A company’s corporate culture is a complicated and consistently changing thing, and nowhere is it more important than in a law firm. From new challenges related to remote employees to shifting priorities due to generational changes in the workforce, a company’s culture has to simultaneously be powerful and consistent while also flexible and innovative.
For these reasons, an ideal situation for any law firm looking to strengthen and solidify their company culture should consider joining a MasterMind program like the one that Brain Trust Legal runs. With constant and candid access to dozens of lawyers across the country, the BTL MasterMind program provides a peek into the insights and structures for law firms with an impressive track record of growth and success. Below is just the beginning in terms of what insights and information you can glean from being a member of the BTL MasterMind program.
A company is only as strong as it is diverse, and diversity can and should be one of the foundational pieces of your law firm’s culture. The real question is, how do you move beyond lip service and start to create an environment that genuinely embraces and encourages diversity and inclusivity in a safe and positive way? The first and most important step is transparency.
The reality is that most law firms have very few and sometimes only one owner. Because of that, policies that come only from the top down can be unintentionally exclusionary or accidentally biased. This doesn’t come from a place of malice, but more likely from lack of awareness or life experience; when someone doesn’t know what they don’t know, they can’t address it.
The power of transparency and bottom-up policy discussion allows for many disparate voices to share minority perspectives. When the thoughts and ideas of all the team members of a company are treated as valuable and worth consideration, it makes the company stronger overall. It is important that there is a clear process for suggestions and feedback, so that there is control and it doesn’t devolve into chaos; however, making room for many voices and perspectives only serves to make your company stronger, more varied, and more appealing to a larger portion of the general public.
Simply put, you can’t talk a good game about the need for a strong and worker-focused culture without providing a concrete framework for how it will be put into action within your firm. Ideas without action quickly lead to a drop in morale and a rise in distrust. How, then, do you turn culture concepts into law firm policies?
Let’s use the example of work/life balance. It’s an important topic that has become increasingly more important with younger generations of the workforce. It would be a great idea to have work/life balance as part of the focus of your law firm’s company culture. However, it can’t be a talking point for your culture without also being represented by policies like work at home and paid time off.
If those real, concrete elements of your business stand counter to what you claim with your company culture, then they aren’t ideals, they are simply ideas. A true and powerful company culture will be seen and heard in your core values, but just as equally they will be seen in the behavior, guidelines, and expectations throughout your law firm. So as you look over the values you want to see in your team members, take time to consider which policies exist (or need to be created) that allow your team members to see those same values extended towards them in their workplace.
By and large, if you’re making positive cultural changes in your law firm, the pushback will be temporary. After all, when properly implemented changes are executed, team members will see the improvements that make their job better in the long run. However, not every decision and change in a business will be accepted like roses and sunshine; sometimes, people will push back, make noise, and refuse or struggle with change. How do you deal with it?
A solid grasp on change management will get you through the toughest pushback. Strategic meetings, open forum discussions, clear direction and expectations, and patience will be required to make the transition smooth and effective. However, there is always the potential for losing team members who are overly resistant to change. The unfortunate truth is that sometimes, certain team members may have thrived under an old system that didn’t hold them accountable, and they will be reluctant to give that up. You can’t have a compromised team member causing strife and slowdown during an important process of change, so you will need to be prepared for the possibility that some team members may not make it through the transition.
Every business needs a strong and sturdy foundation in order to survive the financial and societal shifts that constantly affect the marketplace. In addition to those factors, law firms also deal with consistent changes in the law that alter their operating procedures. Because of that regularly changing landscape, it’s important to have a compass for what your company represents both in the public eye and also internally to your own team. The best way to test your compass is by weighing your ideals and plans against those of other successful firms to see what has worked for others.
That’s why the Brain Trust Legal MasterMind program is a perfect place for your law firm to find its ideal company culture. By surrounding yourself with the best and most successful law firms nationwide, you can get a first-hand look at what has led those other firms to a powerful and unique identity that resulted in consistent company growth. To learn more about the BTL MasterMind program and find out if there are openings available, you can call (855)743-1636 from anywhere nationwide to speak with a BTL team member.
