Learn how your firm can maximize existing talent by establishing clear expectations, providing leadership development and improving communications.

Practice leaders play increasingly important roles in the management of the most successful law firms. They are expected to perform at very high levels in order to meet the demands of their role and to help their groups achieve the desired goals set by firm management. For managing partners (or others in firm management, depending on your firm’s structure), the challenge is how to maximize the potential of the group by providing the necessary guidance, support, tools and other resources that will position them for success.

Too often, once practice leaders are in place, very little occurs in the way of setting clear expectations for them and their groups, training, communication and accountability, and providing the tools needed to be effective. In our experience, what typically happens absent these important elements is inconsistent performance, lawyer frustration, poor planning, misalignment of resources, knowledge gaps and uneven management across practice groups-all of which serve to undermine the benefits firms hope to realize by operating under a practice management model.

So, what should managing partners be doing to optimize the performance of their practice leaders? We have found the following to be key factors in developing high-performing leaders.

Clear Objectives and Expectations for Each Practice Group and Leader

It is difficult for any leader to perform well if expectations of the leader and his/her practice group are not clearly defined. If, as managing partner, your goal is to have high-performing practice leaders, then setting and agreeing on personal and group goals is a necessity. And, the more clear and measurable the expectations, the more effective they will be in driving the desired outcomes.

Not every practice group and practice leader can be expected to perform at the same level or achieve the same objectives. The role of the managing partner should be to work with each practice group leader to set realistic performance goals that are aligned with firm objectives, practice strengths and opportunities, and market realities.

Keep in mind that practice group performance and practice leader performance are not necessarily the same. As managing partner, you must be careful to evaluate practice leaders based not only on how their group performs, but also on how well they achieve the objectives you set with them for their personal roles as leaders. A group may have certain goals and the leader may have different, more private goals set by firm management. For example, you may have a practice group that has internal dissension issues that require significant practice leader time to resolve. Assuming the group leader did the right things to work on these issues, he or she would be rewarded for this, even if the group does not see immediate improvement.

Regular Communication With and Among Practice Leaders

Engaging in a regular and substantive dialogue with your practice leaders, both individually and as a group, is imperative for developing a strong leadership team. On an individual basis, we recommend managing partners have quarterly one-on-one meetings with practice leaders to review the status of their business plans, to discuss problems, challenges, resource needs, and personnel issues, and to deal with other, practice-specific, matters. These meetings are also opportunities for managing partners to reinforce expectations, offer advice and direction, and build personal relationships that foster mutual trust and respect. For the practice leader, they provide a forum for private discussions about practice members, personal performance and other, more sensitive topics.

Promoting communications between all of the practice leaders is also a role managing partners should play in managing the firm’s practice leaders. Most firms bring together their practice leaders at least several times a year for meetings to share best practices, discuss market and client intelligence, address common management issues that cross groups, and explore new business and client service opportunities. They are also forums where Managing Partners can relate important firm developments on behalf of the Executive Committee and test the waters on strategic matters for which the buy-in and support from the practice leaders is needed. While Managing Partners typically preside over these meetings, there should be active participation by all practice leaders so the meetings are dynamic and do not degenerate into monologues.

One of the most significant benefits we have seen firms gain from regular practice leader meetings is that the leaders truly feel part of firm management and that their contributions and time investment are important to the operation and success of the firm.

Leadership Development

In the corporate world, managers and leaders receive dozens of hours of training each year to prepare them for their roles and responsibilities. In law firms, too many in management positions receive either no formal training or training that is infrequent, is insufficient in content or is a lecture, rather than interactive skills training. As a result, it is mostly ineffective.

Leadership development for practice leaders needs to include these elements: interactive, skills building sessions, coaching to enhance skills and assessment tools/feedback to enable them to see the areas they need to work on. Topics for the skills sessions typically include role modeling, understanding lawyer personality, group dynamics, leading change, giving constructive performance feedback, developing strategy and group business plans and more. Law firms would never think of asking a lawyer to handle a particular type of legal matter without sufficient preparation and training. It is just as critical to offer regular, systematic training and development programs for practice leaders.

We recommend practice leaders have no fewer than two full days of management and leadership training each year in order to keep skills fresh and to develop new ones. It is best if the practice leaders meet at least three times a year for at least a day of training, with some coaching and feedback on their skills development in between the sessions.

Progress and Accountability Meetings

As discussed above, Managing Partners should meet with practice leaders throughout the year to track progress against goals, address issues that may be affecting performance, discuss resource needs, and make sure their duties are being fulfilled according to plans. We recommend that Managing Partners have formal meetings with practice leaders quarterly so that impediments to performance goals can be minimized or eliminated quickly. However, Managing Partners should also make a habit of “walking the halls” (i.e., visiting the practice leaders in their locations) on a regular basis to monitor progress, coach and offer guidance, troubleshoot, and simply be visible and available as a resource to the firm’s practice leaders.

In return for high levels of empowerment, practice leaders are expected to be accountable for performance goals and metrics. This means having consequences for falling short. Managing Partners must impose a level of accountability on its practice heads to not only motivate the desired behavior, but also to demonstrate the firm’s commitment to high-performing groups and successful practice management.

There are various ways that firms hold their leaders accountable. As mentioned above, one method is regular meetings of firm management with the practice leaders to address their progress on group and leader goals. Some firms use an “upward review” where the group members and members of firm management provide feedback to the practice leader on their performance. This kind of feedback is critical to enable practice leaders to enhance their leadership effectiveness. In some firms, these results are factored into the leader’s compensation. A growing number of firms simply replace the practice leader if expectations are not met within a limited period of time. This is occurring more frequently due to the growing importance of the role and management’s unwillingness to allow an ineffective leader to compromise the success of a practice group and its contributions to the firm's overall performance.

It has been our experience that practice leaders want and strive to perform at a high level. However, some have not been provided clear job descriptions and expectations and adequate leadership training and coaching. In other firms, they are ineffective because the partners have not truly “bought into” empowerment of practice groups and their leaders. In our experience, it is actually the rare situation where the practice leaders do not have or cannot learn the relevant characteristics, behaviors or skills to be effective. Many times, it is a combination of these factors that undermine the overall effectiveness of practice leaders. With active involvement, support, and guidance from the Managing Partner, practice leaders will be better prepared to meet, and even exceed, performance expectations.