I just finished reading an interesting book called Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces That Shape Behavior by Jonah Berger (Simon & Schuster, 2017). Professor Berger is a marketing professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. In this book, he explores two human tendencies that seem to be at odds with each other—the
Influence
Leading Lawyers: Your Most Potent Tool is Your Mindset
By Dr. Larry Richard on
This post was originally published at the Legal Executive Institute website, a ThomsonReuters site, on April 15, 2015:
Are you a practicing lawyer who is transitioning into a leadership role? Whether it’s as a managing partner, practice group leader, office managing partner, or executive committee member—in all cases, to be effective as a leader, you need to make a significant shift in your mindset in several ways.
First, many lawyer-leaders default to the role of “manager”—making sure that important things get done in a regular and predictable way (timesheets are turned in, mentoring younger lawyers takes place, work is assigned rationally, etc.). There is certainly a need for management, but today the greater need in law firms is for leadership, i.e., determining what direction your constituents should go in, and then encouraging them to voluntarily go there. So in addition to thinking like a manager, you also have to think like a leader.…
Continue Reading Leading Lawyers: Your Most Potent Tool is Your Mindset
The Psychologically Savvy Leader
By Dr. Larry Richard on
In talking to law firm leaders these days, what I am hearing most frequently are their concerns about disruptive change and its impact on their ability to maintain a profitable and competitive firm.
One consequence of this increased focus on change is that rank-and-file partners are being asked to do more with less—to take on…
Accountability 101 – Part four
By Dr. Larry Richard on
Posted in Accountability, Change Management
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…
Accountability 101 – Part three
By Dr. Larry Richard on
Posted in Accountability, Change Management
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…
Accountability 101 – Part two
By Dr. Larry Richard on
Posted in Accountability, Change Management
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 (https://www.lawyerbrainblog.com/?p=198), I explained the importance of the…
Accountability 101 – Part one
By Dr. Larry Richard on
Posted in Accountability, Change Management
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…