Pathway to Success Step 4– Teamwork

A couple weeks ago, I was at the Association of Legal Administrators conference.  On a number of occasions I heard about the topic of silos and individuals when discussing what is happening in law firms.  I’ve also seen this in many of the law firms that I’ve visited with over the past 10 years.

Consequently, as I have developed the Pathway to Success model for achieving goals I purposely put the word teamwork into the template.  Here is what I picture as the ideal team and how it would work in a law firm.

Maybe the place to start is looking at why working as a team matters.  Well, studies over the past several years have shown that people who work as team are able to accomplish more than those who work individually. I find that when a firm is working in silos and its focus is on the individual, ideas are not shared, and problems that are happening don’t get addressed.

This is because everyone is more concerned about their own work, leadership and training of other people in the firm doesn’t happen, and the list could go on. But you get the point.

Developing a team mentality will help your firm achieve your goals.  When teams work together problems can be solved, ideas are shared, associates are mentored, paralegals get all of the information they need to do their jobs, and so on.  Each of these has an outcome that leads to higher productivity and greater profitability.

So next time you think about what your practice should look like consider the benefits of having a team working together to achieve your goals.