Giving feedback to colleagues<\/i>\u00a0can feel like crossing a muddy minefield. One wrong move and \u2013 boom \u2013 you\u2019re no longer the likeable Partner you have tried so hard to be. At least, that\u2019s how we imagine the situation to be. Alternatively, you might feel at home telling Associates how to do their job better, but none of it seems to stick. If there is ever an opportunity for frustration to build \u2013 through things left unsaid or undone \u2013 this is it.<\/p>\n
So how do you turn the feedback culture within a law firm around? Is it simply a matter of walking a delicate tightrope somewhere between the nice boss and the jerk boss? What\u00a0effective leadership skills\u00a0can help you when your team is ready to flinch at the first sign of criticism? There is an altogether different way to approach the many-tentacled monster of feedback, and it starts by allowing yourself to get stung.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only did he permit Matt\u2019s challenging him\u2014he seemed to relish it\u2026 he wanted not just Matt but everyone at Google to feel comfortable criticizing authority\u2014especially his.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0\u2013 Kim Scott, Radical Candor \u2013 How To Be A Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity<\/i><\/p>\n
In Radical Candor, Kim Scott chronicles how she started her own company as the nice boss. After waking up to the fact that her refusal to give candid feedback had stunted the growth of her company and confused those she employed, she switched lanes and started a job at Google.<\/p>\n
At Google, she noticed that\u00a0everyone\u00a0<\/i>was giving feedback to one another. Especially \u2013 to her surprise \u2013 to those they worked for, not only those that worked for them. She began following their example. Instead of focusing on giving feedback to her team, \u201cI did everything I could to encourage people to criticize me\u2026the team started to open up. We began to debate openly, and we had more fun together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Creating a culture of effective feedback starts by enabling others to feel they can give leadership feedback\u00a0to you<\/i>. And this requires being willing to change. You need to model how this feedback thing works from the top, asking questions about your work together, actively listening and learning through the process. As Kim remarked, \u201cI learned just as much from the people who worked for me as from the people whom I worked for about how to be a good boss.\u201d<\/p>\nCan this really work in a law firm setting?\u00a0 <\/b>Yes, it doesn\u2019t have to be difficult!\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n
It starts with two minutes: two minutes at the end of a client call, a meeting, a document review. \u00a0 By helping Associates to grow the longer-term pain point is significantly reduced; they will perform better, continue to do better work and it\u2019ll be able to address what\u2019s not working more easily. \u00a0 Short periods of feedback increase productivity and performance.\u00a0 With Associate millennials this is an expectation \u2013 if law firms and their Partners don\u2019t address and enable this, they will lose the talent they\u2019ve worked so hard to find and train. \u00a0 These short interventions is what makes the difference to law firm performance, team alignment, individual motivation and development.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn an effort to create a positive, stress-free environment, I side-stepped the difficult but necessary part of being a boss: telling people clearly and directly when their work wasn\u2019t good enough..\u201d \u2013 Kim Scott, Radical Candor \u2013 How To Be A Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity<\/i><\/p>\n
Chances are, if you want to be the nice Partner, what you\u00a0really want\u00a0<\/i>is harmony between people. This isn\u2019t a bad thing at all. But you need to recognise that real harmony, the kind that is rooted in trust, can only come about when people are candid as well as cared for.<\/p>\n
You can still take the time to care. But demonstrate that care through spending time with your team, listening to what matters to them, and opening up about your own life. Share your struggles in\u00a0radical transparency<\/b>. When people know one another, it removes a layer of reserve that enables better feedback to flow both ways.<\/p>\n