4 Legal Leadership Strategies to Build In-house Legal Capability by Dirk Baxter, PhD SPHR and Karen Steadman, PhD
Having the right in-house legal counsel team is an increasingly important facet of a successful talent strategy, however it is often neglected. If your organization’s current state consists of what would be considered the bare minimum [individual PDPs (personal development plans), career planning meetings individually every 6-12 months, and recruiting for technical expertise], you might be in for some bad news. The complexity of the modern market and political landscape requires a more agile and interpersonally savvy legal team than previous scenarios. Here are four strategies that legal leadership should incorporate to help increase the team’s capability.
1. Pay attention to the “soft” skills.
Technical skills and education are the floor to a career and the soft skills are the ceiling. Unfortunately, recruiting and hiring for in-house legal tends to focus on technical skills. Though foundational, especially in areas of critical expertise, these competencies often overshadow almost ignored critical attributes and skills a lawyer needs to be successful with internal clients. In fact, the biggest mistake legal teams make is not selecting on the very skills they want new lawyers to possess such as:
- Coaching– advising and enabling clients on ways to risk mitigate on their own.
- Issue Spotting – not waiting to be asked but instead proactively advising a business partner about possible solutions.
- Broad Business Perspective –One of the often cited issues we hear about in-house counsel is that they do not understand the business. Exposure as well networking across the business is critical to be effective with broader issues.
- Collaborative Problem Solving – working with others to collaboratively determine the best course of action rather than providing advice in a vacuum.
Some of the skills noted above are more easily developable while others are not. If a skill is not easily learned then the best legal teams place a candidate in a test situation before they decide to hire rather than move far down the path with someone who ultimately damages business relationships.
2. Incentivize what you want more of.
For many legal teams, incentives and bonuses are paid out in two ways. The first way is to give everyone a bonus at the same percentage. This so-called peanut-butter approach (like making a sandwich where you spread the bonus around at an even thickness) is easy, tied to very general business results, and has exactly the opposite effect of what the team needs.
The second common method is to tie incentives to individuals but base performance only on technical expertise and prowess. Think of the smartest attorney who was horrible to work with – why would an organization put him in charge of an entire team? In engineering there is a saying that “the best engineer does not always make the best engineering team leader”. It is the same for legal.
What is missing from these approaches are the very areas where you want your team to do more. Need more mentoring and coaching for new attorneys? Incent mentors through bonus or recognition. Remember, incentives don’t have to be monetary. Spend the time to see who is doing what you want done well, and ensure they know they are appreciated. Additionally, do not push that your team behave in one way and then reinforce in a completely opposite way. For example, do not ignore bad behavior. If you say you have a NO JERKS rule, than stick by it. If you promote the biggest jerk then you send a very clear message to other attorneys that it is only talk.
3. Train your in-house clients.
In-house legal and external legal teams consult with clients differently yet the expectations aren’t well understood. Clients for external lawyers tend to have a discrete issue, attorneys know the ins and outs of the law, and questions about how to either stay out of trouble or how to best get out of trouble are more clear cut. Conversely, in-house attorneys have to collaboratively work with their clients to figure out why the question was being asked in the first place. The in-house legal team is a longer term partner and will hopefully arm clients to proactively know when to bring in legal, how to do some risk mitigation on their own, and what information is needed the next time they have a question so the team can answer quickly and accurately. Educating internal clients can help set the right expectations and build relationships early to avoid confusion.
4. Spend the time.
If you’re worried you will spend all of your time doing talent management, don’t worry - you will quickly see the rewards especially if you select the right talent to manage in the first place. Building your legal team’s overall capability beyond their technical knowledge starts with empowering your team leaders and individuals to define the benefits to the business. Instead of being reactive to client issues, reactive to talent needs, and burning out your top performers, the result will be a legal team who understands the business, is sought after before there is a problem, and has a deep bench strength of talent to step in if needed.
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