Among the myriad of daily activities that law school does not prepare you for is having staff. Whether you’re an associate at a firm or a solo who has grown large enough to hire support, you’re eventually going to need to tell other people what to do.
For many who went straight through school, this could very well be the first time you have people working for you. Questions will arise:
- How do I treat these people?
- How do I address them?
- What should I have them do?
- When and how should I delegate tasks to them?
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Unfortunately, many new lawyers will default to one of two options:
- D-bag mode
- Hoarding mode
D-bag v. Hoarding
A new lawyer enters d-bag mode when they start in a new office and assume that since they’re a lawyer, they know what’s what and can start bossing people around. The new lawyer will quickly be disabused of this notion as he learns that a solid paralegal with a number of years under their belt is usually worth much more than a new associate.
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A new lawyer enters hoarding mode when they are scared to death of delegating anything for fear of being overbearing or because they are a Type-A control freak who feels like they need to do everything themselves. The new lawyer will soon learn that there is way too much work to be done and that the staff is there for a reason.
Proper delegation is an essential skill, and often one that is underdeveloped in recent graduates. That’s why they usually end up falling into one of the two categories above. But the whole point of having staff is so that you can more effectively leverage your time. By effectively working with staff, you can offload tasks others can handle and focus on billable work and business development. If you have a staff, utilize them.
When dealing with staff (paralegals, assistants, secretaries, clerks, junior associates) keep in mind that proper delegation can be tricky and people often have different ideas as to what delegation means. You’re entering into a world of managing inter-office relationships with people at a variety of levels on the totem pole. As opposed to re-inventing the wheel or trying to figure out how to delegate work on your own, it’s probably better to step over into the MBA world and take a page from their playbook.
Instead, Delegate SMART
In business management, an effective strategy that is utilized across many business environments is SMART delegation:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Agreed
- Realistic
- Time-bound
Many people also suggest adding the following to the above methodology to give us SMARTER:
- Evaluate
- Re-Evaluate
Sure it’s a corny sort of mnemonic that you would have used while in law school, but it does give you a template that works pretty well when delegating work.
To ensure that any delegation that takes place meets the SMART goal above, follow these steps:
- Define the task
- Select the individual or team & assess their ability to complete the task
- Explain the reasons
- State required results
- Agree upon deadlines
- Support and communicate
- Offer feedback on results when necessary
I want to stress number two, assessing ability. Ask yourself: Is the other person or team of people capable of doing the task? Do they understand what needs to be done? If not, you can’t delegate. That will probably be a tricky thing to learn as you start out as a new lawyer, but it is an incredibly important part of the process.
If you really want to get a clearer understanding, I also suggest looking at the classic Tannenbaum-Schmidt Continuum which is a simple model that shows the relationship between the level of freedom that a manager chooses to give to a team, and the level of authority used by the manager.
Where you fall on the continuum will be based on a variety of factors: office culture, staff ability, the nature of work being done, etc. But looking at who people senior to you delegate work, and comparing it to the continuum, can give a general sense as to what type of work environment your firm utilizes.
Once you get a handle on this and learn how to effectively delegate work, you’ll not only be be freeing yourself of tasks, but you’ll likely also raise the productivity of everyone around you.
Keith Lee practices law at Hamer Law Group, LLC in Birmingham, Alabama. He writes about professional development, the law, the universe, and everything at Associate’s Mind. He is also the author of The Marble and The Sculptor: From Law School To Law Practice (affiliate link), published by the ABA. You can reach him at [email protected] or on Twitter at @associatesmind.