipline for some 25 years in the UK; there are now ten UK universities offering masters courses in coaching; and there are at least six regular publications on coaching. More sophisticated coaching methodologies are being continuously developed, while good coaches will achieve accreditation after some rigorous training and will continue to be professionally supervised during their careers. Regulatory bodies for coaching are now emerging as the coaching profession becomes one of the fastest growing sectors in the UK economy. Coaching has entered its adult stage of development and businesses can successfully identify where it is most effective. There is a growing realisation that coaching is not simply a remedial intervention for people who are not doing very well, but rather a means of helping people who are already achieving first-class results to do even better.

While most law firms are currently enjoying admirable levels of profitability, they also face huge competitive pressures; very high levels of individual and team performance are increasingly taken as given. To consolidate and build on their successes, legal practices look to their people to continually sharpen or acquire new skills, and to improve their overall performance. It may sometimes be sufficient to be an expert in a particular field, but many senior lawyers must now demonstrate a wider range of attributes – communication competences, selling abilities and a wide range of management proficiencies.

Without these attributes and the consequent ability to put the strategy into practice, it is going to be difficult to achieve the firm’s aspirations – or, to put it bluntly, the strategy goes nowhere.

Sportsmen and women operating at the top levels of their fields employ their own coaches for two basic reasons: to improve skills and deal with wider performance issues. They need to be supervised to practise their skills constantly but there is wide recognition that so little divides the skill levels of the highest performing sportspeople that attitude, confidence and outlook are the key components in achieving success.

What is true in sport is no less true in the highly competitive legal field. Returning to their offices after a legal training session, lawyers will usually have the opportunity to quickly use their newly acquired information. Experienced partners will mentor and direct others on applying this technical knowledge.

However, lawyers may not feel as confident and secure in exploring new areas of development despite skills training in non-technical areas such as marketing, networking, communications and presentations. The effects of the training inevitably wears off over time through lack of practise and the benefits disappear as other urgent but possibly no more important tasks are undertaken.

Additionally, training in the classroom does not easily allow for different speeds of learning or for exploring learning in a discrete way.

The majority of lawyers are introvert by nature and don’t want their weaknesses shown up in public. The intimacy of a coaching approach is, therefore, ideally suited to learning about new skills. So much training is wasted in law firms through lack of follow up.

Many studies have demonstrated that training systems that incorporate means of telling, showing and experiencing, are more effective than training that only involves ‘telling’ – the classic classroom technique.

So a combination of initial training supported by coaching, mentoring and practise is the ideal combination for the acquisition of new skills. This approach may be slightly more costly but it is a methodology that is geared to obtaining the best return on investment.

In the wider field of general performance management (and of management performance) the goal of coaching is to strengthen an individual’s performance as it relates to real business objectives. (Many people now engage their own personal coach to sort out a range of issues, but if the firm is paying the fees of an external coach, it seems only fair that the coaching objectives should be linked to the ambitions of the firm). Coaching has particular relevance in this context in the legal sector.

Lawyers have developed their careers in a technical world where accuracy and precision are prized attributes. They are trained to be highly cautious, operating in an environment where there is often a right or wrong answer – and where there is no such answer, their concern quite rightly increases.

As lawyers develop their careers, however, they often need to extend these skills and, indeed, the qualities for which they had previously been respected may be barriers in their new roles. Becoming a partner and an owner of the business, or being appointed head of department or managing partner, require new perspectives and often the acquisition of new attributes – delegation and communication skills, the ability to motivate and to engage in creative business thinking. None of these capabilities are taught on law courses or typically given great prominence on in-house graduate-training schemes in the legal sector. Additionally, these new tasks encompass the adoption of ways of working that are sometimes antagonistic to the wary and guarded world of the good lawyer. For example, management inevitably involves taking risks. Standing still, freezing recruitment, cutting back on IT investment are certainly not risk-free strategies.

Equally, not every lateral hire is a success and not every attempt to turn round an underperformer is going to work. Just like any other business, law firms move senior people into new roles all the time. It is these people who are tasked with the job of guiding the firm forwards, and coaching, with its focus of questioning, reflection, self awareness and belief in the resourcefulness of the coaches, brings great benefits at times of personal change.

The advantages of coaching in law firms are not only confined to the development of lawyers. With the growth in size of many legal practices, the functions of professional managers in fields such as finance, marketing, IT and HR have become more important in achieving success. There is often some tension between the different disciplines and frequently it can be challenging for the non-lawyer managers to understand the lawyer’s mindset. Coaching – at both group and individual level – is the ideal tool to create a sense of empathy and mutual understanding in building foundations for high-performing teams.

Let me make three final points. The thrust of this article has been about strategic implementation, but coaching itself can be strategic. External coaches bring new perspectives and challenges; they provide a totally confidential environment in which to explore and stretch abilities and thoughts. Yet an organisation that regards coaching as purely externally supplied is unlikely to exploit the full potential of what coaching has to offer. A number of firms are enjoying partner-wide coaching programmes with perceived benefits in better communication and client relationships. Human beings are conditioned to respond to each other and when we talk, we like other people to listen: encouraging a coaching culture that encourages listening skills will create a sense of real involvement and interaction between younger and older lawyers.

In terms of rankings, the sole objective of many law firms was once to move up the various profits-per-partner tables. That is no longer sufficient, with many practices now fighting hard to gain a ranking in the Sunday Times ‘Best Companies to Work For’ and management understanding of the need to adopt a more participative culture.

Against this background, what could be more strategic, in the current war for talent, than to build an environment that provides, through embedding a coaching tradition, the optimum platform to engage and develop excellent younger lawyers?

Second, coaching provides opportunities for reflection. The coachee is challenged to draw on their own resources and abilities, free of the ‘if I were you, I would do X’ approach. After all, no external consultant knows as much about the totality of the business as the senior management, while senior management cannot be totally free of their own prejudices and preconceptions.

Coaching is concerned with facilitation and that is its great strength. Coaching can, therefore, be strategic in the sense of playing a key role in formulating strategy by law-firm leaders.

Finally, it is important to recognise that coaching is not a panacea for all problems. There are many people who simply cannot be coached. They may be too defensive; they may have some serious personal issues that they need to address. Frequently it is appropriate for managers to give clear directions, and a coaching approach is not relevant or timely.

Furthermore, coaching is not a substitute for performance feedback. It should not stop managers in law firms owning and giving their candid views on how the individual/team is actually performing. Nevertheless, coaching is a potent tool: it is increasingly being perceived as an integral part of modern organisational life, rather than a ‘nice to have’. It needs to be used in conjunction with other implementation tools but in a way that few other approaches can achieve; it aligns a firm and its people, and by doing so it has the power to put strategy into practice.

Coaching example one: Key questions for law-firm leaders

1. How do you think your family/colleagues truly see you?

2. Have you asked them?

3. How do you inspire your people? Are your people inspired by you? How do you know?

4. Are you letting old habits drain your valuable time?

5. From your behaviour, how would people know that your firm believes that its people are its best asset?

6. Do you create an environment where people can consistently outperform your competitors?

7. How open and honest is your culture? How do you know?

Coaching example two: Marketing director

Rachel is the marketing director of a mid–sized firm based in London. She thinks that she has extremely good relationships with some of the partners but recently feels that she is not respected by others. Her view is that the property department does not co-operate with her and undertakes its own practice development without telling her. She has lately heard a rumour that the head of property has complained to the managing partner about her lack of interest in his department’s activities.

The firm’s managing partner has indicated in passing that some partners think the marketing department should improve its performance: he has also said that she must feature the property department in the firm’s cross-selling initiative.

Rachel is upset by these comments as she believes that she is working effectively. Her recent appraisal nine months ago produced good feedback. The coach could assist Rachel in the following ways:

Challenge Rachel about the real situation and her perceived lack of openness in the firm about her performance. Is she being oversensitive? What does her line manager – the managing partner – actually think?

Ask Rachel to explore her options. Without knowing what her internal clients really think of her, what progress can she make? How can she obtain the best feedback – direct from partners? Would a 360-degree appraisal help?
Assist Rachel to look at her strengths and weaknesses when the facts are known;
Gain commitment from Rachel to agree an action plan;
Work over a limited period in implementing Rachel’s goals.

Coaching example three: Head of department

Over the past five years S & Co has conducted a number of mergers; many departments have large numbers of partners who still feel and work as if they are part of their old firm.

Cliques have developed and some partners protect their own personal client base. This has become a particular problem in the intellectual property department where the energetic and young head of that department is encountering serious problems in engendering a team approach. He wants to improve the quality of the department’s work but matters came to a head last month when he found it impossible to find four partners to accompany him to attend an important pitch to a new global client.

A coach could assist this team in the following ways:

Exploring the possibility of obtaining 360-degree (anonymous?) feedback (from non-partners in the department, other partners and members of senior management in the firm – managing partner, marketing partner);
Encouraging the use of some personality profiling tools, which would promote self awareness and provide a basis for some team discussions about personal style;
Listening to and understanding each partner’s point of view and helping them to identify mutual areas of interest;
Working with the head of department stimulating him to look at the effect of his actions and attitude – what were the true reasons as to why he didn’t have support for the pitch?

Coaching example four: Managing partner

Diane is the managing partner of a 40-partner regional firm. Many of the departments in her firm perform well but are not market leaders. However the firm’s reasonable profitability is lifted by two high-performing departments.

One of those departments is led by Patrick who has a national reputation and a large personal following. Patrick dominates the department but does not adequately support the development of other ‘rainmakers’ and fails to adhere to the systems in place across the rest of the firm. Diane’s provisional three-year plan provides for the doubling of Patrick’s department’s turnover and Patrick is excited by being given a prominent role in driving the department’s strategic performance.

The older partners have accepted Patrick’s attitude because he has generated high profits and is well-liked. Diane believes that this toleration of Patrick is allowing others to ignore agreed policies: the firm is losing good young lawyers as a result and she is not convinced that despite his many strengths, Patrick will be able to lead the department to its full potential.

How could a coach assist Diane?

Look at the history of the relationship between Patrick and Diane: what is Patrick’s opinion of Diane?
Explore with Diane how she would like to see Patrick’s department operating in two years’ time;
How would she feel if she could achieve her vision for that department (the coach could use that feeling to motivate her)?
What support does Diane have for her vision?
How much energy (will) does Diane have to implement her objectives (given all her other challenges)?

Nigel McEwen is a former managing partner of a central London law firm and the founder of Cresco, a consultancy focusing on performance issues in the legal sector. He can be contacted at n.mcewen@cresco-uk.com. He will be presenting a masterclass on coaching for Ark Group on 5-6 June 2006.