Set the Right Rocks: Prioritize Your Way to a Thriving Law Firm

I’m Melissa Shanahan, and this is The Law Firm Owner Podcast Episode #302. 

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Hi, everyone. Welcome to this week's episode. We are going to talk about Rocks today. We're not going to talk about what Rocks are. I can give a brief recap, but I am going to talk about how to think about the kind of Rocks to set. This may seem intuitive when you're listening to it, but I'm telling you, when you are making your own plans and when you're thinking through this for yourself, this is not always intuitive.

I've been talking to private clients about this. I've been talking to my groups about this and it just made sense to share it here for those of you who you do plan. You do sit down, set goals and to determine what Rocks you're going to focus on. So we will cover a specific way I want you to think about the types of Rocks that you're setting.

And before we do that, I should probably just recap quickly, what is a rock? There are podcast episodes on this. We will put them in the show notes. There's one about the difference between goals and Rocks. That's probably the best one to review. But let's give a quick recap.

A goal is a number. Now, I know out in the world, not every coach in every book and every piece of advice out there says that a goal has to be a number. But for purposes of planning, it makes it easiest to think about goals as numbers. And there may be certain objectives you're trying to meet. And so you set goals that are numbers that you're striving for, that will mean that you are hitting those objectives. But if you're going to set a goal, it's got to be a number. This could be revenue. This could be profit margin. This could be people cost percentage of a certain amount. This could be number of cases open or number of cases closed. So it doesn't really matter the goals. And I have talked about goals and how to decide what goals to set. But a goal is a number.

A rock is decided after the goals are set. And Rocks are key efforts or priorities. You can think of them like projects that you are going to get done over the course of 90 days. These are quarterly Rocks.

These are the levers that you're going to pull in order to get you to the numbers, meaning they're going to get you to the desired result that you say you want. And sometimes, every once in a while, with someone who's not very familiar with this process, I get pushback here because they'll say, "Well, it's not all about the numbers. It's not all about the revenue." Well, first of all, this is a business, so yes it is. And the bottom line matters more than the top line. But the bottom line, your profit, there's so many things that affect your profit.

So having goals set in a way that feels really right for your company, because sometimes it's to increase revenue and decrease expenses. Sometimes your expenses are healthy and you've audited them. So then if you want to increase your profit margin, you need to increase your revenue. So it's really looking at the full picture to see what your business needs at any given point. So yes, it is about the numbers.

Now when we're talking about Rocks, which are the things you're going to do in order to make those numbers inevitable, there are lots of things that clients will identify when I ask them this question. There's a lot top of mind for them. It may be a system that needs to be implemented for the sake of efficiency, which will allow more capacity within their current team. It may be team training on some things just to help push the reset button. It may be hiring. It may be replacing someone who's currently on your team. It might be infusing accountability and having a system for doing so. It might be signing up with a marketing partner, so someone that can help run your campaigns and take care of your presence online, your digital presence.

Whatever it might be, there are certain things that when I ask owners, "Okay, you have these numbers that you're shooting for. What are the things that if they aren't done, you're not going to get there?" There's certain things that they have to be done or else these numbers are not going to be possible. What are those things? And it's never crickets. People always know, they always have ideas around this.

So they will say what needs to happen. Now, they may have 25 ideas. Rarely, actually, to be totally frank, rarely does somebody actually have 25 ideas, but they know that there's so many things that they should do, that they want to do, that they could do, it feels a bit paralyzing because how do you pick the right ones? Well, what I wanna talk to you about today is that picking the right Rocks really depends on what kind of state your firm is in.

Oftentimes, when I'm first working with someone, there is a lot to do. There are lots of ideas. They feel buried by the work. They have team members that really aren't on board in the ways they need to be on board. Like nothing is really going super, super well. They're happy with their firm. Don't get me wrong. It's not like everything is a total hot mess, but they know there's opportunity in all of these different areas within their firm. And it's hard to determine what to pick first, especially when you're buried by work.

And so what happens often when I'm first working with someone is that once we get to the place where we set the goals, the numbers that they're shooting for, then we determine what needs to be priority in order to allow us to be on track for the numbers. They will spit out some ideas and the ideas that take priority are the ones that are most urgent. They are the ideas that they have to fix "quote-unquote,” some of the more egregious things that are happening in their firm. It's almost like putting on a tourniquet. These projects are meant to stop the bleeding. And by bleeding, I don't necessarily mean money, but oftentimes it does result in wasting money.

But it's more what I mean is putting on a tourniquet so you're stopping the things that are happening that are the most problematic, the results that are happening that are the most problematic in your firm, because there's always results being created. They are either desired outcomes or they are undesirable outcomes, but there's always results being created in your firm. And so looking at what is not functioning well at all, what is not working, what is not adding up? What is not to the state of quality that we want it?

And prioritizing and thinking through what needs to come first so that then it's easier to focus on the next thing and then the next thing and then the next thing, where you can build on, you can stack on your own effort quarter over quarter over quarter. So choosing these can be difficult because, you know, we talk a lot about the long game on this podcast, but the truth is there are many times when I'm first working with a team that the Rocks that are chosen are not long game Rocks, they are short game Rocks, but they are necessary. They have to happen. If they don't happen, then we can't build on anything.

We have to get the foundation right. We have to cut out what is happening that is making a mess of things. And once we do that, then we can start to have Rocks that are more for long game, where the results of your effort with those Rocks or those projects or those initiatives, the effort will produce an ideal outcome over time or later down the road. And those are important Rocks to have. That is long game, but you cannot do those Rocks. You can't place those Rocks. You can't commit to those Rocks until the here and now is taken care of, the fires are put out, or the bleeding is stopped, the tourniquet is on.

Sometimes those initial Rocks that you set, that is the purpose of them. And it's so important. And oftentimes, those are the most difficult Rocks to commit to. They are dreaded a lot of the time, more so than the long game Rocks. The long-game Rocks are pretty. Put a system into place. Document your wiki. Like different things where it just feels good to commit to that. It doesn't mean it won't be hard work, but it feels good.

Oftentimes, these initial Rocks, when someone is getting things sorted, the kind of Rocks that are the tourniquet are things that are very uncomfortable to deal with, which is why they are to the point that they are, and now you have to deal with it. That discomfort that you are going to have to exercise, if you're actually going to commit to these projects that are the things that absolutely should be done, it is your path. That discomfort is your path. You know, we've talked about even recently that quote, "Discomfort is the currency for your dreams."

Yes, that is what I'm talking about. This is an example of that. If there is someone that has not been hitting their numbers ever, like they just don't hit their numbers, whatever numbers you have set for them.

So I'm thinking about a producer and producers should have targets. There's standards that need to be met in a firm. Now, depending on the circumstances inside of your firm, you get to determine what those standards are, but they have to be there.

Now, if you've placed standards and they're not met consistently, and maybe you bring it up every once in a while, but it just keeps on happening, but you're not losing money on them because they're bringing in more than what they cost. Nope, that's losing money. They need to be 3X or it's very difficult to experience any sort of breathing room in the firm.

So these people aren't hitting their targets, but they've been here for like five or six or seven years, and they've just been existing in this environment. Well, that call could have been made a long time ago and arguably should have been made. But the reason it wasn't made is because there's discomfort associated with it. Maybe a little bit of a lack of confidence on your part, or maybe you tend to be more low confront instead of high confront. High confront is a very, it's a good thing as a business owner. There's an episode on that as well.

For whatever reason, you have allowed this to happen. You have been a part of creating the scenario that you were dealing with now that is not ideal and that has to be ended or else you're not going to be able to hit the numbers that you want to hit or have the future that you want to have with your firm. That involves a certain level of space between the work and you and for you to get the IV out of your arm from your firm.

All of that is really dependent on things functioning very well inside the firm. And if this is something that you've been tolerating, I did an episode on tolerating recently, so you can go back and listen to that. If there have been things you're tolerating, then probably the Rocks are to eliminate the need to tolerate this stuff anymore. To eliminate your willingness to tolerate certain things anymore.

When you select those Rocks, it automatically puts your firm in a better, more empowered position to be able to grow in the right ways. And you can imagine when I am working with the team and they do have certain systems that they want to put into place or a hire that they'd like to make, and they could. We'll work out the numbers and make sure that it all makes sense in the budget and all of that. But they choose to do those things. Those things surface in their minds as productive to work on, but they are avoiding the very thing that they should be focused on, which is getting rid of the things that are not working and not only not working, sucking the life out of the firm, sucking money and resources out of the firm.

They don't really want to look at that. By the time I'm working with someone, they're willing to face the music, which is great, but this episode is for those of you who I don't get to work with in person. You do make these decisions on your own, and where might you be hiding from the decisions you need to make?

This does very, very much so tie in to the tolerance episode, but my whole point here is, when it comes time to set Rocks, this is your window of opportunity to decide what you're going to do this quarter that will change the existence of your firm. It might be scary, but you know it should be done. It might feel uncomfortable, but you know it should be done. It might feel uncomfortable, but you know it should be done. It might feel, quite frankly, sad.

I was just talking to an owner this morning, actually, and he has a team member that has a key position, has grown with him throughout the years, and is now a director of operations. Recently, they've gotten out of all the legal work, so they have full bandwidth to give to the operations role. This is a growing firm, it's growing quickly, and it's an important role. But this person is falling short, and has been for a while, but is kind of thinking, well, they've also been juggling some legal work, some paralegal work with this role. I know that they're capable of this, so let's just give them a little more space, give them a little more time.

Clear expectations are set, clear requests are made, and then still, it just feels like everything that's being handed back to the owner is a mess. Well, this is really hard for the owner. This person has been with them for years, has grown with them, has been the main staple of an employee throughout the years, and is realizing that the position that they are now in is not gonna work. And they have to let this person go.

I have helped this person look at it from many different angles. I've helped this owner. I've helped them look at it from different angles. I have been working with them for months, trying to make sure that the operations person has the right resources, that they are locked and loaded, that we, Velocity Work, has helped. And still, it's just not enough. It's not even close to enough.

I think this person has some sense of security inside of the firm because they've been there for so long. There's a lot of institutional knowledge. There's maybe a false sense of security there. And the truth is, with as much headache as being put back on the owner in this situation, it does not make sense to keep this person in this position any longer.

There's been plenty of documentation written back and forth about feedback and what's not going well. And over the next four to six weeks, this person will need to be let go. And they can do it sooner as long as the owner feels like they have their ducks in a row, but this has to end. And the sooner, the better.

Without this decision being made, this firm will be stunted, period. This firm will be held back. The owner won't be able to take the space and the freedom. It's like they keep thinking it's coming. They keep thinking that pretty soon, this role is going to be handled well, and that they are on their way, right? That very soon they'll be on their way. But this has been a pipe dream for them for at least, I'm pausing because I'm trying to think, this has been a pipe dream for them for 14 months. It can't keep going. The reason that this was not going to happen was because of how uncomfortable this made the owner.

He has a lot of guilt around, he should have maybe trained this person better or done more or the person in this role is going through a tough time and I can't let them go now they're going through a tough time and maybe I could have done more. I created this monster. So all these reasons that they keep hanging on, they keep allowing this to exist inside of the firm.

And so through conversation, he came to realize that he doesn't have a choice anymore. I mean, he does have a choice, that's the thing. You have a choice to continue down the path you are already on, and make no mistake, there has been so much effort involved in making this role work. You can keep doing that. You can keep going, but you have to understand this is what it is.

You have a choice to stop, but you have, those are the two choices anymore. That's it. You can keep putting resources in, keep having the same frustrations over and over and over again. Keep getting dragged back into work that you don't need to be dragged into. Or you can stop it all. You can let this person go, and you can find the right fit for the role.

Now, for those of you listening, it's hard, you know, when you don't really have the full context of the conversation, I worked out with this owner and thought through, okay, what do you do? If this person really isn't going to exist in your firm anymore, are you going to be okay? Can you divvy up the work?

Truthfully, there was nothing getting done to completion. So you prioritize what is going to be handled and pushed through to completion in terms of project management, et cetera. And the rest of the things prioritize and be able to make sure that the next person is teed up and really understands what they're walking into, that there's some unfinished business here that that will be part of the role is to complete that and to a standard, but making sure it's all gonna be okay.

I do have that conversation. I never, ever, ever say to someone, you need to get rid of them, which very rarely do I even say that sentence. It's really my job to facilitate this conversation and to get the owner to the place that makes the most sense for them and for their firm.

But there are times where the feedback is just like, what are we doing here? What are we doing here? And so when I get to that place, that feedback, I never say just do it tomorrow without a plan. You have to take care of yourself. You have to think about yourself. You have to think about the firm and what's best for your clients and how to make this transition, be prepared for this transition as much as possible, right?

So I don't mean to make rash decisions or impulsive decisions. It's just making the decisions that you know you should be making and not allowing a sense of fear or discomfort dictate your big decisions. Okay, we sort of got on a tangent, but I wanted to give that example because I know there are plenty of you listening to this that you can see yourself in that story, that you understand what this owner is experiencing, you are experiencing now, or you have experienced it. And if you don't fall in one of those two camps, it just means you haven't experienced it yet. You will.

This is a tough place to be. And it's part of the evolution of an owner. When I think about all that this owner has gone through and really tried, really put a lot of effort and resources into this person, in this role. And they did what they could. So the guilt that comes along with, I should have done more. It feels hard to let them go. I allowed this to exist for so long. Why now am I cutting the cord when they're going through some things? It feels cruel. I get all of that. I get all of that.

But what you have to realize is we are each on our own journey. And part of being a business owner is learning. And that growth journey is sometimes pretty darn painful. And this is a spot where it is. And the path, by the way, to get to here, where this decision is being made, took longer than it's ever gonna take this person again in the future. There is some learning here that was needed, that was real, that you can only learn through experience. It doesn't matter what people tell you. You have to live it. You have to make the calls. And those calls are very uncomfortable.

So this person kept following their belief, belief in the position, belief in the person and the role, and the owner backed their faith with resources and training and all of the things, but this is not the right person for the role. And they tried to make this person right for the role because they had such loyalty to the person. And I'm telling you, that will never happen again. There's no way that someone that has gone through this experience and finally got to the place where they're gonna let the person go realizes that they could've done that a long time ago, and they could have been in a different spot now, but this is all a part of the learning.

So now here they are, they're gonna make the decision, and they're gonna tee themselves up for a much brighter future as a firm. So what hard things might you be avoiding? And maybe you were distracting yourself with other shiny objects, other very promising projects to implement, but you're ignoring the elephant in the room. You are ignoring the sore spot in your firm and choosing to work on other things. You need to do the right thing right now, the hard calls right now, so that your firm is set up to thrive and have sustainable success.

So what projects to pick, right? Okay, we're going to do some quarterly planning, we're going to do some annual planning, and we think about the goals that we'd like to hit, and then we ask ourselves, what needs to happen in order to hit those goals? And just make sure that you are being very honest with yourself about what needs to be done, so that your firm has a bright future. Not what improvements can you make to your firm? That's not the right question. What are the things that if you don't do them, you will be held back?

Now I realize we focused on firing, which is not necessarily what it needs to be. Listen, this could just be instituting accountability. And for many of you, that's super uncomfortable, but do it in a way, roll it out in a way where this is for the health of the firm, period. That's it. We just need to make sure the firm is healthy. So yeah, you have targets and yes, they need to be met. And every week we're gonna do a check-in. You bring, like this should be on them. This is their responsibility if they have a number goal.

And I'm specifically at the moment, I'm thinking about producers. They are not the only ones with goals in the firm, but producers, they have goals, whether it's a certain number of hours a month, whether it's a certain number of revenue produced, whether it is, yeah, or like fees billed, basically whatever it is, they have numbers that they need to shoot for. And if they don't have goals, that's the first thing you have to do. That is a rock. What are the goals that you need to set?

And sometimes what I find is that people will put goals in place without thinking it all the way through, without doing the math to see what would that mean is brought in every year and how many times their cost is that. I've done whole episodes on producer costs and people costs and so you can go back and listen to those, but do not set a goal unless you have thought it all the way through and you know it's healthy.

The worst thing you can do is to set a goal and then a few months later when you rework everything and you actually check yourself, check the math, you realize that, oh my gosh, that goal is just too low, period. It's too low. It's not the healthiest thing for my firm. So then you have a choice. Do you go back and reset a goal? You already gave him a goal. You just gave him a goal and now you're going to change the goal, which is going to increase what they have to do for no extra pay. Like, it's just not, it never lands well or you can decide not to, right? You could decide not to change anything and just ride it out. Just think, well, that's my fault. I'm just going to ride this out until, you know, because I made my bed with this.

Well, okay, but you're the owner and your job is to make sure that this business is healthy. That's your main function, is to make sure that the business is healthy. So this is what I mean. This is where it starts to get sticky. Well, okay, I didn't set the right goals, now what? Do you have a hard conversation? Yeah, you do. You have to. You have to. So maybe that's the rock is resetting expectations and making sure there's accountability.

Maybe the expectation is right. You've already said it and it's right, they just need to hit it. Well, have a weekly touch base on where they are throughout the month towards their goal. And when I say check-in, I mean a supportive check-in. You are there to support your team. So when they come to you and they say, I'm behind, ask why, like, what are your barriers and help them think through their barriers. Help them become the kind of person that can hit their goals because the way that they work or the approach that they're taking might be in the way. So help them, be supportive to them. And if you don't have a weekly check-in, you should not expect them to stay on track.

Yes, technically they should be able to stay on track because they're adults and they should monitor their own work. And I don't disagree with you, but that is not how the world works. Accountability has to be there. So if you don't have regular check-ins on where they stand in relation to their goals, you can bet that they're not gonna hit their goals or exceed their goals nearly as often as what they could have.

It is up to you and/or the manager of the department, depending on how big your firm is. It is up to the person that they are accountable to to touch base about it, to have a conversation, see where they need support, where are they struggling, where are they thriving, where are they exceeding the goals? How can you high-five them and celebrate that and send them on their way?

So I have so much to say here, but I do find that the Rocks that are hardest for people to set because of the emotion involved are the ones that should be set first. Get them out of the way because they are causing issues that you don't want to look at and you cannot keep moving forward in that way.

This really is about stepping into your next level as a business owner. This is growing yourself as a business owner so that you can have the kind of firm that you want to have, and you can have the relationship to the firm that you want to have. And you can have the relationship to the firm that you want to have. And that you can have the culture inside of the firm that you want to have. It's going to require that you do things that make you squirm.

And so that's why I'm talking about this, I'm sort of couching it in how you pick Rocks, but what I notice is that people want to avoid the things that they should do first. And they want to focus on things that feel productive. Well, you're layering productivity onto a crumbly foundation. So let's not do that.

Okay, so when you're choosing Rocks, pick the things that you don't want to do. And you can test it out. You can play it out to the end and really think it through. But likely the things you don't want to do are likely the things that if you don't do them, you will be held back.

If this resonates, if you're listening to this and you know you have some decisions to make or you have some moves to make that are uncomfortable, there is an episode I did recently about discomfort and about how important it is to feel discomfort. I have talked about this a lot on my podcast, but the truth is the way to meet your discomfort is to breathe.

That sounds not like the kind of podcast this is where I'm telling you to breathe, but I'm telling you I've done this enough and I've worked with people enough on this. When you are feeling discomfort, you have to take a breath, a big deep breath, allow the discomfort to just radiate through you and just keep breathing and keep taking steps forward.

Eventually, and it doesn't take very long, the discomfort will begin to subside, and you'll just be focused on the task at hand. You'll be doing what you should be doing. But it really does take processing that emotion that you're feeling, the discomfort, whether it's grief because of the grief you're experiencing of letting someone important to you, letting them go, whether it is the kind of discomfort that where you're holding someone accountable and you're talking about facts, not feelings, but that's not your norm with your team, nd so that level of discomfort. Whatever it is, you do have to train yourself to have capacity to experience that discomfort and move forward.

I got to tell you, the more time goes on, the more I am convinced that this is the key. This is the key to creating the future that you want to create, which does go back to the quote, “Discomfort is the currency for your dreams.”

And if you aren't willing to feel it, you will stay capped. Your potential will stay capped. Your firm will stay capped. Everything will be stunted. So once you start to embrace that and allow discomfort and move through it, move forward as you experience discomfort, you will open yourself up to a whole new world.

And gosh, I want that for each one of you listening to this. I want you to have that. So no matter where you are with your firm, I don't care if you're making $150,000 a year or if you're making $6 million a year. I don't care. It doesn't matter where you are. You have your next level of discomfort to approach. You have your next level of discomfort to experience in order to make the right move for your firm.

So prioritize wisely, no matter how uncomfortable it is. Pick the Rocks, go first with the Rocks that make you the most uncomfortable.

All right, everybody, Have a wonderful week. I will 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.