In the previous postings we looked at the personal attributes and the behaviors of effective leaders. Of course, no combination of these matter much unless the leader actually achieves results. The primary metric by which law firms measure their results is profitability. Here, the McBassi White Paper again provides some clues. In their analysis of 69 law firms, they found that “the single most important determinant of law firm success and profitability is the leadership skills and practices of its partners.”
Broken down, the quality of the partners’ leadership skills had a strong correlation to the following firm outcomes:
Remember, when I sat down with the managing partner to discuss “leadership,” we started out by examining three facets of a leader:
As with most CEOs, managing partners are focused primarily on results in the form of increased profits. The light bulb that went off in the managing partner’s head was this. If you want results, you need to start with the “who” and work your way through the “what” in order to get to the results that you want to achieve. In other words, better results are generated by firms that have well-rounded, emotionally self-aware partners who inspire confidence, collaborate with and develop others, value learning, welcome new ideas, show commitment to employees, and are open and effective communicators. Next up for the managing partner – convincing his partners that they should spend non-billable time developing their leadership skills. But that’s another topic.