Managing People and Performance

In people businesses such as law firms, the ability to manage and develop others is a core business skill. We will work with you to make sure your partners, senior lawyers and managers have the right skills to recruit, develop and retain your talented people.

What do your people say about the way they are managed?

When people are managed well they are more productive, profitable and more loyal to you and your clients. When people are managed badly, talent is under-developed and performance problems are left to fester, affecting morale, stress and the profitability of the team. Reviewing your feedback about the way people are being managed helps to focus the programme where it will have most impact.

What management competencies and skills do you need?

People are increasingly demanding of their managers. They want good quality work, to get recognition and continuous feedback, to be coached and developed, to be listened to and on top of all that they want a manager who can build trusting relationships when working remotely. These are tough expectations, yet many managers have not been given the skills to do so.

What’s stopping your mangers managing?

Even when mangers know what to do many still struggle. Some lawyers and professionals are natural managers and love this part of their job; others are more reluctant – they may prefer problems to people, or they may find it hard to confront difficult issues or they may not make time. Yet the only way to progress in most careers is to learn to deliver through others and build a profitable practice or department. In our programmes we aim to address the individual barriers as well as any organisational ones preventing you from getting high performance from your people. Personality profiling and 360 degree feedback are powerful tools in tackling these problems.

How do you develop people management skills?

Management skills can be developed through webinars and workshops if they provide plenty of opportunities for practice. When a business wants to introduce a new recruitment process or performance review system – we can develop or refresh the management skills alongside the launch. We will work with your HR team to ensure the managers learn the skills they need and how to use your systems effectively. We can also help you to develop or refine the HR tools you use to improve performance.

We tailor programmes to your needs, but popular ones include:

  • Recruitment interviewing
  • Delegating and supervising
  • Coaching and developing others
  • Tackling under-performance
  • Conducting quarterly check-ins and performance reviews
  • Managing virtual teams