Note: This copyrighted article was provided to the CBA free of charge for use in the Law Firm Leaders PracticeLink newsletter. It is abridged from the original.
When the much-admired Robert M. Dell, former chair and managing partner of Latham & Watkins, retired at the end of 2014 after 20 years as firm leader, he left big shoes to fill. But the steps the firm took to fill them should serve as a role model for management and leadership succession:
- Dell gave the firm more than 13 months’ advance notice that he would be stepping down;
- To oversee the identification and election process, Latham appointed a succession committee consisting of a diverse group of partners from a variety of the firm’s offices and practice groups;
- Dell worked with the new managing partner for about six months to help ensure a smooth transition.
Leadership transition can be a complicated and messy ordeal or it can be carefully planned to promote the best interests of the law firm. In this article I wanted to set out some of the best practices and potential pitfalls that both outgoing and incoming firm leaders need to be sensitive to.
When you are the outgoing leader
The outgoing leader has responsibilities to the firm, to the unbiased selection of his or her successor, and to the transition process.
First, when it is time to step down, the proper course of action would be to assist your firm’s executive committee /board in the formation of a selection committee, but do not involve yourself as a member of that committee or suggest any candidates for consideration by the committee.
In any effective leadership selection process, your executive committee / board must first agree on the strategic direction of your firm. The board has to identify the very specific effect it wants the next firm leader to have on the firm’s business and define the skills that it will take to accomplish that.
Second, your firm will survive and even thrive without you. You should therefore compose a realistic story to tell people, in a positive way, why you are stepping down and to convey your excitement about your next adventure and the firm’s future.
Third, the leadership transition period is a good time to finally deal with annoying operational problems or troublesome personalities, so that the new leader can come in and immediately begin to address the more important strategic issues.
Fourth, think about what information you would want if you yourself were new in the job, and make sure to convey it to your successor.
Fifth, to assure the success of the new leader, you should under no circumstances speak with anyone at the firm about his or her performance. Your focus should be on supporting and cultivating the strengths of the new leader.
Finally, the best advice I can frankly give any leader leaving office is to simply let go. And “letting go” means not being involved in any way in the leadership of the firm.
The firm must learn to live without you, so the sooner you get out of the way, the sooner they get down to business.
When you are the incoming leader
Few new firm leaders are as prepared as we, or they, might wish. Here are some things to keep in mind:
First, most professionals dramatically underestimate the scope and responsibility of managing an entire firm.The managing partner should have a detailed job description, which must be widely circulated throughout the firm so that everybody gets a true sense of what the job entails.
Second, the biggest issue I hear about from new leaders is always the amount of time it takes to do the job.
A Citibank/HBR 2014 Client Advisory titled The Leadership Challenge noted that “to be effective, the firm leader is best performed as a full-time role.”
Third, any new firm leader needs to get a clear sense of partners’ expectations. In most situations, your initial concern should not be to hit the ground running, but to hit the ground listening – talk to partners to get their insights and advice, and clarify what they want to see you shake up and what they want preserved.
Fourth, your decisions, how you make them, with whom you consult, will all be watched very carefully; likewise, everything you say and the signals you send. You have to be especially careful how your relationships with those you once worked closely with are perceived.
And don’t forget to inform people about how best to work with you , for example:
- How do you prefer to receive information – in person, by phone, in writing?
- Is your door open or do you prefer that people arrange appointments?
- Do you have any pet peeves?
- How do you feel about being called at home?
Fifth, based on what you’ve been hearing from your interviews with fellow partners, settle on a few major priorities. You can’t fix everything at once or do everything you want to do, so you need to make some strategic choices. Here is where you begin to align your firm around a shared direction for the future.
Within your first 100 days, you need to target a few early wins. Pick some problem your firm has not been able to address and figure out a way to fix it quickly. That’s how you make your bones and ensure perceptions of a successful transition.
Finally, if you are focused on fashioning a legacy, you will be remembered as the individual who was focused on fashioning a legacy. Instead, focus on the long-term competitive vitality of the firm.
Patrick J. McKenna (patrickmckenna.com) is an internationally recognized authority on law practice management and strategy. He is co-author of business bestseller First Among Equals and Serving at the Pleasure of My Partners: Advice to the NEW Firm Leader, published in 2011 by Thomson Reuters. He can be reached at patrick@patrickmckenna.com