If you’ve ever gotten completely lost on a road trip after insisting that you knew the right directions, then you understand the frustration of operating without a guide. You lose time and energy trying to get back on the right road. That’s exactly what happens when the leadership team at your firm operates without common objectives or a clear set of instructions.

This week’s tip is to provide your team with the road map—the direction—they need as part of your weekly all-team meeting.

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.

In tip #138, we described how every business is like an airplane and needs 6 elements to operate successfully. Today, we’re looking at the first of those 6: Leadership and the responsibilities of the executive and management teams that run the business.

Just as pilots in the cockpit rely on a clear set of processes and instructions to successfully guide the plane, so too should you and your leadership team follow a set process to efficiently run your firm. But as you know from our regular tips about delegation, that process needs to put YOU where you add the most value—inspiring your team, setting its vision and direction, and doing the highest-value work—and keep you OUT of the daily nitty-gritty.

That’s where the 5-meeting leadership system we introduced back in March 2022 can help. The regular meeting cadence generates focus and intensity, keeping your team on the same page. Here’s a quick reminder of the 5 meetings:

•  Weekly all-staff meeting
•  Daily director stand-up
•  Daily department stand-up
•  Weekly personal stand-up
•  Quarterly performance review

When your firm’s mission is part of every weekly meeting, you’ll motivate the entire team to work more efficiently, achieve the primary objectives of the firm and its departments, and keep you all focused on your individual priorities for the day and week ahead.

Back in March, we challenged you to implement the first of the meetings: the all-staff meeting. If you haven’t (or you’re a new reader), your action item this week is to build an all-staff meeting into your schedule.

And if you’re already having weekly meetings, make sure you include your firm’s mission on the agenda every time.

Being a strong leader means providing direction. By sharing your firm’s mission regularly, you will remind people of that mission and give them the direction required.

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

Stay tuned for the rest of the series and sign up so you never miss a Tip of the Week [LINK TO https://leanlegalacademy.com/tips