Asked and Answered

By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

Q. I am the managing partner of an eight-attorney firm in Austin, Texas, that was formed last year when several of us left another firm. The most frustrating part of the managing partner job is managing the people - this includes other partners, associates and staff. How do I deal with people that are not following firm policy or doing things they should not be doing?

A. Managing people is one of the toughest challenges that law firms face. Challenges often involve people not following firm policy and doing what they should not be doing. It drives owners, managing partners and administrators crazy.

My advice to frustrated owners, managing partners and administrators - tell them to stop. Seriously. As the managing partner of your firm you can't beat around the bush and be sheepish concerning your expectations about desired performance and behavior in the office. Confront the performance or behavioral problem immediately. Manage such problems in real time. Don't wait for the annual performance review and don't treat serious problems as a "self-improvement" effort. Tell them how you feel about the performance or behavioral issue, the consequences for failure to resolve the issue, your timeline for resolving the issue, and the follow-up schedule that you will be using to monitor the issue. If they must resolve the performance or behavioral issue in order to keep their job, tell them so. They may need this level of confrontation in order to give them the strength to be able to deal with their issues.

Being a wimp does not help you or them. Tell them like it is and conduct a heart-to-heart discussion. You will be glad you did.

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John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC,(www.olmsteadassoc.com) is a past chair and member of the ISBA Standing Committee on Law Office Management and Economics. For more information on law office management please direct questions to the ISBA listserver, which John and other committee members review, or view archived copies of The Bottom Line Newsletters. Contact John at jolmstead@olmsteadassoc.com.