Legal Village
« Measurements - and what we make of them | Creating a framework for development | Private equity gone lite »
Creating a framework for development
Posted 22/06/2007 by Deepak Malhotra
I am taking a break from my recent blogs regarding the C&I London focus on law firm billing to talk about talent development. I am particularly interested in comparing the approach of in-house departments and private practice to this area.
At the company I work for, InBev, we have just completed a Myers-Briggs personality profiling exercise for 40 lawyers in my team. For us it forms part of our three-year plan for the legal team’s learning and development: in addition to Myers-Briggs, the programme is aimed at continuing to build our technical skills in core areas such as M&A, IP and competition; developing soft skills (presentations, negotiating and influencing); and putting our best and most ambitious lawyers on internal and external emerging leadership programs. Coupled with 360-degree feedback programs, ensuring that everyone has their own personal development plan and regular appraisals, this is our framework for people management and talent development.
This is not unusual. Other in-house colleagues have similar programmes with their legal teams. Trends around two-way secondments and other innovative programs are also emerging. Al told, I believe in-house legal is beginning to lead the way in this area, which got me thinking about whether private practice offers similar programmes – or different or even better alternatives.
It is not very often that in-house and private practice share ideas around talent development; it happens on an individual firm-client basis, but if we could kick-start it to happen holistically, that could be powerful. If we could identify and share best practice in this area (across both in-house and private practice) it could give all of us a positive push, assist in developing our lawyers into leaders and help to improve engagement and retention.
We tell our people to ‘own your future’. It’s time the different parts of the profession work together to create a framework in which talent has the best opportunity to develop.
Categories
- Andrew Holroyd
- Bar Talk
- Barbara Hewson
- Ben Hallman in Iraq
- Bill Knight
- Charles Hollander QC
- Charles Martin
- Christine Kings
- Christoph von Teichman
- Clare Murray
- Dan Tench
- Deepak Malhotra
- Fiona Woolf
- Investment Banker
- Joanne Edwards
- John Malpas
- Jonathan Djanogly MP
- Jonathan Goldstein
- Mark Dawkins
- Mark Rawlinson
- Mike Semple Piggot
- Nigel Savage
- Phillip Fletcher
- Pro bono
- Quentin Poole
- Robert Hunter
- Simon Davis
- Stephen Gillespie
- Students
- Sunil Gadhia
- Ted Greeno
- The Bar
RSSRecent Posts
- Scoring moot points 4/07/2008
- Is the US IP boutique an endangered species?26/06/2008
- Acting workshops for lawyers16/06/2008
- SSQ in Tanzania: still work to do 9/06/2008
Comments
Creating a framework for learning and development can take many forms from psychometric testing aka Myers Briggs – competency and training frameworks - 360o feedback programmes as part of lawyers’ personal development plans.
Like InBev, I have personal experience of managing and developing a legal team for over 25 years; and all of them have their place in helping people understand, learn and develop. Further I continue to use many of these with my clients at Beyond the Brief. So I would welcome an open forum for best practice to be surfaced.
A key factor is finding the ‘one’ or ‘two’ for you and your team to ensure that you all play to your strengths because you are only as strong as your weakest link. Here I passionately believe you and your team must be engaged in developing your vision and the ‘development process’ for the journey rather than imposing the latest management ‘fad’ on your lawyers (and support team members) however well meaning. Imposition here is the exercise of authority not leadership and only increases chances of lack of ownership in their future.
I suspect however that each organisation/firm is on a different point on the learning curve; and there is no ‘magic’ wand to waive here to turn all lawyers into leaders or even lawyers with good people skills. (Harry Potter where are you?) Nevertheless to share learning on how these development tools are introduced and developed at the coal face will be beneficial for the whole profession as most lawyers still focus on the technical skills and day job to the exclusion of anything else so it is not one of the profession’s strengths. This is at a time when a main competitive advantage is not what we do but how we do it!
Posted by ann page | 23/07/2007