First in, last out
I was sat at my desk well before 8am on a day when I had had the possibility of a holiday but it had not happened for one reason or another. This happens if you are a partner: you earmark time off but something urgent always comes up. A colleague then emailed the following information from an e-letter sent out by an professional indemnity company. I had circulated this letter as a good partner should, to encourage fee earners in their work by sharing stories of cases which had gone disastrously wrong.
Above all, they info taught me to be wary of the workaholic who is in early, stays late, rarely takes holidays and never delegates work.
I can see the point of concern; the secretive person who makes mistakes because of the stresses and strains of life and is secretive because he does not want to admit he is not coping. But you can still be secretive and make mistakes if you work short hours and take all your holidays. I would have thought one ought to be more wary of the reverse: a person who comes late with a different excuse each time, goes early for various essential appointments and is always taking leave, study leave on top, time off in lieu and sick leave.
Personally I do not consider myself a workaholic but would be quite pleased if people thought that I was. I do not want a long-hours culture in my firm. I have had enough of offices that only really come to life at 6pm, when staff exchange war stories of their successful day.
What we need is a culture of openness, so if there are problems they can be dealt with early before they become a disaster. This brings me on to a phrase I met with in a very good book of legal anecdotes, 'finders, minders and grinders'. A partner (the finder) was paid to go to golf club all afternoon where he, and it usually was a he, could do little harm, get lots of work presumably from other people who were paid to keep out of their offices. A younger solicitor (the grinder) who aspired some day to be a partner would do the work overseen by a more experienced person (the minder) who would make sure the youngster would do the work.
We have moved away from that because rates of pay are so low that we all have to work harder. Marketing is now more sophisticated than just going to a golf club for the afternoon. I must remember to prepare a marketing plan and work on my life/work balance. I will do that tomorrow morning before anyone gets in or if I do not get time in the evening.
David Pickup is a partner in Aylesbury-based Pickup & Scott
Comments
All Bosses Are Coaches
This is an interesting insight David. There is a fine balance between overwork and work. The biggest headache can be caused by running to keep still, the constant grind of doing more but getting the same reward or even less. That's where good marketing can help. It's about finding-getting-keeping-growing clients more profitably with the same amount of effort or less.
If you manage a company you have huge influence over its success. And your points about staff are very relevant when it comes to performance. Here's an extract of a piece I wrote on this subject on my website. Hope you enjoy it.
"Great managers deliver more sales, bigger profits and lower staff turnover.
The fact is that you are only as good as your team. In their book, First Break All the Rules, Buckingham and Coffman report on Gallup Inc and how they researched what makes a great manager. Gallup Inc. found 12 questions that employees answered captured the most important information about whether management of a company is good or bad.
Employees that gave a more favourable response worked in higher performing companies.
These are the questions that employees answered and accurately reflected management and company performance.
1 Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2 Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work the right way?
3 At work do I have the opportunity to do my best, every day?
4 In the last 7 days have I received recognition for doing work well?
5 Does my manager or supervisor seem to care about me as a person?
6 Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
7 At work do my opinions seem to count?
8 Does the mission or purpose of my company make me feel my job is important?
9 Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
10 Do I have a best friend at work?
11 In the last six months has someone at work talked to me about my progress?
12 This last year, have I had opportunities to learn and to grow?
These questions were answered by 105,000 employees
in 250 business units in 24 different companies.
With this research they then went on to find the good managers and interviewed 80,000 highly rated managers.
Over and over again the researchers heard...
Great managers help each person become more and more of who he or she already is.
“Manager as coach” is how it can easily be summed up.
Boyd@GreatLegalMarketing.co.uk