Years ago, an extended family member didn’t file his personal tax return yet again. Don’t misunderstand me, every year a tax return is prepared. He just never took the time to review the work of the tax preparers he had hired, so for several years in a row the darn things were never signed and returned. There finally came a time when I couldn’t help but ask what the heck was going on. His response was he didn’t trust anyone else to do the work correctly and he didn’t have the time to do it himself. I followed up with the obvious question, which was why pay someone else to do your taxes if you have no intention of ever filing what they prepared. He looked at me as if I was a bother and replied that he trusted their work enough to provide him with the information he needed to pay an estimate and file an extension but that was it. In short, in his mind he used their work to buy him time until he could eventually get to it. Of course, he never did, and the expected consequences of his approach eventually played out.
During my law firm consulting years, I would occasionally come across a solo or small firm practice that was run in a fashion very similar to how this extended family member handled his taxes. Whenever that happened, I either tried to address it or just sat back and observed. Regardless of the specifics of any given situation, I always walked away with the same feeling. The trust piece mentioned above was so often the problem. While the lawyer understood that he or she didn’t have the time to get to something, this always seemed to be counterbalanced by an inability to trust anyone else to take care of it, even if that other person was more competent or proficient at the given task than the lawyer.
When circumstances permitted a discussion with these lawyers, I would often hear some version of the competency excuse; but I never bought into any of them. Even my extended family member didn’t believe the tax preparers were incompetent. No, as I saw it, most of the time what seemed to be going on was the lawyer had a need to be in total control, was unable or unwilling to acknowledge that he didn’t have the skill set to complete the task, was afraid to admit to himself or others that he could use some help, or he didn’t want others to know how far behind he was. But none of that really matters to me. The point here is not to do a differential diagnosis. The point is to shine some light on the real problem, which is an inability or unwillingness to delegate work for whatever reason.
Before going any further, however, one quick aside. If you struggle with delegating work because you have concerns about competency, all I can say is this. If you truly feel you are surrounded by incompetent staff who cannot be trusted to complete their work to an acceptable level then stop the bleeding, fire the lot, and hire competent help. Life’s too short as it is.
Why do I care about all this? Because as a risk manager I know that failing to delegate work and allowing one’s workload to build to unmanageable levels will always result in the normal and expected consequences playing out. Of course, while the failure to delegate work won’t result in the IRS knocking at your door, it could easily lead to problematic attorney-client relationships, the loss of competent but underutilized staff or associates, reputational damage, being fired by one or more dissatisfied clients, having a disciplinary complaint filed for failure to communicate or neglecting a client matter, or even having to deal with a malpractice claim due to a missed deadline.
So, to those of you who are unable or unwilling to delegate work, stop making excuses. Put the Rolaids away and learn to delegate. Start by trying to take your feelings of distrust of others out of the picture and perhaps some of the fear of what might happen if you give up a little control and just start to delegate. Sign and file that return, if you will. Take that leap of faith. It will be ok in the end. The real challenge is going to be in how to get there. While there will be different answers for different folk, here are a few ideas that might prove useful.
Work on changing your perspective. I assume you trust yourself, so why not trust your judgment in hiring who you hired and let those folks do the work you hired them to do? If you need to start small by delegating less critical tasks to enable you to build trust, so be it. If you are concerned that they are not properly trained for what you ultimately need to turn over to them, prioritize finding the time to provide the necessary training because you must come to trust their skill set.
Next, look at how you might manage accountability and then follow through with it. Consider developing customized check lists that can be used to ensure staff are doing all that needs to be done on various types of matters. This will also enable you to quickly check up on their progress. You might establish appropriate completion dates for various tasks or assignments and determine how those completion dates will be monitored. As you think about this, I strongly encourage you to also think about levels of priority with various types of work, and then share your conclusions with everyone. Staff need to understand how to prioritize work in accordance with your thinking when multiple matters are being handled or if and when unforeseen interruptions arise because they are not mind readers!
Make certain that staff are given sufficient time and the appropriate tech tools to complete their assignments. It’s not their fault if they can’t complete something to your level of satisfaction when you finally had no other option but to delegate at the eleventh hour because you allowed too many other things to hit a crisis point. You must come to accept that delegation isn’t about putting out fires; it’s about fire prevention. You might also have a weekly Monday morning meeting with all lawyers and staff where the week’s priorities are established for all based upon what was accomplished the prior week and what’s coming up in the next few weeks.
Finally, as you discover that delegation can lead to increased efficiencies without sacrificing quality of work product, share praise publicly where appropriate. While doing so can work wonders for morale, I am really suggesting you do this for you. By publicly acknowledging that something is working (i.e., your willingness to delegate), you will begin to build a personal comfort level with the process, thus ensuring its continuance. This is important because what I’ve been discussing here isn’t just about learning a new managerial skill. This is about taking your practice to the next level which will not only help ensure the long-term success of your practice, but it will also give you the opportunity to prioritize your personal health and wellness.
If you remain unconvinced that learning to delegate work will be worth the effort, here’s one other way to think about it. Every person I have ever met who had a problem delegating work, presented as having a disheveled and stress filled professional life. For me, it’s a lot like watching a juggler try to keep more and more pins in the air. While I have seen a lot of fantastic jugglers in my day, I have yet to see one individual keep eight or more pins up for an extended amount of time. Eventually, something always gets dropped.
Of course, wonderful things start to happen when a solo juggler all of a sudden has someone else step into the act and a few pins are delegated to that second individual. I’m always impressed by that. Not only do the two calmly keep all the pins up, but they remain so even as they add additional pins to the act. Although they make it look easy, the reality is that by trusting each other with part of the task they very effectively demonstrate that two can competently handle far more than either could alone. I find that most interesting.
Mark Bassingthwaighte, Risk Manager : Oct 1, 2020
