How consistent are the messages your team receives from leadership?

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Is Your Firm Leadership Sending Mixed Messages?

Recently, a law firm partner posted on social media advising associates to be honest with partners about their capacity to take on new work, assuring them that it wouldn’t hurt them when it came time to make the next assignment. He said he’d rather know ahead of time that an associate didn’t have time to work on a project.

The post got lots of comments, many of which said that while that sounded nice, it wasn’t their experience – In their experience, as soon as you say no to a partner, you never get an assignment from them again.

One commenter said that early in his career a partner told him that he shouldn’t be afraid to say no to a partner if he didn’t have the capacity to do the work. Later, when he said no to an assignment from that same partner, the partner wasn’t happy. When the associate reminded him what he’d been told earlier, the partner said that he meant for the associate to say no to other partners, but not to him.

If you’re wondering why your associates aren’t forthcoming, aren’t engaged, and don’t seem to trust the partners they work with, it might be time to take a look at how consistent the messages they receive from leadership are and whether those messages align with the stated values of the firm.

If you want to communicate better with your team, reach out to see how I can help.

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