What Makes Lawyers Tick?

Tag Archives: Leadership

Accountability 101 – Part four

By Dr. Larry Richard on Posted in Accountability

In three previous posts, I’ve discussed the psychology of how to hold partners accountable. I focused primarily on approaches that work well with individuals. In this post, I want to introduce you to three approaches that are more strategic, and work well with teams, groups or an entire firm. As a consequence, they have broader… Continue Reading

Accountability 101 – Part three

By Dr. Larry Richard on Posted in Accountability

In a previous post (Accountability 101 – Part two) I mentioned that to achieve accountability on the part of partners, you need to: Use a buy-in approach. Avoid either coercive or “incentivizing” approaches. Be proactive, not reactive. Use multiple interventions, not just one. In this post, I want to address the third point, “Use multiple interventions,… Continue Reading

Accountability 101 – Part two

By Dr. Larry Richard on Posted in Accountability

This is part two of a series of posts on partner accountability. To recap, in order to achieve accountability, you need to: Use a buy-in approach. Avoid either coercive or “incentivizing” approaches. Be proactive, not reactive. Use multiple interventions, not just one. In a previous post (http://www.lawyerbrainblog.com/?p=198), I explained the importance of the buy-in approach…. Continue Reading

Accountability 101 – Part one

By Dr. Larry Richard on Posted in Accountability

How do you “hold partners accountable?” It’s the beginning of the year, and many law firm leaders are still struggling to get their partners to complete some of the non-billable tasks that are vital to the firm’s success. In the past several weeks, I’ve spoken to a number of law firm leaders who have raised… Continue Reading

Losing Weight and Keeping It Off

By Dr. Larry Richard on Posted in Self-Management

Although I usually write about leadership, change and resilience, today I want to address weight loss. I know it seems unrelated to the preceding topics, but there’s actually a connection, which we’ll get to in a minute. My main reason for writing this post is to respond to all of my clients and colleagues who… Continue Reading

Why Skeptics Make Good Lawyers and Lousy Leaders

By Dr. Larry Richard on Posted in Leadership

I recently finished conducting a 6-month-long “Action Learning” leadership program with a mid-size law firm. The idea is to train lawyers to be leaders by actually placing them into real live leadership situations, and teaching through experience, instead of using a “death by Power Point” approach. At the end of our capstone meeting, one of… Continue Reading

Why Leaders Need Empathy and Flexibility

By Dr. Larry Richard on Posted in Leadership

When I design a leadership course for a law firm, I usually include an assessment component. Effective leaders need to be self-aware–they need to understand their strengths and weaknesses, their possible blind spots, and the style of leadership to which they gravitate. To gain this kind of insight requires feedback. The two most common types… Continue Reading