Monthly Archive for June, 2009

Most professionals enjoy their technical work. After all, they chose the career in the first place primarily because they were attracted to the work involved and felt that it suited their abilities and personalities. Of course most people get bored if they do the same work for too long. That is why it is so [...]

Good leaders can inspire team members to excel by fostering optimism and a positive outlook. Here are some practical tips: Create a virtuous circle of positive expectations. Expect your team members to perform well. People are then more likely to live up to them. Lead by example. Make sure that your own professional work and [...]

Most professionals enjoy their technical work and get a kick out of serving their clients well. However, when I visit some offices where groups of professionals are at work, I notice that the atmosphere is rather leaden. Conversations, few and far between, are serious. There is very little smiling. There are lots of heads down [...]

I have noticed that many leaders of professional service teams do a lot of the formal things that are required of them. They hold meetings to review performance, they conduct performance review interviews, they keep their people informed about major changes, they involve their teams in objective setting and so on. What they don’t do [...]

Most professionals and support people welcome the opportunity to provide ideas for doing new things and for doing things better. These may be concerned with services, processes, systems or structures. They may be relevant to client service, marketing, organization, information technology, management, relationships or the firm’s culture. Tapping the ideas that people have about improving [...]

In professional teams responsibilities vary in terms of range and complexity. However, everyone is part of the team. Everyone’s work is important. It is a sad fact that in professional environments this is not always recognized. Sometimes a ‘them and us’ attitude between professionals and support people is evident. Sometimes professionals do not acknowledge sufficiently [...]

A failure to delegate properly is not uncommon, especially, but not exclusively, in law firms. In other words a large proportion of the professional work time of more senior people is spent doing things that more junior team members, with the right coaching, supervision and support, could handle. This not only means lower profits as [...]

In professional service teams the more senior people, for instance partners and associates, usually have all of the responsibility and authority that they need to undertake their work. On the other hand the more junior professional employees and the support people may feel over-controlled and consequently dissatisfied. Often, in these circumstances, people respond very well [...]

It is sad but true that many people, senior as well as junior, go through their working lives without receiving any kind of personal appreciation or recognition. Whenever I speak with leaders of teams of professionals it is clear that they are perfectly well aware of the importance of positive feedback but in many cases [...]

Energetic and enthusiastic leaders who demonstrate a vigorous drive for results have a positive effect on their team members. They act as role models. There are a number of things that you can do: Make sure that your team members, individually and collectively, have a clear sense of direction and challenging objectives for the more [...]

When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die. — (Eleanor Roosevelt) Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless. — (Mother Teresa) The drive to behave in a particular way comes from within. Because this is well understood, many leaders of professionals believe that they [...]

Regular and frank communications between colleagues allow everyone to be better informed about results, proposed changes, day-to-day problems and so on. They also help to develop trust and build better relationships. Here are some suggestions: Help your team members to recognize and use their colleagues’ sources of information. Make sure that you are not the [...]

Listening well goes to the heart of the professional–client relationship. Most professionals, if asked, say that they are pretty good listeners, as otherwise they would not be able to do their jobs. That is generally true. However, as with most basic skills that we take for granted, there are things that we can do to [...]

One of the finest ways to communicate desirable behaviour or the need for change is by example. In tough times, when it is necessary to keep an eye on expenses, the senior partner of a very successful architectural practice flies in economy rather than business class. The team leaders in a high-performing accountancy firm have [...]

Here are some guidelines: Appeal to hearts and minds. Many professionals, especially lawyers, accountants, scientists and engineers, use the power of reason and evidence to persuade others. They use logical arguments, marshal data in support of their proposals and are good at rebutting those points with which they disagree. Articulate leaders can be very effective [...]

Give people a fact or idea and you enlighten their minds; tell them a story and you touch their souls. — (Old Hasidic proverb) I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant. — (Alan Greenspan) [...]

New approaches only become embedded in the culture when it is clear that they work and are superior to old methods. Use lots of talk to hype up the validity of the new practices and promote and reward those who support and implement them. This model of leading change is, in my view, important to [...]

It is helpful to use the credibility afforded by early gains in the change process to tackle additional and bigger projects. It is important to re-emphasize shared purpose and to keep up the spirit of urgency. It is a good idea to involve junior people in more projects to assist the change effort.

It is useful to identify, publicize and reward early benefits that accrue during the change process. This encourages everyone to remain enthusiastic about working towards full implementation of the ultimate vision.

Get everyone, in their respective teams, to generate ideas to remove barriers to change and to improve performance within the vision and strategy framework. Ideas for improving structures, processes, service and working practices should be encouraged.