Transcript jigsawconsultancy

Essential Leadership Skills for Driving Sustainable Growth
High Performance Leadership in Professional Service Firms – the empirical case?
Research Summary
Many organisations fail or are acquired
A few manage to grow and succeed
New entrants appear and grow fast
Organisational
Performance
Rate of change and complexity are determinants
Weaker leaders and fee earners are exposed
Key to success is responsiveness to change
Time
Predictably, next year’s changed market will mean some Firms will make it and others will not.
High Performance Leadership in Professional Service Firms – the empirical case?
The key differentiators at the time of change
Strategic Intent
Client Focus
Adaption and Innovation
Teamwork
People
Brand Development
Business Development
Leadership
The Gifted Lawyer versus The Gifted Leader – what is needed today?
Leaders and Lawyers
BORN?
or
BRED?
Low
GIFTED
LEADER
Leadership skills
High
The Gifted Lawyer versus The Gifted Leader – what is needed today?
Low
Legal Expertise
GIFTED
LAWYER
High
Driving Profitability and Growth through Behaviour
THINK
Develop strategies to get fee earners
thinking more broadly and flexibly. Ensure the Firm is
well informed and innovating. Develop contingencies
INVOLVE
Implement people development strategies
Create a team environment where people
say what they really feel and who
add real value when they come together
INSPIRE
Have strategies for building confidence in the brand.
Create alliances and networks to influence outcomes.
Build belief in success in good and bad times
DELIVER
Create an organisation free from bureaucracy
that empowers people to take action and sell
Set the bar high and create a culture of improvement
Always have the client in mind
Business Development in Law Firms – replacing traditional approaches
Fee Earner’s current capabilities and performance
Best legal expert
Meeting particular client needs with specific solutions
Focused on one part of the service
Building relationships with the direct client (fee payer)
Exceeding individual fee targets
Building confidence and trust in the service
Successful fee earning in a more predictable environment
Business Development in Law Firms – replacing traditional approaches
Fee Earner’s future capabilities and performance
Understanding the clients’ needs from the clients’ point of view
Providing creative and holistic business solutions
Dealing with multiple services, approaches and options
Building relationships with multiple stakeholders and decision makers
Working effectively in teams (internally and externally) to exceed Firm’s targets
Building confidence and excitement in the offer and the brand
Develops business and earns fees in a
fast moving, complex, competitive environment
Business Development in Law Firms – replacing traditional approaches
Additionally, sales processes need to support fee earners and drive activity
•
Pipeline management
- volume , velocity, prioritisation
PERFORMANCE NOW
- eliminate ‘the maybe’ – ‘a no is better than a maybe’
- ensure daily, weekly and monthly reviews
•
Account planning
- increase face to face time with clients by 25%
- empathise with the client’s needs in the current climate
- engage your client in your plans for them
•
Sales forecasting
- ruthless realism
- ask fee earners to ‘flag’ what they can close in the next month or quarter
- always have a weekly, monthly and quarterly outlook
•
Sales management
- keep your discipline
- prioritize – not a minute wasted
- innovate through the whole team
- treat information as a valuable commodity
Embracing Commercial Development Methodologies in a Changing Marketplace
Some practical and necessary approaches to embedding a sales culture
- Develop fee earners and leaders in the skills to manage change
- Identify the Firm’s high potential group and ensure focused development
- Implement detailed account planning for the next financial period and thereafter
- Embed any efficiencies that have been adopted in recent times
- Organise cross-practice teams to innovate for the future needs of the client
- Target the ‘Opportunity Share’ not the ‘Market Share’ over the next three years
Essential Leadership Skills for Driving Sustainable Growth
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