Developing a coaching culture within a leading law firm
The issue
Talented people need challenges and opportunities for growth. And they need support in equal measure. They need feedback, guidance, a sounding board. Yet often what they experience is either micro-management or being thrown in at the deep end. Law firms rely on self starters who take responsibility and who are demonstrably confident. These skills and abilities can be most effectively developed through a culture of coaching. The essence of coaching is precisely about developing awareness and responsibility. It is about encouraging people to think for themselves and to learn from their experience.
Our client, a leading law firm, recognised coaching as a key management tool and, as a business, wanted to learn about and apply the principles of coaching and make it work for their firm. A 3-year plan for growth was in place, and leaders within the organisation realised the time was right to review their management style and accept the benefits of coaching to individuals and to the business. They wanted to move coaching up the agenda from a ‘nice to have’ to ‘a way of doing business around here’.
Other factors also impacted on the decision to invest in the design and delivery of a ‘manager as coach’ programme:
- To act on current feedback on management style from internal/external surveys
- To support the firm’s vision and values – as ‘a great place to work’
- To meet the expectations of the new breed of ‘generations’ in the business
- To improve the financial benefits for all through better management
Their aim: that the principles and language of coaching become currency in the business in the same way as their vision and values.
Our approach
Equipping those with supervisory responsibilities with the skills to coach their colleagues is a perfect cultural fit for law firms, where the financial model is all about effective delegation.
JSB’s Director of Management Development Diane Hodgson, and Senior Consultant Linda Sheldon worked with their counterparts at our client’s offices to design a programme that would enable all those in a managerial role to use the critical competency of coaching to support their staff and achieve business results. The ‘managers’ included legal advisers up to senior associate level, as well as business service equivalents.
The aim was to help our client integrate a culture of coaching and development which was pragmatic and practical. The training took the form of a series of 1-day workshops using practical work and real life scenarios to provide the foundation of the learning. In addition to opportunities for experimentation with coaching skills and techniques, our approach included:
- Structured input
- Individual and small group work
- Skills practice
- Peer and facilitator feedback
- Action planning
Before each workshop, participants completed pre-training questionnaires. These were used to shape the precise content of the day, but most workshops covered the following aspects:
- The context of coaching: What is coaching? Coaching and empowering staff. Using coaching at work
- How people learn: The learning cycle; You and your learning style; What your style means for coaching
- The coaching relationship: Developing an appropriate relationship
- Using key skills: Problem-solving; Giving feedback; Listening, questioning and summarising; Action planning; Challenging
- GROW – an formula for effective coaching: Preparing the ground; Increasing awareness and building responsibility; Closing the session and defining outcomes; Coaching ‘real plays’
- What happens next? Planning to take coaching back to work
The outcome
After a year of running this ‘Manager as Coach’ programme, the culture at our client’s firm has shifted as leaders, managers and team leaders are showing a widespread commitment to developing their staff through coaching.