4 Easy Ways to Build a Team-First Culture — and How It Makes Your Business Better

On the finish of the day, a boutique legislation agency is a small enterprise, which implies that along with being an lawyer, a founding associate can also be a small enterprise proprietor who should undertake a collective mindset. Our agency works as a result of we work collectively; should you’re seeking to degree up your small enterprise, try to be able to put on a number of hats and depend on full-team collaboration. At Wigdor LLP, we prioritize collaboration each in and outdoors the courtroom. Listed here are 4 sensible methods we foster a team-first tradition — and why doing so is vital for any founder seeking to run a legislation agency like a enterprise.

1. Host occasions outdoors the workplace

Breaking away from the workplace usually leads to breakthrough pondering. Informal, off-site environments assist our crew chill out, which yields extra artistic pondering. It additionally fosters stronger relationships and seamless collaboration as soon as we’re again at our desks. When individuals get to know one another past their roles at work, they’re far more practical collectively in high-stakes moments.

It was over a welcome lunch at a Mykonos-themed restaurant that one among our senior associates workshopped with the advertising crew to craft an attention-grabbing quote in regards to the implications of a brand new legislation that they have been then in a position to pitch to a legislation journal — all springing from a dialogue recapping the newest actuality TV shenanigans. And we at all times combine up the groups at our annual summer season tennis competitors to steadiness ability ranges and have discovered that working collectively on the court docket interprets to extra easy collaboration as soon as we’re again on the workplace.

Associated: Why There Is No Substitute for the Annual ‘Offsite’ With Your Staff

2. Make team-building occasions do double obligation

We’re fast to acknowledge when one thing can serve a number of functions. Persevering with authorized training, also referred to as CLE, is a requirement in our subject, however I encourage our attorneys to take these classes in teams — and ensure to host at the least 5 per yr to make group studying accessible. We at all times host the classes over lunch as a result of nobody ever appears to say no to a free sandwich.

We see the significance of maximizing return on effort, so we wish to take the persevering with training content material that our attorneys work so laborious on and repurpose it. A one-hour-long assembly might begin as a team-building occasion, nevertheless it lives on as a number of weblog posts on our personal website as thought management items that we are able to pitch to nationwide enterprise publications and as social media content material, all serving to us broaden our agency’s digital footprint and set up our staff as consultants.

Associated: Easy methods to Make Your Content material 300% Extra Efficient Whereas Additionally Saving Time and Cash

3. Guarantee every case is a crew effort

At Wigdor, every case is assigned to at the least one associate, one affiliate and one paralegal, permitting joint problem-solving and contemporary views. Whereas some attorneys like to keep up full management and resist working along with their crew, our legislation agency is totally different. The extra minds deliberating options, the higher — whether or not it is a legislation agency or a small enterprise.

Paralegals and associates are within the trenches with companions, actively collaborating within the case from starting to finish. We additional promote collaboration by internet hosting month-to-month standing conferences so attorneys have perception into what different groups are engaged on, igniting concepts to learn their very own litigation. We’ve excessive expectations for everybody on the crew and reward laborious work. We problem youthful authorized minds to take part extra, from oral arguments to authoring authorized information items. We couldn’t do the work we do with out the total crew collaborating.

One among our latest affiliate hires joined Wigdor particularly searching for the other expertise of their earlier agency, which was absolutely distant, not collaborative and felt very isolating. The affiliate needed an setting the place they may roll up their sleeves in individual, engaged on massive instances and studying from a extra synergetic crew. Since becoming a member of, they’ve had a full case load and a number of alternatives to hitch precedent-setting issues, which is one thing that will maybe be reserved for companions at different corporations. This mannequin of cross-level collaboration, the place variety of thought is valued, is a strong software for any small enterprise chief who needs to develop a assured, engaged crew.

Associated: Easy methods to Rework Your Office Tradition with Cross-Pollination

4. Encourage younger leaders to find their strengths

One among my favourite issues to do is to assist early leaders lean into their distinctive abilities. The hot button is to get them speaking (taking them to a one-on-one lunch often works) till you uncover their affinities after which nurture these abilities into experience. When a senior affiliate talked about their partiality for deposing witnesses, I acknowledged that their interrogative acumen and evaluative listening abilities would make them the perfect individual to guide the paralegal interview and hiring course of — and we have constructed our strongest paralegal crew up to now.

In the case of paralegals, we rent them for two-year engagements to make sure they get full publicity to the authorized course of and higher put together them for legislation college. As soon as on the agency, they at all times have a seat on the desk, actually. After we head to court docket for a trial, a seat on the plaintiff’s desk is at all times reserved for the paralegal who has assisted on the case. They usually spend months researching the matter — generally even serving to to draft statements utilized in a briefing — and get to see their work utilized in motion at a listening to. Providing hands-on alternatives to junior members, whether or not it is a paralegal at a legislation agency or a first-time supervisor at a brick-and-mortar retailer, makes them really feel valued and permits them to see how their laborious work contributes to the crew’s success.

It might be my identify on the door, however my agency would by no means prosper if I attempted to do all of it alone. Prioritizing crew constructing is one of the simplest ways to enhance worker happiness and encourage collaboration, and collaboration is important in relation to small companies. Whether or not it is a scavenger hunt in Grand Central Terminal or structuring a cross-functional case crew, growing these eventualities that foster collaboration will set your small enterprise up for development.