Mentoring leaders: Reflections on management mentoring

 

Mentor: Susanna Norelid, Founding Partner, NorelidHolm

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Key takeaway points:

1. Make sure you communicate the expectations, goals and objectives for both parties before starting the programme

2. Let the mentee set the agenda

3. Be prepared with a pre-set agenda for each meeting/phone conference

4. Start every monthly meeting/phone conference with a follow-up session on things that have happened since the last one

5. Don’t always tell the mentee what to do – ask questions to make the mentee come up with his own solutions

6. Enjoy the pleasure of helping your mentee reach his goals

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Mentoring a law firm managing partner is all about helping another professional (the mentee) become more self aware, take responsibility for his law firm and direct the law firm and its staff in the direction the mentee decides.

Mentoring is also a powerful personal development tool for the mentor and very rewarding for both parties if carried out in the right way.

Preparing for mentoring

Before I decided to become a mentor a few years back, I was asked by a mentoring trainer the following questions.

• Are you willing to share your personal knowledge and experiences?

• Are you prepared to invest time and effort in another person?

• Are you a good listener?

• Will you be able to encourage others?

• Are you interested in challenging and helping someone to reach further?

• Can you keep matters confidential?

The answer to those questions needs to be ‘yes’. With that said, I have learned that mentoring is not only for the benefit of the mentee, even though you might think so at first glance.

Being a mentor is a powerful personal development and empowerment tool. It makes you identify your own personal leadership, your strong and your weak sides. Being a mentor challenges your own way of leading and that – together with the fact that you are helping another managing partner to progress with his business – is the main reason why I decided to join a mentoring programme as a mentor.

Mentoring is based upon a close partnership between two people (mentor and mentee) where experience, trust and respect are the key factors. Without the trust between the mentor and mentee, there will not be a successful mentorship. Confidentiality is the golden rule.

Mentoring is also based on communication, where both parties are aware of the other party’s expectations, goals and objectives. Before starting off the mentoring programme, it is therefore very important that the mentor and mentee clearly communicate their expectations. This must be done early in the process.

I always start the first telephone conference/meeting by asking the mentee to explain why he joined a mentoring programme and what his expectations are. I also ask why the mentee turned to me as a potential mentor and what skills, personality and experiences he thinks I have that could be of value to him and
his business.

In this context, it is also very important that I explain my expectations and that both parties understand the responsibilities that they are agreeing to. As a mentor, I must be prepared to make clear what my mentee can expect me to deliver in terms of advice, but also to make sure any unrealistic expectations are identified and discussed. Clearly communicating expectations from the beginning not only sets a standard for honest communication and mutual responsibility but also decreases the possibility of misunderstandings later.

The goals and objectives set for the programme need to be realistic. The scope of what you hope to accomplish should be attainable within the year of the mentorship, but there is of course nothing that prevents you from discussing some long-term goals for the mentee to have in mind and strive for after the end of the mentoring programme.

Issues tackled

In this particular situation, I was contacted by a Spanish managing partner for a corporate law firm focused mainly on real estate in southern Spain. Due to the global financial crisis in general and the very difficult financial situation in the local Spanish market in particular, we set the agenda from our very first contact. The situation was urgent.

I realised very quickly that the mentorship this time was going to be quite different from any of my previous mentoring relationships. This was mainly because of the very urgent economic situation and the fact that the mentee’s situation differed very much from my own personal experience.

We had to immediately start off with a very big, difficult and delicate basic question: ‘How shall we make the firm survive when the market for its legal services has totally collapsed?’ For obvious reasons, I did not have an immediate answer for that.

We had to start off with questions you usually ask when setting up a law firm from scratch, including:

• Do we need staff? How many and with what focus?

• Can we change or expand the firm’s legal services to cover other areas of law? Previously, the firm was focused on real estate law, but that market
  was dead, so the firm needed to find
  a new legal market.

• What kind of marketing can be done without having the usual financial capacities? Can we find other lawyers/law firms to collaborate with (preferably lawyers active in other areas and with healthy business)?

One key factor for a mentor is to help the mentee believe in himself and boost his confidence. A mentor should ask questions and challenge, while providing guidance and encouragement. I did
not personally have the experience
of such an urgent economic downturn
that my mentee experienced, but I
did have the experience of asking
relevant questions.

My role was therefore to present the mentee with all kinds of possible options and ideas and then allow the mentee to explore those ideas by trying to apply them to his special situation. The delicate situation of my mentee’s business made us both think from different angles and the challenges triggered us both to think with a wider perspective.

Quick fixes were not a long-term option. However, some quick fixes were necessary. My mentee had been spending increasing amounts of time doing client-related work. There was no time for him to focus on other important aspects such as marketing or planning long-term strategies for the firm. We had to find ways for my mentee to get out of the office and focus on these areas.

My mentee needed to focus on bringing in the business and the staff needed to deliver professional legal work. But, at what cost? The staff needed to be evaluated. Did the firm have the right staff? Was it possible to let go of some of the more expensive staff and instead recruit junior lawyers, trainees or maybe paralegals at a lower cost? Was it possible to find a collaboration partner to work with, share an office with or maybe do some marketing with?

The quick fixes made the firm survive on a short-term basis, but the long-term strategies are now in progress. There is a lot more to be done, but we can now see the light in the tunnel.

Personal impact

My mentoring relationship with my Spanish mentee was very challenging, interesting, enjoyable and educational. I realised early in the process that this mentoring relationship would grow into something very special. The difficulties, the challenges and the differences between our previous experiences turned out to be key factors for our collaboration during the year.

The discussions we had are based
on confidentiality, trust and respect for
the difficulties my mentee was facing, but they were also filled with positive ideas
and thoughts that hopefully gave my mentee the strength and confidence to create a stronger law firm when market activity increases.

Personally, I gained a lot of experience and insight during this year. I realised that I have the capability to identify actions to be taken in a crisis, to find possibilities
and options without having a strong financial backup and, most of all, that there are so many possibilities and options out there. You just have to be confident in yourself and not give up! The mentorship has grown into a lifelong friendship and I will probably always keep an eye on my mentee’s law firm.

Final thoughts

If you can answer ‘yes’ to the questions raised in the beginning of this article, I would encourage you to become a mentor. The time spent and efforts made are highly rewarded. If you are in a management position, you already have an interest in people and want them to maximise their potential, develop their skills and improve their business. That is exactly was mentoring is all about.

 

  

Mentee: Francisco Verdún, Founding Partner, Verdún Abogados

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Key takeaway points:

1. During our professional lives as lawyers, we rarely learn about law firm management

2. It is important to find a positive balance between order and flexibility throughout the programme

3. Our contrasting views based on different experiences and backgrounds made our discussions really enjoyable and fruitful

4. Experienced lawyers will particularly benefit from a mentoring programme as a mentee

5. Mentees should start the mentoring programme by drafting a general plan

6. Mentors and mentees who work in different fields of specialisation and/or jurisdictions can make the exchange of views and information more extensive

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I have been a practising lawyer since 1987, managing my own firm Verdún Abogados in Fuengirola-Marbella (Spain), specialising in real estate and commercial law.

During all these years of practice, I have made tremendous efforts to achieve the best economic results for my clients. But, I forgot that my law firm was also a business and that the purpose of the business was to earn money and thereby maintain the quality of its legal services to clients. I realised that I had to manage my firm in a different way.

I looked for information concerning law firm management and discovered a mentoring programme. Being an experienced lawyer, it may sound strange to join it as a mentee but, from my point of view, it is totally compatible as, during our professional lives, we learn about many aspects related to the law but we rarely learn about law firm management.

Issues raised

During the mentoring process, a wide range of issues were raised. We spoke – among others things – about the organisation of work in my firm, financial management, the balance between the energy a client needs from a lawyer and what that client brings to the firm. We also discussed how to choose the right network of law firms to join according to the characteristics of my law firm.

Marketing of my firm was also an important issue. We talked about how my firm’s website could be improved to focus on what clients want to know; my firm’s points of differentiation and how people can know about them; and which marketing investments may be profitable or not. Also on the agenda was how to personalise relationships with clients and potential clients, networking, marketing to my current and former clients and invoicing clients.

I found that it was valuable to discuss these topics with my mentor, taking into account the specific circumstances of my law firm.

Relationship evolution

Once we initiated our mentoring relationship, we agreed to have one phone conversation a month. These conferences lasted approximately one hour, even more sometimes.

We tried to agree in advance by email the points to be discussed, which allowed us to prepare each item. I found it was very helpful to progress finding solutions to the questions and points that I raised. Despite that, the list of issues was flexible and we could add new items if necessary. At the end of each phone meeting, we scheduled a date and time for the next one.

We felt that it was very important to find a positive balance between order and flexibility, following a systematic plan, but being able to adapt it to evolving circumstances.

I would like to express my deep gratitude to my mentor, Susanna Norelid, for her extraordinary attitude and work during the development of our mentoring relationship.

Mentoring impact

The mentoring programme had an extremely positive impact on me, not only from a professional point of view but also from a personal perspective.

Our contrasting views based on different experiences and backgrounds, having developed our work in two different jurisdictions (Sweden and Spain) made our discussions really enjoyable and fruitful.

Concerning my law firm, I have tried to follow the recommendations that I received and I have verified the improvement to my business.

I think that experienced lawyers will especially benefit from a mentoring programme as mentees. I can attest to the fact that a mentoring programme is very useful for lawyers who are not experts in law firm management but are advised by others who are. With the help of my mentor, I have learnt to improve (among others things) the working system, financial management and marketing strategies of my law firm.

Final thoughts

I would advise new mentees joining a mentoring programme to be very active in the preparation of the phone conferences to be held with the mentor, with a prior examination of all the points that could be useful for the mentee to discuss.

It would also be desirable that the mentee starts the mentoring programme by drafting a plan to be coordinated with the mentor. This plan should specify the general items to be discussed in every session. The mentor and mentee would develop the mentoring relationship following the outlines of the plan, being able to modify it in accordance with circumstances, although the general structure should be respected.

On the other hand, I would recommend mentees keep an open mind on their mentors’ reasoning and follow their advice, which is based on personal experience and expertise in law firm management.

The situation in which mentor and mentee have different fields of specialisation would not be a problem. Although every area of our profession has some specific characteristics, the majority of ideas and experiences concerning law firm marketing are applicable to all fields of legal business and, consequently, the event where the mentor and the mentee do have different specialisations will not be an inconvenience; it could even be said that, in those cases, the exchange of views is more extensive. The same line of reasoning applies when the mentor and mentee work in different jurisdictions. It is an advantage to have the possibility of comparing jurisdictions and acquiring information about each other’s legal system.

A mentoring programme is an excellent opportunity to improve your law firm management skills. It is a very valuable tool not only for young lawyers starting their professional lives but also for experienced lawyers who wish to progress in those specific areas. Six million lawyers on the planet are competing for business and the best way to win this battle is to get up every day motivated with your challenge to acquire new knowledge and improve your business. Mentoring can help you to achieve these goals.

Susanna Norelid and Francisco Verdún met through the International Bar Association’s Law Firm Management Mentoring Programme (www.ibanet.org/lawfirmmentors/home.aspx)