Lawyers as Managers of People and Time

Lawyers as Managers of People and

Time A s lawyers who are also business owners, we are taught to have strong mindsets, often forgetting that managing a business comes with corresponding leadership roles. These roles require that we are proficient not only as leaders but also as managers. One tool that every good manager should have in his or her toolkit is the concept and regulated practice of Time Management. As I have been the sole managing partner of my firm for over a decade, I have endured a number of tried and true experiences. As I reflect back on my law school experience, I realize that law school does not teach us about law practice management ‘‘ You must evaluate your strengths and weaknesses as a manager, both personally and professionally .”

and being an all-around successful attorney. There are many aspects of running a successful law practice that one learns from experience while managing a firm. This being said, I was inspired to author a book on law practice management to help attorneys navigate through the complexities of managing their own firm. In this article, I will coach you on how to be a good lawyer as a manager, while managing your time effectively.

Lawyer as a Manager Your firm’s office structure could be top notch, you could have the best staff and a great reputation—but these assets will not be sustainable if your managerial skills are not up to par. You must evaluate your strengths and weaknesses as a manager, both personally and professionally. Below are some of the elements that every lawyer manager should understand and know how to do.

A. Not Everyone Can Be a Good Manager Often we make the mistake of choosing our managers based mostly on their experience, seniority, or technical skills. As the employer, your job is to assess your manager candidates to assure their qualifications will work well with both the firm and the rest of the staff. It is important for the individual to be prepared, groomed, and trained for management to ensure success in the position. A manager that is not involved with and has little to no communication with the staff will not have a good impact in your overall office environment. It is important for your staff to feel as though they can communicate efficiently and readily with their upline to ensure honesty and a prosperous firm. B. Know Your Team We all hear the saying “teamwork makes the dream work,” and that is exceptionally true for a prosperous law firm. I personally find personality tests are a great start to getting to know your team. There are a series of different assessments, such as the Profile XT assessment, the MyersBriggs Type Indicator, and others, which

can serve as a way of getting to know your team, be used later to determine new learning styles and behaviors that will favor team building, ensure a productive and welcoming atmosphere, and help others be more understanding of each other. Though it can be an investment of time and finances, such efforts will result in a closer relationship with your staff and a more collegial work environment overall.

C. Office Culture It is important to create a work environment that adheres to your own core values. I referred to “cakes and tacos” in my book because we have cake to celebrate birthdays and tacos on Tuesdays to celebrate the success of the office. For my office, I have found what works best is a friendly environment. Lawyer managers need to be aware of how seemingly small factors build expectations and establish a firm’s culture.

D. Communicate with Your Staff In order to have a successful relationship with any individual, there needs to be communication on both ends. Communicating with your staff has to be a priority in order to assure that the workload is put out efficiently and orderly. In my experience, I found that having other “channels” as a means of communicating with all my staff works quite well. For example, a channel could be an office manager with whom the staff can easily communicate so that the information can go up the chain and in turn be addressed. Another means of communication that works effectively is a weekly staff meeting with everyone in the office, during which we can discuss any new success stories, any new changes, or whatever the case may be. This allows your staff members to all sit down as a collective and do an overview of the week. In this way, everyone is able to communicate with one another about any work-related issues and may propose solutions or new changes to the office’s day-to-day operation.

Time Management A. Time Management Matrix This tool happens to be one of my favorites to use for time management. It’s a concept that originated with President Eisenhower and author Stephen Covey. 1 The matrix is divided into four quadrants: urgent, not urgent, important, and not important.

B. Quadrants Explained One of my favorite representations for the time management matrix (graphic on next page) is from Alex Czarto, in his piece on time management practices. 2

Quadrant 1 (Important/Urgent): Things that are impossible to resist, like emergencies and family-related issues. Managers and business owners may feel that everything is important and urgent; however they need to zoom out and see the big picture at hand in order to escape that mindset and move to Quadrant 2.

Quadrant 2 (Important/Not Urgent):

Tasks that are useful for planning and prevention purposes, like exercise or office meetings. This quadrant remains difficult. Sifting through projects to identify those that are most in line with your priorities requires a strong sense of purpose when you are constantly bombarded with activities, opportunities, and choices. For the first ten years as an attorney, I was constantly hustling and working hard for opportunities. Then a switch flipped and opportunities I had never imagined started knocking on my door. Considering I never imagined them, I had to review my goals and priorities to reassess and evaluate where they fit, if at all, in my life.

Quadrant 3 (Not Important/Urgent): Distractions such as irrelevant emails or texts that can wait until a later time. This quadrant can best be described as interruptions. These could include emails (alerts or constantly checking), text messages, staff members walking into the door to ask a question, and procrastinated projects and duties that become urgent. It is best to minimize time in this quadrant.

Quadrant 4 (Not Important/Not Urgent): Things that are complete time wasters, like scrolling through social media for no beneficial gain or surfing the internet “just because.” You never want to be here. It is a complete waste. It does not further goals and is basically busy work. This is where a worst-case employ

ee would live, racking up hours but not accomplishing anything. Avoid Quadrant 4.

C. Attention Residue and the Evil of Multitasking Multitasking may seem like the most beneficial thing to do at any given point in time because you feel that the more things you are doing, the more you will get done. Unfortunately, this is not the case. In “Deep Work,” Cal Newport discusses “attention residue.” 3 He explains how during our daily activities our attention does not quickly follow when switching tasks because often our mind is still occupied with the previous task. His solution for this is something called “deep work,” in which an individual focuses on one single task before moving to the other. Give yourself a deadline to keep yourself accountable, and keep track of time to ensure you are not spending too much time on one task.

D. Distractions I use the terms “dopamine” and the “addiction to distraction” in my book as a theoretical explanation to the popular usage of smartphones in this day and age. Dopamine is a chemical in the brain that is involved in a multitude of brain functions, including regulating pleasure. When we have an enjoyable experience, dopamine is released into our brain; this makes us want to repeat the activity. Hence, the constant usage of smartphones, which causes a huge distraction to your overall schedule. Such dependency on technology and internet-generated gratification can impact our long-term ability to stay focused. We can fight our distractions by slowly decreasing our technology usage, perhaps by turning off email notifications on your desktop and turning off your smartphone at work. These are just two ideas to lessen dependency on technology.

E. Fatigue and Burnout As a business owner and manager, I have experienced firsthand what both fatigue and burnout look like. Through my experience, I found that it is important to block off time for certain tasks, and sometimes the tasks need to be assigned based on when I have optimal effectiveness versus when I need a lighter task. We need to strive to manage our time more effectively so we can avoid the stress that comes with fatigue and burnouts.

F. Eat the Frog This is a reminder to tackle your most important and hardest tasks earlier in the day to prevent them from lingering in your mind all day. We often tend to put aside the most important task because we know how time consuming and difficult that task may be, which leads us to procrastinate and think about it throughout the day, making it more stressful than it should be. As a lawyer, this may be a difficult brief. However, as a lawyer manager, this very well could be a difficult conversation with an employee on their own performance. Not procrastinating the management decisions will be most useful for you and your staff.

Not only must you make a decision to tackle the most important tasks first, but you also need to be free of outside distractions. For instance, you could literally place a plastic frog on your desk, and let staff and others know that you should not be disturbed whenever the frog is out. Staff members could do the same when they need a distraction-free working period at some point in the day.

G. Zooming Out and Zooming In The process of “zooming out” refers to tracking and working towards long-term goals. Through my experience, in order to proceed with a goal, break it down into smaller, more accomplishable goals that can be tracked and measured. Also, implement accountability, like telling others or having them help you track progress.

“Zooming in” is a process of building your ability to focus. By honing your ability to commit to intense work, you can expect a greater work turn out. Rhythmic scheduling can help you by fixing your time for intense work every day or throughout your week. Allowing yourself to commit to one task at a time will maximize your focus on said task. Not only will this aid with the work that you may want to put out, but in return you will become accustomed to said schedule, which will help you with future projects.

Conclusion Management is rarely taught in undergraduate or law school; nonetheless, management skills set successful professionals apart. These skills are essential for moving your business forward and continuing to grow. I hope that what I learned from running my own law firm can motivate you to seek out books, mentors, and other guidance to improve the critical skills that are essential to a firm’s growth. As the Chinese proverb says, “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Begin your journey by applying these ideas to your work life and personal life. Don’t be overwhelmed, but start with a couple of small steps. When you give yourself time to reassess, it also allows you to manage a life you love.

Ruby L. Powers is the founder of Powers Law Group, P.C., an immigration law firm in Houston, Texas, and is Board Certified in Immigration and Nationality Law. Ruby has authored “Build and Manage Your Successful Immigration Practice (Without Losing Your Mind).”

Endnotes 1. See STEPHEN R. COVEY, THE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY

EFFECTIVE PEOPLE (2004); Shana Lebowitz and Weng Cheong, How to Use a Simple Time-Management Trick Invented by President Eisenhower to Become More Productive and Less Stressed at Work, BUSINESS INSIDER (Dec. 27, 2019), available at https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-use-stephen-coveys-time-management-matrix-2015-12. 2. Alex Czarto, The Four Quadrants of Time Management (Apr. 24, 2012), https://czarto.com/2012/04/24/fourquadrants-of-time/. 3. CAL NEWPORT, DEEP WORK (2016).

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