As a leader, you expect to manage your team. But if “managing” means you need to be involved in every decision, you’ll be stuck in meetings 24/7 (maybe you already are!). You and your team will be frustrated, work won’t get done on time, and no one will benefit from the efficiency you’re working so hard to achieve.

Welcome to Gimbal’s Tip of the Week, where you get practical, actionable advice you can use right away to start building a more productive and profitable legal practice.

This week’s tip: implement a management and execution system that maintains your control over your business, without making you the bottleneck.

Remember, efficiency means having the right people doing the right work the right way. If you’re a bottleneck, then you’re not doing the right work…and chances are others aren’t either. 

You need a system. One of the most effective we’ve seen comes straight out of Business Made Simple. It’s a proven system of 5 key meetings, each of which uses the short, focused Stand-Up Meeting format we’ve talked about before.

This system works. Not only will it cut down on the time you’re spending now in meetings, but it will ensure that your team members understand exactly what they have to do, without having to get you involved.

So here are the 5 meetings that can replace all others:

•  Weekly staff meeting: In this short meeting, you’ll remind your entire team about your vision for your firm, your key priorities, and how their work this week relates to achieving these priorities. You can also take a few minutes to celebrate the internal and external wins that occurred since the last meeting.
•  Daily director stand-up: This is a 15-minute stand-up with you and all the leaders of your departments and practice groups. It’s a short, focused meeting designed to keep the firm’s leadership team aligned around the firm’s goals and priorities, so they can make important decisions that advance your vision.
•  Daily department stand-up: Each leader then has a daily 15-minute stand-up meeting with their team to discuss the team’s key tasks and priorities and overcome any issues the team is facing. These meetings are especially important when it comes to collaborating on projects and matters with specific deadlines.
•  Weekly personal stand-up: Once a week, each leader meets individually with each member of their team for about 5 minutes to make sure everyone is on track, working on the right tasks, and able to overcome any roadblocks they’re facing.
•  Quarterly performance review: Once a quarter, each leader uses their weekly personal stand-up meeting to provide feedback and discuss performance over the past 3 months.

Depending on the size of your team and your internal structure, you can adjust these meetings. For example, if you don’t have practice groups or departments, then you’ll just skip those meetings and, instead, have your weekly staff meetings, personal stand-ups, and quarterly performance reviews.

Whether you have all five meetings, or some version that better suits your firm’s structure, the goal is the same. You communicate your vision to the entire team in the weekly meetings, and to your directors or practice group leaders in your daily directors’ stand-up. Then, directors or practice group leaders take over. You remove yourself from the position of bottleneck, and keep your entire team aligned to the firm’s priorities and individuals focused on their tasks.

This week’s action item: Your action item is to start with the weekly team meetings. Use them to get your entire team aligned around your firm’s priorities. Then, you can work towards instituting the other meetings.

When you run your practice like a business, with a management and execution system that includes these regular meetings, you’ll be more likely to stay focused, motivate your team and achieve greater results.

Implementing an effective management system is a skill we coach lawyers on inside our exclusive Practice Accelerator small-group coaching program.

If you need expert guidance to achieve clarity, eliminate inefficiency, and accelerate your results—if you want to grow your practice (and your revenue) faster than you ever could on your own—this program is for you. We have a few spaces available so join now!

See you next week.