Ten Ways of Building Values in Your Firm

by Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan, Organisational Provocateur

1. Create personal relationships with your people. By relationships you must focus on building strong 1:1 relationships with your people and their families. In order for your people to be excellent professionally, they need all the support they can get from their spouses and families. Make sure you can call your people’s spouses, and they recognise you by your first name only. If you have to use your surname, then there is a problem. As a manager, your name must be a household name in your people's families. Professional underperformance is caused by personal issues, so you must make sure your people get all the support they can handle. Rather more than less.

2. Develop structured learning opportunities. Every firm must be a learning firm, doing its absolute best to stay on the leading edge of its industry.

It is also very important to understand that learners are the most vital parts of the learning process. Leaders must create a culture in which people want to learn without being cajoled to learn. Learning must be a significant part of the culture.

Leaders must also help learners to turn new knowledge into valuable know-how by giving them assignments through which learners can learn how to apply new knowledge.

There are three main phases: 1) Discovering what to learn, 2) Learning the topic, 3) Applying it on a regular basis. The other aspect of learning is that with new know-how you can add new value to your clients, which in turn warrants an increase in your fees. Every time you raise the bar, raise your fees too.

3. Allow conflicts between people. Conflicts must be seen as the natural part of a great firm. Using Mark Twain’s words, “It is not best that we should all think alike; it is difference of opinion that makes horse races.”

Conflicts are normal parts of life, and as a result of going through them, we can take not only small steps but quantum leaps forward. And resolving the conflict could be a huge mistake.

Resolving conflicts is the same as catching a falling knife. Yes, you can catch it, but you may end up ankle-deep in blood. Your people must go through that conflict and learn from it. It must be a unique experience for them.

Most often a conflict acts as a catalyst to moving the firm to a higher ground. If you try to resolve the conflict you can bring the firm to its knees.

4. Make a link between your culture and the outside world. The external performance of your firm (fees, margins, productivity, etc.) is just a manifestation of its culture and atmosphere, and its people’s values, beliefs, attitudes and way of thinking.

Yes, you can increase productivity by pushing your people to sell more billable time, and driving your firm faster in second gear and on two cylinders, but eventually when something explodes, giving you a few pieces of shrapnel in the belly, your wounds may be just deep enough to kill you slowly in screaming agony.

Your best people and clients desert you and the local business community will reposition you as a rank amateur, who is best to be avoided like the plague.

5. Have a feel for your people. This means you must know your people not only on the head level (intellectually) but also at the heart level (emotionally). Remember that thoughts - in the head - create feelings - in the heart, which create action - in the hands.

You must know your people’s strengths and weaknesses, so you can share the workload accordingly, and avoid basic mistakes. You do not send a shy person to run prospecting seminars. If you want to maximise the talents inherent in your people, you must know each of their unique gifts, and build their work on those gifts.

6. Create effective teams instead of efficient groups. What is the difference? Group members are involved, but team members are committed. Using the example of the egg and ham, the chicken is involved but the pig is committed.

In a group you have a bunch of individuals - most often - pushing their own individual agendas. There is no joint vision, only personal steaks. In a team, on the other hand, people are in headlong pursuit in a joint vision.

They have the autonomy to make decisions to recruit and replace members, and have their own budgets they can use without needing authorisation from outside the team. It takes guts to create this type of teams, but it is worth doing. The increase in productivity justifies the risk million times over.

7. Maintain two-way communication. Make sure you are not lecturing and preaching to or at your people but communicating with them. You must jointly establish the firm’s vision, strategies and major tactics.

Remember, unlike in any other industries, in a professional service firms you all are equals, so you must treat your people as your ardent partners in revolution. Make sure before you try to treat your clients as partners, treat your people that way. Otherwise the whole partner concept can blow up in your face, costing you an eye or two.

8. Share responsibilities. Make certain that when times are high, everybody knows it, but when business is slow, again, everybody knows it. To do this, you may well have to change your leadership style.

Develop a culture in which taking risks and screwing up is all right, but not acting is a cardinal sin. Involve everyone in the decision-making process, so people know in advance what the firm gets into. People feel empowered when the have choices.

9. Have courage to show your passion and encourage diversity. In a professional service firm emotions play a significant role. So, do not be afraid of showing those emotions. Your passion, excitement and enthusiasm must be known to your potential clients.

Why do you think multilevel marketing (MLM) is so successful all over the world? Those people freely show their emotions and that is attractive enough to other people join them. Not everybody becomes a millionaire in MLM, but everybody likes the easygoing, cheerful, upbeat company.

10. Find out and regularly discuss the personal goals of your people. Before you can collaborate with your clients, you must collaborate with your people. It means, you must know where your people are heading in their lives.

You must be familiar with their personal goals and dreams. Without knowing this, and demonstrating that as a leader, you are actually helping them to build their own dreams, you can expect no support from your people. You must create an alignment between your firm’s objectives and your people’s personal goals.

This is the only way of getting full participation, and commitment, not merely compliance. Listen to your people’s needs, wants and interests, and do your best to help them to achieve them.

Copyright Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan. All rights reserved. You are free to use this article in whole or in part. One favour though: Can I ask you to you include complete attribution, including a live website link. Also, can you please let me know where you plan to publish the article.

The attribution: This article was written by Organisational Provocateur, Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan of Dynamic Innovations Squad, a firm specialising in helping consulting firms to sell their expertise at the highest margins. Get Tom's free Practice Management Black Paper when you sign up for his monthly newsletter, Commando Consulting: Lessons And Practices From The Ultimate Professional Service Firm, The Military. Visit Tom's website at http://www.di-squad.com.

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