Stop Tolerating Mediocrity in Your Law Firm Team

I’m Melissa Shanahan, and this is The Law Firm Owner Podcast Episode #276.

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.

Hey, everyone, welcome to this week's episode. It is rounding out here with Q3, we're getting ready to start Q4, and I'm mentioning that I think sometimes we just run, we run fast, and we don't really stop and think and pause.

The turn of the quarter is a good time to do that. It's a good time to reflect on your quarter. It's a good time to make some plans for the upcoming quarter and beyond. So I highly encourage you to do that. There's no reason anyone listening to this podcast should not take time for themselves.

Yes, I facilitate that. Yes, we will be thorough with that with members and clients. But you can do this on your own. You can take space. More than anything, it's about being intentional. And when you are intentional, good things come of it. So this is your reminder. It's the end of the quarter, and you have one quarter left to finish out 2024.

Think forward, what actually needs to get accomplished this year? What kind of plans need to be made? What needs to be marked off on your calendar? Protected? Look ahead, get intentional, not just with your time but with your plans, and how you want to think about how you're going to finish strong.

Are you going to get a system entirely completed and implemented before the end of the year so that you can start next year off on a really good foot? What needs to happen? Are you going to make that hire this quarter so that you can start 2025 off on a strong foot? What are you going to do? Be intentional. Don't just keep running.

It's always an option to take some space, get a blank sheet of paper in front of you or document, take a deep breath, set a timer for a certain amount of minutes, whatever you can; everybody's got 15 to 20 minutes. And you'd be surprised what can come out of 15 to 20 minutes of just clearing your head, being intentional, and thinking forward. So this is your reminder to do that.

If you're inside the Velocity work sphere, we facilitate that for you. You're good. We've got you. And for those of you who are interested in joining for the Strategic Planning that we're doing for 2025, that will be happening in December inside of Mastery Group.

But for anyone who comes our way, we will find the right fit. We can plug you into the right strategic planning retreat, and get the work done that needs to be done for you beforehand. And that looks different depending on the program.

So if you want to plan really well for 2025, schedule a consult with us so we can figure out the right fit. Because we need time to prepare the data, to get some information in place, to get some questions answered before planning, really good planning, can happen. So schedule a consult, figure out, what does it need to look like for you if you want some help planning for 2025?

What does it need to look like? And we can help you determine that. You can go to VelocityWork.com. There's a “schedule consult” button. You can also go to VelocityWork.com/Melissa and that will take you straight to my calendar for consults.

Okay, here is what we're talking about today. The title of this episode is likely going to be this, what I have written at the top of my outline, your team has to match the level of your goals. The reason we're going to talk about this is because I've seen too many firm owners with ambitious goals, but they allow their team to operate at a level that's not going to get them there.

As overachievers, which 99% of you are… So am I. I so fall into that camp... where you operate in a way where you will achieve whatever you set out to do. You are used to achieving whatever goal you set, because you can carry it. You can carry the weight. You can plow your way through. You can make things happen. You can do what it takes to hit a goal.

But the problem is, with a business, and when you're growing a business, you will cap out. You get to the point where you can't. But what happens, and I've seen this happen time and time and time again, is that you'll keep trying anyway.

Many of you realize you're hitting a ceiling, you're feeling exhausted and you don't really know what to do about it, so you just keep driving harder. You just keep carrying that weight forward. And what I want this episode to be is a light bulb for many of you. Where in your world, where you're doing this, and where you're tolerating team members that are not going to be able to get you to your goals, you're still having to carry too much.

And there's different reasons this can happen. And I'll just say from the top, there may be things I say in this episode that feel cold towards the team. And I want to clear that up right away. It's me being objective. I'm saying things objectively, you get to decide what you're going to do with it, you get to decide the conversations you're going to have the decisions you're going to make what you're willing to tolerate what you're not willing to tolerate, you get to decide all of that.

But I'm going to be very objective on this episode. And it might seem cold, it's not cold, it's clear. There is a way to deliver it so that it's not cold. When you are integrating the stuff that we're talking about into your firm.

Also, if the thought crosses your mind, I would say about maybe 50% of you have this thought because I talked to you all enough to know this. If the thought crosses your mind, well, there's not enough good help out there. Or something along those lines, I need you to set that to the side.

It is not helpful to you to your firm or where you're going. So you can find a bunch of evidence that that's true. But I'm telling you, there are good people out there.

And if you are clear, and you make your firm and the job attractive enough, and you make it a place that people want to work, the right person will come. So please do not allow that kind of thinking to win and prevent you from hearing what you need to hear. And from making the decisions that you need to make for your future.

So I'm asking you set that aside. I know it's not easy. People is the hardest part. Hiring is tough in some circumstances. I am not denying that. But so okay, now what? You can't just sit back and tolerate; you have to be active. You can't be passive about this. This is you not actually taking the action that needs to be taken.

And I don't mean just a little bit of action where you try to fix it, you try to find somebody and you get a surge of energy to do it because you have this desperation. And then things get busy and you back off of it again. No, I mean, focused attention on the decisions that need to be made and the actions that need to be taken.

And most of you that have the story that there's not good help out there. Do not try like the people I have seen try. And the people I've seen try and they stay with it and they may not get the people right away.

But they stay with it. They stay focused. They keep tweaking their ad. They keep working different things and making it their job to find somebody to come in. They get the right people. Okay, so I'm getting passionate about that. But it is pointless. It doesn't help anything to say out loud, “Well, there's just not good people around.”

I get why we do it. I get why that comes out of your mouth. I get why that could hit your brain. But you have to redirect your brain into something more productive. Even if you can prove it true, I don't care. It's not helpful. You have to direct your attention, your focus, your actions, all of it needs to line up to actually get the result that you're saying you want.

Okay, now that I'm done with that rant, we can get into what I was going to talk about today. Your team has to match the level for the firm that you're building, not for where you were before and what worked before. If you were making plans, and you want to grow and you want to grow in the ways that you want to grow, and you want to do it sustainably.

And you want to do it in a way that makes sense for you. You are going to need a team that matches where you're going, not where you've been. And listen, this comes down to a few things. The first of which I'm going to talk about is how you view yourself and how you are showing up.

Because if you aren't clear about where it is that you are going, it's going to be very hard to decide what kind of team is going to get you there, get you where you don't even know, you just know you want more growth, you just know you want more freedom, you just know you want more money.

No, that's not good enough. What are you trying to build here? What's underneath this? And when you are clear about that, and when you have specific set goals with conditions, then it is easy to see where there's discrepancies within the team. It's easy to evaluate. And listen, we're all about facts, not feelings.

So I'm not just saying that you're going to be able to see, “Oh, this is the level that I want to get to,” in terms of growth and freedom and margin of money and all of that. “And so then that means I'm going to need this, this, this and this hire.”

You can't just rattle it off, you have to dig into the numbers. It's important to do that so you don't just bloat out your organization with people, when you don't really need that many people. So what you think you need, you have to prove out through the numbers.

And what do you expect out of each of these people? What are their sets of responsibilities? What is your people cost percentage, I have talked about all these numbers before, so I'm not going to keep going down that rabbit hole on this episode. But you have to be clear about who you need, and what needs to get done.

And setting expectations, when you understand that with clarity, and you understand core values and standards that are inside of the firm, that level of clarity means that then you can articulate it in a way that allows your team to rise up to meet it. If you can't articulate it, you are not going to get a team that is going to rise up to meet anything because you aren't giving them a bar, you aren't giving them a vision, you aren't giving them something to say, “Hey, this is how we roll here. These are our standards.”

And you can't institute accountability if you can't say that stuff. So the first thing that is in the way for people, when it comes to having a team that's a match for the firm you're building, is you. If you can't articulate where it is you're headed, what matters to you, values that everyone in the company needs to uphold, you can imagine it's going to be very difficult to have a team that's going to be able to rise to what you want to rise, to be able to operate in the ways that you want them to operate.

In order to get this firm to where it is, you have an idea of where you want it to go. So if you can't articulate it, it's going to be a problem. And there's two main reasons people can't articulate this. Number one is that your self image isn't a match for the firm that you want to build. And so that has to be addressed.

There is an episode I did on this. It was one of the most well received episodes of all time. It was on February 18, of 2022. It's Episode #142 and it's all about this topic. But that is the number one thing that holds people back. Their self-image isn't a match for where they're going. And so everyone around them is going to reflect that as well.

But if you do begin to have a self-concept or self-image that does match where you're going, and you're leaning into that, and you're really doing what you can to evolve yourself and to grow yourself so that you are a match, you have an image, a self-image that is a match for the firm you're building, then you're raising the bar.

And you're creating a capacity inside that allows other people to level up as well. But if you aren't doing it, it's never going to happen for anyone else in the firm or for the team. If you want to think more about this and dig more into this, go listen to Episode #142. That will help.

Now the other, which is very close to what I was just saying, is your firm is a living breathing entity. It's never stagnant. It's never stuck. It is constantly in flux. There's a lot of moving parts, the business itself as the entity, you have to be willing to see it get to the place that you want to see it to and you have to have a lot of respect for the firm.

We talk a lot about being a good steward of the firm, being a good steward of the business, because if you aren't taking good care of the health of it, then it's going to be very difficult to build something sustainably in the ways that you want to. And so can you hold a vision for your firm? And where it's going?

Can you see the possibilities for your firm? Can you imagine what that's like? And if you can't, then it's also again, it's going to be very difficult to get the team around you on board for anything. It is vision, but it's not about having a perfect vision statement. It's about imagining this like what can you imagine for your firm?

And if you can actually imagine that if you can hold that vision, and continue to work towards it and make it that vision, everything needs to line up with it or it's out. And so if you have that, then it's a game changer. So this is very much about you as the owner. Your self-image, is it a match for the firm you're building? And can you even envision the firm that you want to build? Both of those things.

So I say it's very close, self-image and imagining the firm. It's a very similar concept, but applied to you as the person and the thing that you built and are building and where it's going. So if either of those things lack integrity, and by integrity, I mean, that the vision that you have for the firm honors where it is you actually want to go. Does that line up the firm that you see in the future?

Does it line up? And then also your self-image? Does that line up with the firm that you want to build? So you have to be clear about this, or the rest falls down. Okay, the next thing, it's almost like a stack.

The next thing where sometimes this falls apart is that you don't have a team that's bought in. Now you can see why I talked about the first set of things first with self-image, and then what you imagine for the firm. If you aren't clear on that, it's very hard to get your team to buy in on something other than a job. And if you have a team that's just bought into a job like job, you can imagine this is not the team that's going to take this company to where it needs to go where it should be.

It's going to keep things at status quo. What I mean by that is, a team that has an attitude of complacency, it's just good enough, the mindset of good enough, instead of striving for excellence. There's consistent failure to hit milestones or meet deadlines, it's just not quite important enough.

Or there's a lack of accountability or ownership from team members. And again, again, this is why I started with you as the owner, this all starts with you. And when I say, it all starts with you, you do not need to be perfect at it. But you need to be intentional. And you need to keep making progress into developing yourself and getting clear over time. I mean, you'll have strides where you get really clear.

And then maybe there's bits and pieces over the coming months where you get clear. But I'm pretty clear about the vision and where I want this company to go and how I want to serve law firm owners. But I did a vision workshop last week with Tara Gronhovd for our company, just to get it even better, solidify it further.

Because the more I can do that, the better I can lead this company to where it needs to go. So this is an evolution and being willing to allow it to be an evolution and not feel like you have to have all the answers. But you do need to be as clear as possible at any given moment.

And if you don't feel like you're clear enough, you need to do the next thing to help yourself get clearer, right? And if you do that, this will prevent a complacent team, you won't tolerate it.

If you're doing the work to get clearer and clearer and clearer, and you step into that more and more and more, and your self-image begins to expand in terms of what is possible, what capacity you have as an owner, the direction you're headed, and there's a confidence and a competence that's developed there, you will not tolerate a team that is subpar from where you're going.

You will create a team, and you will create alignment with you and with your vision. If you don't have it, there's nothing to create alignment to. So of course, one would end up with a team that has a “good enough” mindset, “It's good enough.” They're not great about hitting milestones or meeting deadlines, there's not a lot of accountability or ownership from them. Of course, that's what you end up with.

And the last reason that people tend to tolerate teams or team members that are not making the cut, they will not get you to your goals. They're not the team members that are going to do it and you can't do it all on your own. We talked about the beginning, you will hit a ceiling, you'll you may keep driving, and you may pick up slack.

And you may micromanage because you have team members that aren't really stepping up in the ways that they need to. And maybe that's because they're not bought in. So there's improvement there that you can do on your side, but you cannot just keep tolerating it.

This problem will get worse, the longer that you keep team members that are not playing to the level of what it's going to take to go where you want to go. The opportunity cost is insane. But we don't stop.

We don't stop to look at that. We don't stop to calculate what it would mean to get somebody in there, what would be possible for the firm. And there's no way you can know that for sure.

But you can certainly play around with some numbers and see, instead of just accepting that this is the team that you have. And listen, for some of you, this is one person on your team, one person. And for whatever reason you tolerated them, which that's what I'm going to go into next is one of the main reasons that people tolerate is fear.

They have fear of confrontation, fear of hard discussions, fear of hurting people's feelings, fear of being the straw that breaks the camel's back. It's all this fear. And it's all in your mind.

Now, you don't know, maybe you're right. Maybe it is the “the straw that breaks the camel's back.” I mean, maybe you do have that hard conversation. And you do your best to ensure that the delivery is how it needs to be. And let's just say that the person gets upset and quits. Well, don't you think that it's better now than later, the more time that goes on, the harder and harder, harder it will be for that person to quit.

It'll be harder on you. So the sooner the better, you can't avoid conversations out of fear. So yes, you might hit some stuff that you didn't want to deal with, you might have an open position because of it. But you cannot live out of fear. If anything, you could be strategic. If you really think that's going to happen.

Maybe you already get ahead of the game, because you know, you need players that are going to rise to the level. This is a team for you. These are players on a team. That's how you want to think about this. This is not a family. We don't just keep the weird uncle in the basement.

No, this is a team people get cut. And also people get to stay and be a part of something amazing. And should they rise to the level that you're allowing them to rise to?

So when you have these conversations, if you want to hedge your bets a bit, you can, you know, you can get the ads out there, put out the word that you're looking for some help, you can do whatever you need to do to get ahead of the game a bit.

And then have that conversation and do your damnedest to make that conversation go well to be a successful conversation, decide ahead of time what outcome you want from that conversation. And get the outcome out of that conversation and do it in a way that's connected with your team member.

Do your best. But sure, you can hedge your bets a bit, but you don't get to not have the conversation, you don't get to just keep someone on your team and expect your firm to grow in the ways you want it to grow, it won't happen. You will be frustrated, even if your firm grows with those players on the team that are subpar, and they are not providing the value to the firm that makes sense for what you are paying them.

And as long as you keep those people on your team, you won't grow in the ways you want to. But even if you did, let's say in terms of revenue, you grew, you create a bigger problem, the bigger you grow, the bigger your problems get, the more magnified when I mean bigger.

Sure, some problems change, and you get some bigger problems than you could have had when you were smaller. But the problems that you didn't address will magnify and will be a bigger thorn. So don't do it. Just don't do it. We are playing the long game. You don't need to be in a hurry with any of the stuff I'm talking about. But you do need to be clear and intentional with the stuff I'm talking about.

Because if you don't, you're going to pay. And if you don't, that's the other thing. If you don't make these calls, it just means that your self-image isn't matching where you want to go. You're not being honest with yourself. You're not having the hard conversations. You're not setting up development plans for your team.

You're not trying to connect with them. You're not trying to share your vision about where you're going and why it matters and how you roll here. And you allow fear to keep you stagnant in many situations, because you're afraid of what they'll think you don't want to hurt their feelings, you're unsure of how they're going to take care of their family, you're, this is coming from a very good place.

But it's not serving anyone. It's not serving the firm. It's not serving your team. It's not serving your clients. It's not serving you. And really, if you really want to get down to brass tacks, it's not serving the person that's on your team. It's not that you think is performing in a subpar way.

So stop tolerating a team that is subpar. You're not going to fix a team that isn't performing very well overnight. But you have got to get clear that there are expectations.

And you need to articulate those expectations kindly. And you need to give them what they need in order to fulfill those expectations. And through that, regular feedback and coaching, do not let go of what the expectations are, they've got to meet them, and you will help them, you will do it, we will work with them and meet them to meet them, but you cannot allow them to not meet expectations that have been set.

So the clearer you are about the firm you want to build, and if your self image is progressively becoming more of a match for you as an owner, and you as a leader, then that is really going to open you up and allow you to be able to articulate the things that really matter. And then you can get your team to buy in, because you're the kind of person that can articulate where it is we're going and the standards that need to be in place.

And when you can articulate that you give them the opportunity to rise up. You give them the opportunity to buy in. And you get the opportunity to be clear and clear about expectations. And so when you can do that, then you get to hold them accountable, and you get to work with them on development. And whatever the reason is that stops you from doing the things that I'm talking about right now, you have got to clean it up.

And it might be something to do around self-image, it might be something to do with a lack of clarity on where it is you're headed for. It might be because you don't want to hurt someone's feelings, you really care about the people in your firm, you do care how they feel. And so it holds you back from having conversations and setting expectations.

Maybe you care about what they're going to think about you. Like it's been a relaxed environment, and you're going to start taking things more seriously. And you're going to be clearer.

And you're going to articulate where it is you're going. And they may think if they've been around for a while, okay, crazy lady, like I just had a conversation with someone who she said, they're probably going to think that I'm like, so let them think that this is not about them. It's about your firm.

It's about growing it. It's about creating the space and the high-quality product and the healthy, healthy business that you could have. That's what this is about. And of course, you want them on the team, let's go, you have got to raise your standards.

I'm saying this that reminds me of a speaker that I once heard, that was talking about how when he talks to business owners, and they say that they have a high pain tolerance. He said, when someone tells me that they have a high pain tolerance, to me, it means that they have a tolerance of low standards.

And I thought, “Oh, that's interesting.” And then he went on to talk about it. And when someone says to him, “I've got a pretty high pain tolerance for this, or I have a pretty high pain threshold for this,” and oftentimes it is talking about team, his response to them is, “I'm sorry to hear that. I welcome you to improve your standards.”

And that is kind of what this feels like right now. You know, the other thing I'm going to say when it comes to this topic is I've worked with firms, especially I could think of private clients where this has been true.

And when you first work with them, and you get under the hood, you get clarity about the numbers, you do help them make a plan for where to go. The most obvious things to work on in order to put them on a path on where it is they want to go is systems. And through the work of systems, what reveals itself is team members who won't abide by the systems.

So the systems aren't broken, they aren't abiding by the system. So it's a people problem, not a system problem. And so the people problems will surface as you start to implement systems.

And before we do this, oftentimes there's conversations about red flags in people that they think they might not be a right fit. I don't know if I'm going to be able to coach them up or if I'm going to be able to develop them. I'm not sure that they want it.

I'm not sure that they're the right fit. And that will be a conversation. Well, that becomes very obvious when a system gets put into place that makes sense for the business.

And it's not failing, the people are failing to follow it. And the system works. And some people are following it, but there's one or a few that aren't.

That's a sign. That's a sign that you are tolerating. And so then living with that is the high pain tolerance that I'm kind of referring to here when I was just sharing about the speaker, that's what I'm referring to when I have this vision in my head of you having a high pain tolerance.

It's people who aren't abiding by things when there are systems for them. There are processes for them. And when you get undocumented, and you roll it out, and they still don't do it consistently, that's a no. That does not get to happen in your firm.

But people will tolerate it, they'll kind of get to the place where so sick of dealing with the person, they just roll their eyes and behind those person's back, and then they'll go in and fix it behind the person's back. And they stop having the conversations because they're tired of having the conversations.

That's tolerating things. And I know that there are so many of you listening to this, that know exactly what I'm talking about. And you might even be dealing with it right this second in your firm, you have got to stop tolerating a team that does not match where it is that you want to go.

That does make me think of an episode we've done before on high confront, and how important it is to have high confront. And there is a way to think about delivery. But you have to be willing to confront situations when they come up, do not get passive, you do not tolerate, you address it.

That Episode is 228. So if that is something that you feel like you want to work on, you can go listen to that episode and hopefully find some different ways to think about hard conversations. Again, this doesn't happen overnight, you don't have to switch out your whole team overnight, you don't have to make any drastic calls.

But you have got to take whatever the nugget was that stood out to you from this episode. And you've got to become obsessed with it. Because if you don't, you will not change.

And so if that's first, this self-image or self-concept, go listen to that episode and dig in and start doing some work there. And sometimes it's not a ton of work. Sometimes it's just a lightbulb that needs to go off for you. So dig into that part. Sometimes it's clarity about where you're going. Dig into that part, get yourself involved in something that's going to help provide clarity that's going to force you to think that's going to facilitate you thinking about this stuff.

And then from there, if you feel like you've got that down the first part, then from there, move into getting buy in from the team, what do you need to do better? How do you need to show up differently to get buy in from the team? What kind of expectations do you need to set?

What kind of vision can you paint? What kind of standards? Can you share that are how we need to roll here and core values as well.

Doing that is important because that is how your team will buy in. It's not just a job. If you do this work of working to get their buy in, and then and only then you address your fears on having those hard conversations.

That's it. Those are the main things that keep people in a place of tolerating a team that does not match where they want to go. If you are trying to hit a goal that feels like a stretch.

Let's say for example, you are at $650,000 and you're stretching for a million this year. Really be honest, do you have the team that's going to get you there? Because you cannot carry that on your own. Do you have the team that can allow a million dollars to become inevitable?

And if the answer is no, you need to take a good hard look in the mirror and make some calls and do some work. And only you know where that work needs to be done.

Alright, my friends, that's what I've got for you today. If you want help with this, if you want to think through it, or if you just want to get clear about maybe which one of these is your blocker right now, go book a consult with me. This is why I have these available, to talk to you guys and figure out if what we do is actually going to help you with where you are. So happy to chat.

All right, everybody, I'll see you here next Tuesday. Have a wonderful week.

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.