Legal Marketing & PR

How to delegate

By Jim Hassett

My blog is about legal business development.  So why am I writing this week about how to delegate?  Because if you delegate more legal work, you will have more time available for business development.

I started thinking about this a few months ago when several lawyers I coached brought in new business, and then began to back off from marketing.  They were too busy performing the new work.  I?ve done that myself, more than once in my 23 years in business.  It is a natural reaction, but the wrong one. 

I am willing to bet that your firm has a lot more lawyers who can do the work than lawyers who can bring in new work.  So if you prove to yourself and others that you are an effective business developer, it is in your interest and the firm?s to increase the time you spend on marketing, not cut it back.  And the way to do that is to learn to delegate more effectively.

I know there?s a problem:  those other lawyers won?t do as good a job as you will.  Well, you can supervise and teach them until they do.  There may always be very special tasks that you must save for yourself.  But I?m willing to wager that those special tasks represent only 5% or 10% of the time you spend.  The rest can be delegated.  And when you do, clients may actually be happier when their calls get returned more quickly, and they pay less per hour for most of the work.

The most useful book I?ve found on this is Don?t Do, Delegate by James Jenks and John Kelly.  After I bought a copy for one lawyer I was coaching, he got a number of ideas for improving the process, gave his admin a list of all the associates who were working on cases for him, and asked her to routinely schedule a brief meeting with each one, every week.  (If you want to buy the book, it seems to be out of print, but you can get a used copy on Amazon.  If you buy it, turn right to ?Delegation dos and don?ts? on page 101.  Then read about controlling results in Chapters 8 and 9).

Here is the book?s most important advice, adapted for lawyers.

Who should you delegate to?
? If you want to save time on a single isolated task, pick people based on skills and experience.
? If you want to save time on a repeating task, pick people who are likely to be available when the task comes up again.  For this type of delegation, accept the fact that the first time you delegate it may take longer than doing it yourself. 

Start with a meeting to discuss:
? Your goal
? How will success be measured?
? What are the standards for performance?
? Deadlines, deliverables, and expected number of hours
? Should you get progress reports and/or meet again before the task is completed?
? Be very clear about whether this person should talk directly to the client, or not.
? Will feedback be provided at the end of the task?
? Ask:  Do you need help or coaching? 
? Ask:  Could this task help you to increase your learning or advance your career?  How?

For large tasks, consider written or verbal progress reports:
? Set dates for interim reports and/or meetings.
? Define the length and agenda of each meeting in advance.
? Review interim partial deliverables.

At the end of the task, offer praise and thanks, and/or useful feedback

Then take all that time you saved by delegating, and go out and get some more new business.

Full post as published by Legal Business Development on May 14, 2008 (boomark / email).