If you ignore everything else, do these things when managing people – Part II

In the second part of a two-part series on managing people, Kriss Will explains how firms can lift productivity by giving employees more control over challenging work and recognising them for a job well done.  

In my article in the last edition of ALMJ, I proposed that people-management skills are not just ‘nice-to-have’ skills; rather, they are key drivers of financial success in your firm. It is important to understand that anyone who is supervising staff needs to have these skills. Do not fall into the trap of saying “that people stuff is just for HR”. The day-to-day interactions between staff create the culture in your work team and firm, not the more distant HR activities. That is not to say that HR is unimportant, but the ability of the HR function to exert the influence needed to engender positive attitudes and behaviours is limited and it is the direct relationships that really have an impact.

In the first article, I proposed five key areas and addressed the first two:

• developing trust and respect; and
• communicating effectively.

The three remaining areas for people-management skills development are:

• encouraging autonomy;
• creating challenging work; and
• providing recognition.

Encouraging autonomy

People like to have some control over their lives, and this includes their work activities.  Giving people some choice in what they do at work, and/or how they do it, creates a greater sense of commitment to the work. Research has shown that people who feel they have more control over their work activities are more productive.

Developing autonomy-building work patterns can start by involving the less-experienced lawyer or support person in a discussion when delegating work. Being open to their ideas on how they may go about the work demonstrates your trust and willingness to give them autonomy. Some examples of the discussion approach for those who are confident and experienced with the work requirements are: “How would you like to go about this?” and “Let’s agree on what we need to achieve – you decide on the how.” For less confident or experienced people, providing them with scope to contribute is often a better option as they may feel overwhelmed if they believe they cannot get your guidance along the way. An example of a discussion-opening question is: “Can you generate some options for how you could achieve this?”

A key aspect is to balance the tension between “I am ultimately responsible, therefore I can justify micromanaging” with “I will give you some autonomy and my way is not the only way”. One way to manage this is to talk about where the ultimate responsibility lies, and manage the urge to overly direct or manage through sensible and agreed check-ins (for example, asking for progress reports on large pieces of work, or asking to be notified when a stage or piece of work is completed).

Finally, when encouraging autonomy, the way in which mistakes are viewed is important.  Mistakes which are a normal part of learning need to be treated as such. If there is a culture in which a mistake will always lead to someone “getting into trouble”, people are less likely to want to take responsibility and are more likely to try to fix the mistake without letting you know about it. Think about how you treat mistakes and what impact this might have on the people with whom you work.

Creating challenging work

The results of every survey I have seen about what people value in their work show that interesting and challenging work is rated highly. A lack of challenging work tasks is also a key factor that draws people to consider new employment options – that is, if someone is bored, they are more likely to seek new challenges elsewhere.

There can be a temptation to only assign work that fits easily with someone’s known skillset, knowing this will lead to the work being done well and quickly. This is important when running a team. In my view, though, there needs to be a balance between “specialised/productive” and “specialised/boxed in”, particularly in the early years of a lawyer’s career. You can tap into what people find engaging by asking them what they have found the most interesting in the past six months and why, and use this knowledge in your work delegation. When delegating tasks that will challenge someone, you can also increase their confidence by saying “I think you are ready for this” to ward off the fear of failure and to show your trust in them. Saying “I am pretty sure you are up for this, have a go” tends to have the opposite effect!

Creating challenge around the work content does not mean you have to have the most interesting of all legal work to delegate. You can stretch people’s thinking and create greater interest in work by holding simple “lunch and learn” sessions to discuss developments that relate to practice areas/your clients/your firm/the business world. Encouraging people to be involved in profession-wide activities such as the Section committees at the Law Council of Australia, or via your local Law Society/Institute, also creates opportunities for them to be challenged.

Finally, on this point, asking someone who is bored “what else would you like to do” is useful. If the response is that they do not know, try another approach by asking them to come up with three new ideas for how they could make their work more interesting and follow up in a week to hear their thoughts.

Providing recognition

I have written a number of articles about providing recognition and feedback and the positive benefits of doing so. By providing recognition, people feel valued and, by providing positive feedback, you can help to build the confidence that, in turn, assists a person to more quickly build their competence.

Too often the small recognition points are overlooked or devalued by those who manage people, with the focus shifting to the annual performance review. The annual performance review is often not viewed as “recognition” by those being reviewed, so taking a more personal regular approach will have more impact. For example, a simple thank you, saying “well done”, or a statement of appreciation is valued. You may think you do this quite frequently. I suggest you measure yourself for a week to see how often you actually show appreciation – in my experience it is often less than you think.

Surprising your team with a public thanks, passing on praise from others (e.g., clients) and making sure that credit is given where credit is due are important steps in providing regular recognition that has an impact. Importantly, avoid the trap of “I pay you, what else could you want?” Salary is not the be all and end all. It is true that people want to be paid fairly, but in my experience an uplift in performance is more likely if you provide meaningful recognition rather than reminding people that they are paid well.

In closing, the theme of ‘trust and respect’ resonates across all of these people-management skill areas. People will forgive all manner of shortcomings and go the extra mile where the relationship is based on trust and respect. I believe building and maintaining trust and respect is the foundation stone and should be at the forefront of your people-management approach.

 Kriss Will is a law firm management consultant and the founder of Kriss Will Consulting. She can be contacted at kriss@kwillconsult.com.au.