Time, Ladies and Gentlemen. Please. Time?!
We are information rich and yet increasingly time and decision making poor. We seem to be working harder and harder just to stand still. Work is becoming more fraught and a lot less enjoyable. We don’t even have the time to ask ourselves why? We’re too busy just doing.
We know the market is fragmenting while our universities are producing thousands more law graduates every year. We have apprentices to add to the ranks of paralegals and businesses looking to cherry pick the profitable work. More resources are being tied up to comply with the ever evolving regulatory requirements. Technological developments mean that we can be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information and data, which in turn is more complex to manage. Some clients expect instant responses for minimum costs plus the banks are wary of the sector.
The most recent LawCare annual report makes chilling reading as a snap shot on the health of our law firms. In many firms there is a squeezed middle that feel over worked and under valued and many are unsure whether the hassle of partnership is really worth it. Perhaps you have some empathy with the Chief Executive who said “I just felt that no matter what I was doing, I was always getting pulled somewhere else. I couldn’t truly focus on anything.”
There are huge challenges facing many firms and enormous pressure on you as leaders. Do our old models and ways of leading really work for 21st century firms? There is a jungle of advice out there, the good, the bad and the ugly. So where can you turn for help? Find someone who will help you to step back and create the space to think and frame some questions. This could prove to be invaluable. Additionally, leaders need to learn and develop and there are some great resources and ideas readily available.
If any of the above resonates at all with you then let’s make some time to meet and see if we can develop a better way of working? As Albert Einstein famously said:
“We cannot solve problems by using the same kind of thinking that created them”
“Insanity: doing the same thing repeatedly and yet expecting a different result”
Please call 0796 999 7335 or e-mail tim@asktim.org
You can read the feedback from solicitors who attended a recent seminar I co-presented on 21st Century Leadership for Law Firms
