2 Key Elements You Need to Optimize How You Work

I’m Melissa Shanahan, and this is The Law Firm Owner Podcast Episode #277.

Welcome to The Law Firm Owner Podcast, powered by Velocity Work, for owners who want to grow a firm that gives them the life they want. Get crystal clear on where you're going, take planning seriously, and honor your plan like a pro. This is the work that creates Velocity.

Hello, everyone. I just sat down in Velocity Work’s new space, where we host clients and members, and I'm looking out at an incredible view of the foothills and the Rockies, the Denver skyline, and the sun is setting. I'm just so grateful.

I'm recording in this new space because we just hosted a client on day one of a two-day retreat. I and my team have been running around like crazy for the last week just getting ready in this new space. First of all, let me just say, I'm so proud of where we are. The space is beautiful. It is private. It has amazing natural light and killer views.

It is set up for work, but in a comfortable way. And it's ours. We are going to not have to tear down and set up every day before retreats with clients or events that we host. It's ours. This is our space. And we're in, and it feels so, so good.

I mentioned earlier I'm proud, and God I am. Every time I start a podcast, I have to open up the one that I did the last time, the last recording I did, and then I go save as, rename it with the new number and delete the tracks, and then I start again. And so as I opened it up and I was resaving, this is Episode #277.

And when I think about the journey that we've been on, and the growth that we've had, and the spaces that we've been in to host clients, and the evolution that has come with that, I am so proud. It took 277 episodes to be where we are now, in this space that we love. And that clients… This is the first client in today… they also love.

So it feels really good. And it's just a moment to stop and take a breath, and be grateful and feel pride about where we are. And a sense of exhilaration and anticipation about the future. I love the work that we do at this company so much. I love the team I get to work with. And this space just tops it all off. So feels really good to be here.

If my energy sounds a little lower, it's just because I had a full day facilitating. It was a great day. So end of day one in our new space, and I have a podcast due. I know what I want to talk about, so I brought my mic with me as I left home this morning thinking that it made sense I record after the day was done. And it does.

I'm in the space by myself, looking out at this incredible view, and I’m going to talk to all of you about something that I think is really important. It comes up in retreats enough that it feels worth an episode.

What we're talking about is how you work. And I'm thinking of your team members just as much as I'm thinking about you as the owner. When you stop to consider how we work, how you work… I'm saying how we work together in a firm… what does that entail?

Most of the time, the reason I'm bringing this up, there's room for improvement on how organized you are when it comes to how you work. There are two main elements I'm going to talk about today that provide a sense of structure and organization that, principally speaking, need to be a part of how you work.

Now, some of you listening may have one or both of the elements I'm going to discuss. Some of you may have neither. And if you do have both, then really listening to this episode, think of ways that you can optimize or improve the effectiveness or efficiency of how you work within the two realms that I'm going to going to share.

Okay, the two things that we're going to talk about today are number one, having a place to empty your brain with all of the projects and tasks with deadlines and who owns what. Now, many of you use a task management system within your practice management software. Maybe you use something external.

I know a lot of people use Monday or ClickUP or Trello or Asana, something like that, which is fine. I think that's great. But you do need a place to capture task management. And here's what I’ve noticed. For the legal work, task management is captured. But for all of the positions and responsibilities outside of legal work, they don't really have a home.

And what you find… and I'm talking about larger firms who are on their way to $5 million, even… that I've experienced in my work with people, they don't have an organized way to deal with all of the things that need to happen inside of the company. All of the tasks and responsibilities, new projects associated with every person's role, they don't have a place to be able to track what needs to be done and by when. So they hold on to a lot in their head, in their brain.

We talk a lot about how our brains are meant for processing, not for storage. So where do you store all the things that need to be done? Now we do hear a lot of conversation… at least the law firm owners that are drawn to Velocity Work, there's an affinity for the idea of checklists and systems and processes. And yes, absolutely, we need those things.

But more than that, there are some tasks that maybe don't require… well, I guess that's arguable. Everything requires a written process or checklist, right? But there are many things that might exist in your firm, within people's responsibilities, that it's just they know to do it on a certain cadence, and so they do it on a certain cadence.

Now, at the moment, I am not going to talk about quality of work. For the sake of this episode, I'm just going to talk about work getting done when it should get done, follow through, and how do we know that team members, and yourself, are following through on the things you said you would do. You need a place to see this work.

Oftentimes what happens is, when people start logging this information in some sort of software, they start to see that their invisible work becomes visible.

Now, we also have talked about doing that through a calendar. Which, for a bunch of reasons, that should happen. You should carve out time for the things you said you would do. And so if you're supposed to spend minutes on it, it should be in your calendar.

But I'm not even talking about calendaring for the moment. Because in order for you to keep track of all the things that at any given point you need to give focus to, you get to decide when you're going to focus on them, at what point on what day, and you get to schedule time for those things. Now, in order to do that, well, you do need a place where this stuff is deposited.

So you can look at the list and say, “Okay, these are my top three priorities for the week. When am I going to get those things done?” And you schedule time to get those things done. Now in Monday Map / Friday Wrap, the process that we teach… You can go get the guide on our website, at VelocityWork.com... But in that process, we talk about doing a brain dump.

A brain download is where you get everything out of your head that needs to be done. Oftentimes that involves looking at client files to see, “Okay, this is where we are, so this is what's next.” Again, there are more efficient ways to do this, but I'm speaking to a regular person who has not made immense headway on this.

If you have made immense headway, and you never have to look at what's next, it's teed up for you, that is totally amazing. I am all for that. I work to get clients there. But with that, it's put in front of your face, which is fantastic, and it says, “This is the next step.” That's great.

If you don't have that ease with looking or being, where it's put in front of your face, “This is the next step,” then you have to go digging. You have to look into your files. You have to look into the things that need your attention.

So, in Monday Map, I recommend doing a brain download, where you get everything out of your head and on paper, or onto a digital document, of all the things need to be done. And then you can sort them. You can prioritize them. You can decide where they go in your week according to when you prefer to do certain kinds of work throughout your week.

But what people find when they work with Monday Map is that there's redundancy. So week over week, they're writing the same things again because they didn't get to them the first week. There's some inefficiency there. And I don't worry about that when someone is starting Monday Map / Friday Wrap, because the power of planning, and the proactive nature of planning, will tee you up to save a bunch of time in the week.

So we’re a little inefficient through the process for a bit, okay? And then once you do it for a few weeks, you start to realize, “Okay, where can I keep this stuff so I'm not rewriting it or retyping it every single week?” And that's where you can put this in some sort of system… And I'm telling you, it doesn't matter the system you use, as long as it's built for tracking tasks and projects. Which projects are just a set of tasks that lead to an ultimate outcome.

Now, the reason I'm talking about this is because I think we expect our team to work well, initiate, make sure that nothing falls through the cracks, and have a lot of follow through. Some people are built for that more naturally than others. But a tool is necessary in order for people to be able to give up their brainpower for processing and execution instead of holding on to all the things that they're supposed to do.

And so having a tool for this is very important, and that goes for you as well. So within your firm, what tool do you use? Do you expect everyone to use it? Are there deadlines associated with the tasks that are in there? Are there holes in the way it's being used in your firm? Are there opportunities to dial things in so that there's more visibility within the firm to see who's working on what and what's on deck for people?

All of this helps to really understand, what work is being prioritized? What work is getting put on the back burner? If there are deadlines that aren't hit for some reason, for example, and they're just sitting out there and overdue.

And if you don't have this, if you don't have the ability to see, then this is where anxiety can kick in for owners or managers. And sometimes, even the team members, about their own work, they have anxiety that maybe they're missing something, that something's falling through the cracks.

Not everyone is wired in a way that means that they are going to ensure that things don't fall through the cracks, because that's just the kind of person they are. And just because you aren't wired that way doesn't mean you're not an amazing team member. There are all kinds of team members that lend themselves to doing an amazing job within a role, but given the right tools and development.

So where in your firm might you either be missing a place for this? A task management place that is used correctly, is used in a way that sets everyone up for success within their role, and gives visibility for you and for others to see where they are with certain things. So that you can see, if a ball has been dropped, it's there. You can see the overdue task, for example.

That's the first thing I'm going to say. A lot of you owners out there are very good at juggling so many things at once. And maybe you never really relied on some sort of task management system. But that doesn't mean that your team is wired the same way you are.

And it's very important to make sure that people in general have this resource to use and are using it. Because if things do fall through the cracks, you can figure out where the system is broken for them, or it's not working. Or maybe figure out the system isn't broken, they knew that it was going to fall through the cracks but they didn't plan their time well enough, and then you can have that conversation.

It creates visibility into the conversations that need to be had, and for you to understand what work is happening in the firm. So that's the first thing I'll say.

I do have a bunch of reasons why this feels important to talk about, which, towards the end, I think I will go more into. But this is key. You have to have a place, like an external brain. You cannot rely on handwritten to-do lists week to week. That is not how your firm should roll. There should be a place for these things to be logged, and to be set as recurring if needed. Or if they're not recurring, to have due dates. This should exist in your firm.

I just saw Sam Mollaei, who runs My Legal Academy… I saw he posted that he uses Todoist, and he lives and dies by Todoist. It is one of the tools that he says he can't live without when it comes to productivity. It's the tool that has the greatest impact on his productivity. He couldn't live without it; I think he said.

Anyway, I thought, “Well, yeah, of course, of course, he has a task management system that is his, it's called Todoist.” There are so many out there. Pick your platform. You don't need to pay for something. Our team uses ClickUP, for example. We were on the free version of ClickUP for a long time. Now we pay, and I think it's because of integrations that we have that we've chosen to do.

But you don't have to spend a lot of money to have this external brain. To have this place where everything is out of your head and into a space with a deadline. It will pop up for you. It will give you notice when things are coming. It lets you stay organized and make sure that things aren't falling through the cracks.

When I have meetings with my team, and Mika… Shout out to Mika. She's our Client Services Manager. She's the best at this… When we have meetings, she always has ClickUP open.

So when I say, “Okay, we need to do X, Y, and Z,” she just makes the ClickUP task for it right then and there. She doesn't write it in her notebook first and then do it later. She puts it in, she assigns it to someone, and she puts a deadline. And she'll ask me if she doesn't know what the deadline is.

It's just in our system. It's done. It's going to pop up in that person's feed, and in their workload. They will know that this is their task and responsibility, they see it coming, and they schedule time to work on the priorities.

So it's really about making sure you're getting it as fast as possible into a system. It's capturing it into the system, versus writing things down. I still have moments where I am drawn to writing my notes. But I've been a lot better lately about just having things up digitally and making the notes as necessary.

And that's whether when I'm talking to a client… I put it directly into their client file in our database… or if there is something that I need someone to do. If I'm at my computer, I will just put it into ClickUP and assign it. So I've been making improvements with this. My team is making improvements. And if I see them taking notes, I'm like, “Stop writing, this goes in ClickUP.”

And we all remind each other of it. It's like, “Oh, yeah. Yeah, totally.” But it's a habit. It's a shift. But it's the way to go. That is the first thing.

The second thing that I want to bring up with you all is to have consistent communication for progress and accountability with your team members. This is very important. If you don't have consistent communication about the progress, and where that communication serves as accountability, you will have people working in silos.

This is so common; I see it all the time. What will fix it, at least get it on the right track… and from there you can start to figure out and settle into a groove that makes sense… but a meeting on a regular cadence, oftentimes weekly.

When there is a lack of progress, when things have been falling through the cracks for a team member, when there is not follow through on things, that is the perfect sign for, “Okay, wait a minute, we need to fix how you're working so that we can make sure that follow through is happening. Things aren't falling through the cracks, etc. And to ensure that this is what's happening, we are going to have a, let's say, weekly meeting for you to report in on progress and accountability for things.”

Because if they're reporting on progress, and there's no progress, what are we going to do? Just sit back and say, “Okay, try better next time”? No, there needs to be accountability. Like, wait a minute. By accountability, I don't mean just getting mad at the person and saying, “Get this done.” I mean, investigative conversation. Like, “Oh, what was the barrier? Why isn't this going to be done? Okay, so that's your reason. But why didn't you take the reins in this way? Did you not think about that? Is that something that we can work on together?”

It's developmental communication. And if you are curious, and you keep asking questions about how and why, and you really get underneath to where you get more to the root cause of why progress isn't happening, then there's something to work with. Then there is a productive conversation that can be had so that doesn't happen. That gets missed if you don't meet on a cadence for progress reporting.

Here are a few things I want to say about that. Number one, for those of you who are saying, “I don't want another meeting,” and rolling your eyes at the thought of it. If there is a meeting that you already have, where there could be something added to the agenda, then that's fantastic and you don't have to have another meeting. But you need to add something to the agenda.

Another thing that I want to share, in terms of a tip, is that when you're reporting in, there needs to be some reporting that provides indication that they are taking the reins in the ways that they should. So that the outcomes, the goals that everybody's shooting for, can be hit. This is a little like leading and lagging indicators. If you've been listening to the podcast for a long time, you've heard me talk about that before.

But leading indicators are the things that you have control over. And the idea is that there are results that will lag behind your effort. So an example that I went through recently was, okay, we know we want this number of leads. And we are going to do a certain effort in order to get more leads. One of those things is to book two power partner lunches every single week.

That is something that can be reported on so that we can sense progress with the things that we have control over. That we are pulling levers in the way that we can pull them for the sake of a goal that we have as a firm, of increasing the number of leads, right? So that's an example I went through recently with someone.

And that's just an example. I mean, you can have leading indicators for every role in the firm. Which is, what are the things that you are doing that you said you would do week over week over week, in order to put us on track for the numbers that we like to see ourselves at? Which is the lagging indicator.

In my opinion, those are the goals, the goals are what we're striving for. But there's execution and implementation and effort that is put forth in order to be able to put ourselves on track for that goal. And that, that's Rocks in my world, but also leading indicators. So that's an example of what you can put on the agenda that should be reported on.

And sometimes it's tough to come up with leading indicators, but it's always possible. You have to find a way to quantify the effort that is being put forth so that it's reported on in a way that's binary, yes or no; I didn't set two lunches a week. Or I did set two lunches every week. And that's what you report every single week. So that's just to give you an idea.

But the reason there needs to be communication around this is because people will start to work in silos. And the bigger that a firm gets, especially when they hit a growth period, it's very easy for departments to work in a silo and for communication to not be as productive around progress. Thus, accountability tends to be harder, or really missing from the conversation and from the culture, because everybody's working in their own silo.

But if you have to report in to one another, there's a sense of accountability. Are you just going to keep saying, “No, I didn't book them. No, I didn't book them. No, I didn't book them”? I mean, the question becomes, what are you doing with that time? What are the barriers? How do we support you in this? What do we need in order to make sure that two get booked?

So these questions can be helpful to the person in that role, if they are reporting that they are struggling. Then it's all about attitude, right? If they have the right attitude, then you can help them. You can help them think through it. And meetings are really important for that.

Almost… not verbally processing, that feels like the wrong way to say this… but there's a bit of back and forth, batting back and forth ideas and sharing some of the barriers so that there is input from the other members of the team, etc. This is all really healthy.

If you want to see progress consistently, and you want to stay on track, the conversation has to be kept alive and accountability has to be there. And not because you're babysitting, that's different, right? Accountability is what we do when we are on a team.

When you're on a team, you are accountable for hitting certain things and developing yourself in certain ways and making sure you're contributing to the results that we are all trying to achieve.

And so if there isn't accountability, if there isn't a way to say and to see and to have visibility into each teammate’s progress and inputs, and where they're taking the reins, and where they're developing themselves, where they're creating results, all of that, then this isn't really a team. It's not a well-functioning team.

So the two things are, to kind of go back, one, there needs to be a place where all the tasks and all the things that are supposed to be done are documented. And the second is to have consistent communication for the sake of progress and accountability. The point of the meeting is to report in on progress, and to experience and to have accountability built into the culture.

And again, this should all be done in a kind way, but it can't not be done. Accountability has to be there.

Now I do work with teams. And so if one of those teams is listening, and they're thinking, “Oh, they're talking about me,” maybe, maybe not. But this is such a common thing. This is not unique to any one firm. Most of the time, there is a version of this or an element of this that has to be worked through in order for that firm to get to their next level.

And if it doesn't get worked through, they will be stifled, they'll stagnate, they'll plateau and be struggling to see why. So these are the kinds of things that have to be worked through.

This is the basics. It's getting back to basics. And for some that can be really frustrating, “It feels like we should be beyond this. We're all advanced. We're all capable.” But if these basics aren't in place… And it does depend on the type of person and how they prefer to work… well, prefer, that's not a good word.

Creatives, for example, they prefer to not have a lot of structure, because structure feels constricted. But structure is what actually provides results and outcomes. David Allen once said, “Oh, really, you don't like structure? Do you like that double yellow line that runs down the middle of a highway? That's structure. And structure provides a sense of organization.” I can't remember how he put it.

I think there's a quote, but I've heard him talk about this before. I just love the way he puts that. He's like, “People want to turn their nose up to structure if they have a more of a creative bone in their body. But what they don't understand is that structure is the path to freedom.” It is the path to having an outlet for the creativity to see the light of day. To actually be birthed in the world and create something that everybody wants to look at, everybody likes. It's a result that people enjoy.

Sometimes we can spin in our own stuff and never have follow through, never get the sense of completion, and it's because there's a lack of structure. There is a lack of discipline when it comes to staying focused on the thing that you said you would do, experiencing a sense of completion, and then moving to the next thing. This isn't just for creatives.

I think every one of us can relate to that no matter if you're more right brained or left brained. Every one of us can relate to feeling pulled in different directions, whether it's by creative inspiration, or whether it's by a client, or whether it's by a team member, or whether it's by the sheer volume of work. It is discipline to stay focused and complete things and get things off your list.

It's like having all these files open... and I don't mean client files. I mean like tabs, tabs in your mind, tabs in your brain, and closing out those tabs. If you don't close out all those tabs, nothing ever really gets done. There's chaos in your brain.

I digress, but that's where we are. Those are the two things I want to talk to you about. This is important. I want you to look for opportunities in your firm to improve. There's no sense of perfection with this stuff, there is only progress.

So based on where you are right now, what is something that you could do? What is something that you could take away from your reflection? When you think about what I've shared here on this podcast, that if you implemented it, it would bump you up a notch or two, in terms of effectiveness and efficiency with the results that are happening in your firm.

And also, I had the thought just a second ago, last week's episode was all about stop allowing mediocrity within your team. And I think where there needs to be improvement, there needs to be improvement. And these two ways I'm laying out here can be a really good start to helping your team and you get what you need. To be able to be more dialed in on where it is that you're going, making good progress there, and having accountability in place. That will make a huge difference.

And/or it'll give you insight into the team member, or the team members, that have been letting things fall through the cracks. Because once you provide the structure, and once you give them the tools to be able to stick to the structure, and there's communication, where they report on progress, and there's some accountability there, it'll become very obvious if it's the right kind of person for this firm or not.

It will come down, most likely, to attitude. It won't be on, are they hitting their numbers? It will be on attitude. There's a world in which they can have the best attitude ever, and they just cannot hit their numbers. That it doesn't seem like they have the capacity to do so. But you will see people rise and shine when you do provide structure and there's accountability there, and they're reporting in on progress.

They have a tool now to help themselves stay more organized.

All right, everybody, I'll see you here next week. I just realized also, as I was talking, there's probably a little bit of an echo where we are. We don't have rugs yet; we have hardwoods, tall ceilings. But it still felt appropriate to record from here anyway.

I hope you have a good week, everyone. I'll see you here next Tuesday.

Hey, you may not know this, but there's a free guide for a process I teach called Monday Map/Friday Wrap. If you go to VelocityWork.com, it's all yours. It's about how to plan your time and honor your plans. So, that week over week, more work that moves the needle is getting done in less time. Go to VelocityWork.com to get your free copy.

Thank you for listening to The Law Firm Owner Podcast. If you're ready to get clearer on your vision, data, and mindset, then head over to VelocityWork.com where you can plug in to Quarterly Strategic Planning, with accountability and coaching in between. This is the work that creates Velocity.