Legal Services > Skills Development
Developing Business Skills
Alongside our consultancy work for legal services clients we help lawyers and managers to develop their business skills so they can serve clients better, manage their organisations better and develop the careers of their people more effectively. AND avoiding being dependent on further consultancy work to bring in those skills can't be a bad thing...
Often this means taking a coaching approach via 1 to 1 skills development - so sometimes individuals opt for our bespoke 'mini-MBA' programme.
Lawyers AND business professionals
As lawyers, or as other professionals, we tend to be trained in one skill - that of providing legal advice. Rarely do we find ourselves with the skills we need when we are in the position of owner or manager or team player. Now, we can leave the situation like that - or we can do something about it.
We work with firms and individuals who aspire to being always better than they are and being stronger in the future - and who want to do something to achieve that.
Developing business and management skills involves improving practical knowledge, understanding and skills for three capabilities:
CLIENT FACING CAPABILITIES:
- How do we deliver what clients want if we do not understand the basics of their business world? How do we enhance our own knowledge of business concepts to enable us to assist them with their strategic options when providing appropriate legal advice?
MANAGEMENT CAPABILITIES:
- How can we work effectively with non-lawyers so as to deliver together on the needs of the firm as a whole? What are the techniques that they use?
- What is the difference between data and information and how can I ensure I get the best information I need to make the best decisions I can?
- How do I know what the financial implications of my decision will mean for the other business functions with which I am involved?
- How do we more effectively manage this team? How do we capture and retain the best staff?
STRATEGIC CAPABILITIES:
- How do we ensure our future leaders will have the right skills?
Skills development - the practical approach
We design a 'cradle to grave' approach for your teams and we introduce them to some or all of the finance, IT, marketing, and HR skills they will need to get them to where you need them to be. This often involves working with and integrating your own in-house management professionals in the process as their own approaches will be significant to making it work for your own organisational context. We then work with you to help the teams implement new skills and apply their fresh understanding to organising their activities for your organisation's benefit. This forms part of the holistic approach which we know is at the heart of any organisation working effectively.
Coaching and mentoring - integral to the process
As a key element in how we deliver our skills programmes we take a coaching and mentoring approach to the way an individual develops the technical business and management skills that are needed. This means the individual can maximise the value of his or her experience.
A: In-house skills development
We design a 'cradle to grave' approach for your teams and we introduce them to the finance, IT, marketing and HR skills that they need to get them to where you need them to be. We then work with you and them to help them implement them.
The original brief to Firm Beliefs was to encourage and progress the development of key individuals to make them "business minded people" as well as increase their productivity as lawyers. Whilst there existed within the organisation pockets of excellence in terms of commercial awareness, this was neither being monitored across the organisation nor shared. There was no performance management process in place in relation to commerciality and business skills. More
As an organisation, we knew that we were falling behind our competitors. We simply did not have the business skills we needed... More
B: Individually managed skills development
We work 'behind the scenes' with individuals who prefer their firms not to know that they are undertaking such training or with individuals who work for firms who don't or won't provide a skills development programme for their staff.
Sara's "mini-MBA" was the most insightful training I've had, giving understanding of how a legal practice runs. More
I began to think differently. The sessions reinforced my interest in leadership and culture. I changed my perspective on my own job (I am a businessman that practices law).
Managing Partner of a large international firm can be a daunting, and lonely, position to be in. Firm Beliefs supported me, developed my skills (you can never stand still in today's world) and helped me make our firm what it is today. They reinforced my good ideas, tweaked my bad ones and allowed me to enjoy what I do. I was able to attend our in-house skills programmes, delivered by those I manage which can be tricky, whilst at the same time able to have my own sessions with Firm Beliefs where I could really get to grips with matters that were important without fear of losing face or loss of peer respect.
For details of our skills development programmes, contact Gareth Mason, Joanna Poulton or Sara Dixon
