Costly Practices

Over the years, there have been a few issues that were hot for over a decade, like what to do with staff who don’t want to be partners or how to work with millennials. The latest is where to find staff. But one enduring issue throughout the decades has been how to keep our people, preferably engaged and committed.

Strategies have circled around costly offerings. Firms are paying more, giving more, yielding more, all to entice people to stay. Employee costs as a percent of budget are out the roof. There has to be another way. And actually, there is. There are some no-cost practices that are hugely effective—and invaluable. How could you do more of these?

No-cost Practices

1. Appreciate them. You are probably really good at seeing what’s not right. This skill is perfect for doing your work, but not so much when leading your people. In fact, this skill can be so overused that it frustrates and discourages the people you manage. So much feedback to staff is based on what they did wrong. Think about all the review notes, improvement plans (often mistakenly called Development Plans), and meetings about their goals not being met. This over-attention on what’s wrong ultimately deflates them.

Instead, you have to let them know that you appreciate them and their work. That they are an important part of the team. That you are grateful for their efforts to learn and produce good work. That they make the firm better for being a part of it. In many ways, you believe these things. But you have to say them.

2. Respect them. I generally don’t hear of managers and partners disrespecting their staff. But not showing disrespect isn’t the same as showing respect. One manager told me that her partner convinced a client to migrate to a different software. But the manager wasn’t sure it was the right move. Instead of the partner overriding the manager’s concerns, he went back to the client and advised that a further review of the software recommendation would be conducted. The manager said, “He still doesn’t agree with me. But in my career at other places, I have never experienced that level of respect. This is the right firm for me.”
3. Engage them. I guess partners and managers have forgotten how great it felt when, as staff, they were invited to give their input. Create this experience for your people more often. One firm annually asks their staff for names of clients that they don’t like working with and the firm’s leaders respond appropriately. Another firm invites all their managers to join with the partners to create and participate in executing the firm’s strategic plan. Another firm assigns a staff seat to most of the firm’s committees and task forces.

Invaluable Practices

When your people feel valued, recognized and involved, they experience no-cost reasons to stay. We don’t express appreciation and respect enough and if we did, we would give our people more reasons to stay other than compensation and work arrangements.