Maybe you've just started a solo practice or joined a big firm, either way, you're going to be faced with a number of situations and problems for which Law School offered no training. Perhaps one of the most challenging is management. Probably for the first time, you're going to be in charge of other people: secretaries, legal assistants, law clerks, paralegals. These people are here to help you do your job, but it might be awkward or confusing dealing with them if you have no experience in management. What should you delegate? When to follow up? If you're having problems with someone how should you deal with them?
There are thousands of books, videos, and other resources about management. But if you're a new associate, it can be difficult to devote any time or resources to improving one's management skills. It's difficult to even know where to look. Fortunately one of the best resources for learning about management is online and mostly free: Manager-Tools.com
Manager-Tools provides a wide array of management advice, mostly in the form of free podcasts. The topics range from "How to Assign Work," to "Boss One-on-Ones," to "How to Leave an Effective Voicemail." They focus on one topic and provide concrete advice and actions on how to implement them. For an associate on the go, there is no easier way to simply integrate management training into their daily lives. Download them and listen to them on your commute or at the gym and develop the appropriate skills you need to manage others, as well as learn to be properly be managed yourself.
Manager-Tools is so comprehensive and large it might seem overwhelming at first. Fortunately, they have created an "Manager-Tools Basics" series. These are 18 podcasts that provide a general overview of how to develop one's management skills. Roughly 45 minutes in length, they cover One on Ones, Feedback, Coaching, Delegation, Rolling Out the Management Trinity, and Running an Effective Meeting. In just 13 hours, you can gain a deeper understanding of effective management.
DISC Assessment
What many people don't realize is that effective management is as much about psychology as it is anything else. It only follows that different types of people need to be communicated to and managed in unique ways. One of the most popular methods of breaking down personalities for management is the DISC assessment model. DISC, which stands for Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientious, is a quadrant behavioral model based on the work of Dr. William Moulton Marston (1893-1947) to examine the behavior of individuals in their environment or within a specific situation. By breaking people down into one of these four categories, effective managers can learn how to better communicate and direct them.
Management-Tools also provides a useful guide on how to identify people by each type and suggestions for dealing with them. By reviewing the following guide, you can better learn how to classify people and better improve your interactions with them; increasing productivity for everyone involved.
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Keith Lee is an associate with an insurance defense litigation firm in Birmingham, AL, and a recent graduate of Birmingham School of Law. Keith is the author of the blog, An Associate's Mind.
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