Developing Leaders: A Case Study from the Legal Profession
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This deck is from a 2015 GVFHRA HR Summit case study I co-presented with Ballard Spahr's Bonnie Bell. The senior leaders at Ballard Spahr, a national law firm headquartered in Philadelphia, launched a firm-wide initiative to support and implement the development of their support staff at all levels of the organization with a high expectation of accountability. Our case presentation focuses on this strategic initiative, which involved aligning senior leaders on competencies, methodology, tools, technologies, and an overall framework.
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Developing Leaders: A Case Study from the Legal Profession
- 1. Developing Leaders: A Case Study from the Legal Profession Bonnie Bell, PHR Gus Prestera, PhD Presented at the 2015 HR Summit of the Greater Valley Forge Human Resources Association on October 16 | 3:00 – 4:15 | Penn State Great Valley
- 2. 2 Speaker 2015 Awards/Rankings •95 attorneys named Leading Lawyers for Business; 23 practices recognized •Ranked fourth in the nation for its percentage of women equity partners •Fifteen practices ranked in the highest tier nationally •Among the top 100 firms for female attorneys Ballard Spahr is a national law firm of more than 500 lawyers in 14 offices. • Law Firm Administrative Leader • Director of Staff Development Ballard Spahr | www.ballardspahr.com • Over 25 years of human resource related experience • Certifications: - The Philadelphia Paralegal Institute - The Society for Human Resource Management (PHR) - The Oz Principle Accountability Training
- 3. 3 improving the capabilities and performanceimproving the capabilities and performance of leaders and their employeesof leaders and their employees Speaker Gus Prestera • Organizational Learning and Development Consultant • Prestera FX | www.presterafx.com • ~20 years experience developing workers and their leaders • MBA and PhD Instructional Systems with Leadership Development focus Prestera FXtraining and consulting
- 4. 4 To prepare you to: 1.Engage strategically with your senior leaders 2.Coach and educate managers through the process 3.Structure, facilitate, and implement staff development process 4.Navigate the potholes Today’s Objectives Q&A Our Solution Our Process What Did We Learn? Our Challenge What Happened? Our Agenda Our Agenda
- 5. 5 Our Challenge • Executive Level Support • Fee Earner Oriented Culture • Mature Workforce • Results Oriented Work Environment (ROWE) • Lack of Dedicated People and Budget
- 6. 6 Objectives for Staff Development • Same user experience across offices • Innovative approach • Must link to key results • Enhanced Employee Engagement • S.M.A.R.T. Goals Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-Bound
- 7. 7 Our Solution Our Solution Competency Model Competency-Based Learning Pathways Development Worksheet Self Development Training Manager Training Change Management
- 8. 8 Competency Model Job-Specific CompetenciesJob-Specific Competencies describe technical knowledge, skills,describe technical knowledge, skills, and abilities that are needed to beand abilities that are needed to be successful within a specific role andsuccessful within a specific role and function.function. Leadership Competencies are the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to manage ourselves and others successfully. They apply firm-wide regardless of title, department or office, though they may apply differently based on your scope of leadership responsibilities. Core Competencies are central to the mission and values of the Firm and apply to all employees equally, regardless of title, department, or office. Competency Model
- 9. 9 JOB-SPECIFIC CORE 101: Individual Contributor 201: Functional Leader 301: Leader of Others 401: Leader of Leaders development tracks Competency-Based Learning Pathways
- 10. 10 Milestones Goals & Targets Tasks & Resources Target Dates Reflect & Assess Self Development Training
- 11. 11 Manager Training: Three Kingdoms Realm of Prof essional Development Realm of Perf ormance Management Realm of Leadership Development
- 12. 12 Four Development Conversations 11 Engage Conversation 22 Align Conversation 33 Plan Conversation 44 Check-In Conversations Manager Training
- 13. 13 Technology Considerations What we wanted: •Knowledge portal as overlay, not replacement •Seamless transition •Learning community •Tracking/reporting •Convenient
- 14. 14 What can we access through ?What can we access through ? 1000+ providers 500k+ courses 600m+ websites trade groupsLearningLearning ManagementManagement SystemSystem LearningLearning ManagementManagement SystemSystem External contentInternal content Public content
- 15. 15 External Content We Can Access Through Degreed
- 16. 16
- 18. 18 What Happened? Where are we? • Roll out to organization • Level of Commitment • The PUSH • Reward & Acknowledge Work in Progress Following initial rollout, our focus will be on follow-through and outreach
- 19. 19 “I Don’t Have Time!” “You will never find time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.” Charles Buxton 19th Century English Brewer Minister of Parliament Philanthropist Social Reformer …and all-around “busy guy”
- 20. 20 What gets in the way of development? Unable or unwilling toUnable or unwilling to prioritize itprioritize it Can’t envision theCan’t envision the possibilitiespossibilities Lacks access to theLacks access to the right connectionsright connections Lacks opportunitiesLacks opportunities to apply new skillsto apply new skills Lacks alignment withLacks alignment with the firm’s needsthe firm’s needs “Learning from mistakes is too risky in this environment.” “I need a mentor but who’s going to help me?” “It’s just one of those things that I keep putting on the backburner…too much happening.” “How is all this development going to get me anywhere in my career?” Isn’t receiving orIsn’t receiving or processing feedbackprocessing feedback “I’m taking classes on my own and following through on my plan, but none of it is relevant to my job.” “I do development stuff all the time, but have I really developed any new skills?”
- 21. 21 Potholes Encountered • Lack of Accountability • Compatibility of Technologies • Educating Externals on Firm Culture
- 22. 22 Lessons Learned ManagerManager accountabilityaccountability forfor developing their team comesdeveloping their team comes from accountability for theirfrom accountability for their team’s performance resultsteam’s performance results FocusFocus firstfirst on gettingon getting developmentdevelopment conversationsconversations happening, then technologieshappening, then technologies and other factorsand other factors Relevance: GetRelevance: Get inputinput fromfrom bothboth learners and theirlearners and their managers to ensure relevancemanagers to ensure relevance & alignment& alignment Relevance: Help employeesRelevance: Help employees visualizevisualize success via rolesuccess via role models, career fairs, mentorsmodels, career fairs, mentors Recognize, celebrate, rewardRecognize, celebrate, reward behaviorsbehaviors associated withassociated with teaching, mentoring, modelingteaching, mentoring, modeling ““No time?” Teach andNo time?” Teach and promote opportunisticpromote opportunistic micro-learningmicro-learning behaviorsbehaviors to build momentumto build momentum
- 23. 23 What’s Next? Advocates Visibility Show & Tell Event Connect Development to Performance Results HiPo Development Focus Groups Mentoring Circles
- 24. 24 Questions?
- 25. Developing Leaders: A Case Study from the Legal Profession Bonnie Bell, PHR bellb@ballardspahr.com Gus Prestera, PhD gus@presterafx.com Thank you!
Editor's Notes
- Event Theme: ALIGN Action-based Leaders Inspiring Growth and Navigating Change The legal services industry is evolving rapidly and facing increasing competition due to globalization, offshoring, disruptive technologies, and client demands for quality legal services at an affordable price. The administrative functions within law firms play a critical role in differentiating their services, expanding their practices, and operating more profitably. To remain competitive, they must continually improve their processes and develop new capabilities. This requires staff and leaders who are continually investing in an environment of professional development. The senior leaders at Ballard Spahr, a national law firm headquartered in Philadelphia, recognized this need when they established its business priorities for 2015: competitiveness, profitability, and employee engagement. Subsequently, they launched a firm-wide initiative to support and implement the development of their support staff at all levels of the organization with a high expectation of accountability. Our case presentation focuses on this strategic initiative, which involved aligning senior leaders on competencies, methodology, tools, technologies, and an overall framework.
- n/a
- Executive level support: BS identified the need and then committed to putting someone in the position formally. One person with one job function. Culture (fee earner vs non-fee earner): Majority of development dollars had been directed to fee earners. There was no staff development in place to build on. Once a year performance conversation directly tied to comp…no expectation of an ongoing dialogue between managers and employees re: their performance and development. Leaders expected to spend most of their time on individual contributor responsibilities vs people leadership responsibilities. Experience was added through lateral hiring. Mature Workforce: Receptiveness toward elearning; acknowledgment that they had room to grow. Long term employees. Would they feel threatened by staff development as a way to weed out senior employees? ROWE (how do we measure success?): Results oriented work environments. Measure success by the immediate outcome. Development perceived as a long-term solution that yields benefits that are not always easy to quantify and see. Allocation of Resources People: Someone dedicated to supporting staff development with IT support. Dollars: Need to budget funds.
- Uniform, Accessible and Supported: Because PHL is the largest office and has a high concentration of senior staff, we are constantly fighting perception that PHL gets the lion share of attention, resources, etc. So it was important that the user experience be the same across offices. One Firm, Firm. Progressive: Rather than following others, we wanted to be a leader in staff development. Key results: enhanced employee engagement, competitiveness and profitability. Articulate and communicate to ALL Enhanced Employee Engagement: Individuals are invested in their PD, are contributing to the development of others, and will be evaluated against those expectations. From reactionary to being invested and driving their development, get that they are a key component to results. S.M.A.R.T. goals: Development driven in part by the SMART goals of the employees
- Here’s an overview of the Four Development Conversations .
- Needed to acknowledge support and effort of IT Seamless introduction Collaborative effort Appropriate and useful analytics Group learning easy
- Roll out: to leaders but only just introducing to the org at large Level of Commitment: varies The PUSH: Nudge emails to refocus and take next step “RE: One thing you can do in five minutes” Reward/acknowledgement: Personal notes, ear buds, recognition emails, FlexEd funds in Degreed
- Accountability: people realizing that they had to take control of the PD. Some don’t embrace their responsibility to manage and develop others. Relevance: Different perspectives about what learners’ need Consequences: No consequence for not using the resources Education of others on culture: when bringing in others from the outside, need to educate them on how to work with your org Compatible technology: Degreed and viDesktop issues; next time, more upfront work and trial period Vendor management: Multiple contacts and poor communication, no circle back, handoffs
- Accountability: Managers must first be accountable for performance and development (or engagement scores), then they will embrace tools to support them. Relevance: Focus on getting conversations going between managers and employees…relevant needs will arise, then react to them, rather than try to anticipate all needs. Allow learner input to drive curation as much as managers’. People need visibility into possible career paths to help them envision what the path looks like and what development they’ll need. Consequences: Celebrate and incentivize the behaviors of teaching, mentoring, coaching, modeling through recognition, formal roles, and comp. Celebrate learning too, even if you don’t comp it. Education of others on culture: Need to spend time upfront getting to know people, roles, culture (both ways) Compatible technology: People-first rather than Systems-first. Focus on culture of learning first---get the conversations going. Proof of concept. Then focus on enabling technologies, tracking, scalability, etc. Allow yourself time to select, configure, and test the right technologies to support the needs. Time: Timing should bend to “busy times.” Block out. Opportunistic.
- Advocates: Focus on those who are advocates Visibility: Make sure that attorneys know it’s happening Show-n-Tell Event: Cyber café, etc. to introduce it more broadly Development Worksheet Connection to Performance Results: Spring Create Opportunity: Put cross functional HiPos together to address firm needs Focus Groups: For input on training they should have Mentoring Circles: Cross-functional people managers to meet regularly
- Q&A session
- Close and thank the audience