Why building a collaborative, team-orientated culture can exponentially benefit lawyers and law firms alike
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller
As lawyers, we are trained to be individualistic, independent thinkers, self-reliant and territorial – holding on to and being very protective of our seemingly valuable resources, being our specialised, professional knowledge and our key client relationships.
A culture of collaboration and sharing is not, in general, encouraged or incentivised – whether that be sharing one’s specialist knowledge and expertise or sharing clients and their matters (even if you may not have the requisite expertise yourself!).
The sad reality is that, all too often, lawyers see their colleagues as competition, not as colleagues, people one could collaborate with and indeed who could, ironically, assist us to grow our practice and retain our key client relationships as opposed to fearing that they might poach our clients.
“It is the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) that those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.” – Charles Darwin
This ingrained mindset that you must do everything yourself, not ask for assistance or admit you do not know something (for fear that this may be a sign of ‘weakness’) is not a recipe for sustained success and in fact can result in you being less productive and have negative implications for your health and mental wellbeing. Moreover, the new generation of lawyers are demanding and requiring more collaborative work environments – by retaining a territorial, non-collegial mindset, law firms are risking not only losing their highly talented workforce but also not being able to attract them in the first place – which will have and has a direct impact on its ability to remain competitive and profitable.
“No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it.” – H.E. Luccock
So, just why should lawyers and law firms embrace teamwork and collaboration? Just how can working as a team improve efficiency, motivation and indeed the profitability of one’s own legal practice and that of the law firm as a whole?
Working as a team enables
- Complementary skills and expertise
- A richer breadth of knowledge and experience
- Greater client satisfaction due to the delivery of better results, solutions to the client’s problems – through use of specialists across the firm
- The fostering of greater trust and loyalty amongst your colleagues and across the firm as a whole
- Generation of new, creative ways to solve clients’ problems
- Support and motivation
- Thinking partners and sounding boards
- More efficient delegation and division of work and responsibilities
“Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than the one where they sprang up.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes
How to accomplish this?
Consider working with a coach to help start the process of shifting from an individualistic, ‘territorial’ mindset to one that embraces team-building, collaboration and trust amongst colleagues, departments and the firm at large.
The result?
More cohesive, collaborative workforce = more efficient, innovative solutions = more delighted, loyal clients = great revenue and profits.
“Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.” – Andrew Carnegie
