Providing a source of stability and reassurance is the best thing you can do for your employees, clients, and community in times of uncertainty.
I recently sat down with attorney David Craig of Craig, Kelley & Faultless to discuss what it takes to be a great leader during a crisis and what you can do to ensure those who depend on you most are taken care of.
Check out our full conversation here.
4:11 – People will remember you. I was talking to law firms that are basically shut down in some cases. They just were not paperless and did not have the ability to work remotely. They tell me, “Dave, we’re just a small general practice out here in the smaller counties, and we can’t do anything now to generate money.” They were so appreciative of the fact that we were still working and that we’re giving them updates on their cases. If you’re sticking with people and you’re helping people through really tough times, those people are going to always remember that.
5:10 – We can’t control the world. Our job as the firm leaders is to succeed no matter what. We can’t control the world around us and so our job is, “Okay, we got to figure out a way to win.” Fortunately, I haven’t had to spend a lot of time figuring out how to win in a situation where you’re not prepared. I feel sorry for all those people because it’s harder now.
7:08 – Clear leadership. One of the biggest mistakes is not leading. My employees deserve clear leadership and somebody to be there and lead by example. I don’t understand lawyers that are not doing that and laying off people. My job is to show my clients, employees, family, vendors, and the people who I work with every day that we’re okay and that we’re going to lead our way out of this. Some of the mistakes you could be making would be just hunkering down and saying, “Okay. I’m focusing on today and today only, or hiding my head in the sand, or getting negative.” That would be a bad place to be.
8:10 – Stronger relationships. Things are going to be a lot more efficient. We’re skipping hearings. We’re going to be able to do things electronically which is a good thing. Our relationships are going to be stronger with our clients and referring attorneys. A lot of other law firms will start moving in the direction of being paperless, working electronically, and working remotely. For us, we’re going to tweak it. The first thing we’re doing is saying, “What could we have done better?”
10:20 – Tough times never last. Tough times never last so you’ve got to be prepared for it, and you have to have a positive attitude. If you can’t lead, if you can’t take care of your clients in the worst of times, then that’s a real problem. If you can’t take care of your employees in the worst of times, then that’s a problem. I’m seeing firms around me laying off large groups of people, so I just did a quick video of our people working to show, “You hired us to take care of you, and we’re going to do that.”
10:59 – Working through the worst times. If I’m a customer in the future and I’m looking at what firm do I want to hire, wouldn’t you rather hire the firm that worked through the worst times? That just seems common sense to me. If I’m seeing firms that are laying people off and laying lawyers off and making the problems worse, why in the world would I hire them?
If you’re viewing this challenging situation the same way David and I are, text me directly at 404–531–7691 to tell me what YOU’RE doing to lead your team.
