Have A Team That Works Hard For You with Molly McGrath
I am a firm believer that people shouldn’t hire based on skill, rather they should hire based on personality, motivation, and passion. Skills can be taught, but it’s the personality and character that’s almost impossible to teach.
First and foremost when you hire it should be for the emotional intelligence and core values. It’s so expensive and painful to hire and train someone who ends up not showing up or quitting after a short time. When you hire from the human side of things, you will see a world of a difference in the employees you hire.
Money motivates to a certain point, but when you have a goal, a mission statement that someone is passionate about then that will be a greater motivator to them. They won’t mind being paid less at first.
- Be upfront with money. Find out how much they need to survive, to put food on the table…
- If they are somewhere in the range of what you can afford, even if it’s a little more, see how they feel about your mission because if they connect to it they may be willing to get paid less.
- This is a relationship and people won’t care about the money as much if they get communication and attention. Make sure you’re having weekly meetings and going over goals and your mission so your employees will feel anchored.
It’s all about the culture and environment you create in your firm.
In episode three we talked about the 10x differentiator system.
The 3 pillars -
- The Differentiator
- The System
- The Transformation
can also be applied to the employee perspective.
You can use the Differentiator for your firm’s mission to find staff that will get behind your mission.
We see here that the System also needs to include a system of how you deal with employees. They need to regularly get motivation and feedback.
The final step, the Transformation, is the hardest. You have to change your mindset about who your employees are in your firm. They are your soldiers, your team that will help you achieve your mission.
Try to imagine what you would feel as the employee. What feedback would you want? When do you need a pat on the back for a job well done? How often do you need to be motivated? You have to schedule time and get yourself in the habit of thanking your employees and giving them feedback.
Empower your employees. Give them a project to own, something they can be in charge of reporting back to you at your weekly meetings. The employees having responsibilities will empower them, show them that they are important and capable.
Your employees are excited and proud of what they accomplish. You need to recognize that and return that excitement. They want your approval, they want to share the excitement.
You can have a secret reward system or an employee of the week/month. When an employee gets rewarded it motivates the others to do better because they want to be recognized too. You can even discuss the bonuses with your team and see what they like. A lot of time people would rather more time than money. You can come up with a certain goal that if you reach it the office will close earlier on Friday for that summer, or something like that.
The value of an employee is not necessarily in a 40 hour work week. The value of an employee is in the production of what it is that you need from them and if they can produce it in 30 hours, there’s no reason for them to work 40 hours.
It’s all about managing your distractions, focus, and discipline to make the most of your time.
Employees should really be coming to the attorney with proposed solutions and not constant problems. Train your employees to start figuring out solutions on their own.
Assess employees to see how they best learn, how they make decisions, how they solutionize, how they give and receive information. People learn by different methods and when you figure out how to give over information to your employees using their learning methods then you’ll make communication easier and help them learn faster and more efficiently.
Resources
Episode 03 - The Firm Differentiator 10x System
https://www.profitwithlaw.com/003
A free service for screen-sharing instructions for employees
Kolbe A Assessments for how people work more productively
http://www.kolbe.com/assessments/
Transcription service
Don’t Be a Yes Chick!: How to Stop Babysitting Your Boss, Work With a Dream Team and Transform Your Job, Without Losing Your Spirit or Sanity in the Process by Molly Hall and Laney Lyons
https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Yes-Chick-Babysitting-Transform/dp/0615478956
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Author
Moshe Amsel
Author
Moshe Amsel the host of the Profit with Law podcast is not an attorney. As the owner of a successful accounting firm DreamBuilder Financial and Law Firm Growth coaching organization Profit with Law, Moshe has proven that there are better and different ways for a law firm to do business and be successful.
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