The Modern Art of Delegation

The Modern Art of Delegation

In March, Surrey Law Society members and subscribers to the Surrey JLD mailing list were invited to attend a free webinar on Delegation Skills for Lawyers. The session, which was part of the Supporting Surrey programme, was presented by the fantastic Nicola Jones of Athena Professional, and we’re delighted that she has shared some of her top tips from the webinar here.

Delegation looks simple. Highly educated and experienced lawyers are assumed to have the capability to delegate with ease. Indeed, it is often a necessary part of their working practice. Why then do so many find it challenging? What is it about the act of handing over work which can create tension and resistance?

One obvious point is that far too often colleagues are not given adequate preparation for new responsibilities and may not receive any development once in post. When it comes to delegation, lawyers often learn by observing the mistakes of others and figuring things out in the moment. They do not necessarily have the benefit of developing an approach which works for them.

In a recent “Supporting Surrey” virtual workshop most attendees felt that they ought to be able to delegate more often or more effectively. Clearly there is something of a mystique about delegation which people feel they are yet to achieve. Our starting point was a discussion of the benefits of delegation. We agreed that there is a compelling business case for effective delegation including:

1. Allowing managers to focus on more important and strategic tasks by freeing up their time

2.Increased productivity and efficiency by allowing team members to focus on their specific roles and responsibilities

3. Enhancing communication and collaboration within the team by fostering a sense of trust and shared responsibility

4.Improved decision making by leveraging the diverse perspectives and skills of team members

5. Empowering team members by providing them with new challenges and responsibilities

6. Creating opportunities for learning and growth by exposing team members to new tasks and experiences

7. Helping to retain and attract top talent by providing opportunities for career development

If we did not already think delegating was important, surely we would after reading that list!

What then, gets in the way of effective delegation? The group felt that there were two main causes; firstly, the desire to retain control of the work and, secondly, the time it takes to explain, monitor and review work when one might quickly and easily get the job done oneself. Both these drivers against delegation are understandable human responses, especially in the context of a business in which quality assurance standards are extremely high, and time pressure to bill hours and deliver client service is intense.

The conscious letting go of the work to be delegated can be a challenge. Two questions arise.

1. What does this ask of the colleague to whom I am delegating, and can they handle it?

2.What does this ask of me?

One effective way to improve the ability to delegate is to use a structured approach. Often lawyers resist using models on the grounds that they are overly simplistic. Yet taking a consistent and considered approach to delegation is harder in practice than it is in theory. Servicing yourself with a useful tool to use every time makes a lot of sense.

How To Delegate Effectively

Delegating in a hybrid world can feel especially hard.

• Sustain rapport with informal communication on a regular basis

• Have daily short check-ins for 10 mins, am and pm if necessary

• Use project-management tools rather than email to share tasks and keep track of work progress

Becoming comfortable with core management and leadership skills has long been a bit of a bug-bear in the legal sector. Investing time and money in the development of new skills and behaviours has not been regarded as an imperative. As a result, some people have struggled to embrace the activities and responsibilities of more senior roles.

Sometimes it can feel as though being in legal practice is an exercise in managing a sense of overwhelm. Adding the requirement to delegate into that mix may feel like one thing too many. Certainly in recent history, the fact that the billable hour has been the key driver of profitability has had the unintended consequence of creating ambivalence about efficiency. Why would I work more efficiently if I cannot then meet my hours target?

Increasingly firms are offering fixed fees based on a value-pricing model. The incentive is to increase efficiency, bring the case in on budget and drive profitability on the basis of a combination of quality of service, value-added and time spent. Delegation has an important role to play in realising this business model.

The business case for delegation:

Task: to review and organises documents

Senior partner, chargeable @ £500/hour, take 10 hours

Junior colleague, chargeable @ £200/hour, takes 12 hours

Cost to the business of failure to delegate: £2,600 + loss of potential use of time

We are at an inflexion point in legal practice in my opinion. Yes, the pandemic forced change in unprecedented ways, but more importantly, the capability of digital technology has shifted from mind-bogglingly rapid, into the beginnings of radically new ways of working. In the next 10 years legal practice will change fundamentally.

A lawyers’ point of differentiation will be the quality of “client experience” or CX, meaning how clients interact with the firm, primarily, digitally. The efficiency of systems and lawyers’ human skills will no longer be about what works for the firm: it will be about what works for the client.

What does that mean for legal practitioners now?

In relation to delegation, the need shifts from a focus on the completion of the task as instructed, towards a focus on the delivery of a common purpose identified by the client and the lawyer. The work effort is directed towards that outcome and delegation happens in that context, rather than in order to comply with a request from a more senior colleague. In this scenario delegation has as more to do with trust and mutual regard for the client, than it does with internal mechanisms of task allocation.

I suspect that, somewhat counter-intuitively, if we replaced the current dominant “more for less” mindset with one that engages with genuine efficiency, everyone might feel a little bit more human. And that is good news for lawyers and their clients. ■

By Nicola Jones

Athena Professional