What kind of leadership do you respond to best? Is it the same approach that works with your colleagues or senior management? Do you value independence and room to grow at your firm, or do you perform best when given clear goals and expectations?
In September, Arlyn Recruiting’s HR experts Diane Cronk, Julie Van Leeuwen and Anna Liu, in conjunction with the BC Legal Management Association, led a workshop on
engaging and motivating employees and came up with the following list of qualities that their most effective leaders share. Want to motivate your own legal team? First, ask yourself if you are:
Approachable
How responsive are you when one of your employees comes to you with a concern and how likely are you to follow up with it? How well do you keep your composure under pressure? How much do you value and lead with kindness, compassion and empathy while pushing your team to achieve their goals? And how communicative are you? Is your feedback ongoing or sporadic and unreliable?
Empowering
How do you inspire others to do the right thing in terms of compliance or tasks? How much do you understand about your own role, your team and their strengths and how willing are you to give them responsibilities? Do you value employees taking initiative and respect that initiative may lead to taking on new roles beyond their job descriptions?
Trustworthy
Once your team has been given those responsibilities, how much trust do you put in them to fulfil their duties without micromanagement? If you come from an
environment where employees feel empowered to share personal matters, can you be trusted to uphold privacy and maintain confidentiality?
Balanced
Regardless of senior management’s agenda, or your personal feelings, do you treat all employees equally or are there certain rules which apply to some people more
than others? How much of a role model are you? Do you exemplify the kinds of behaviours that you’d like to foster in your employees, or are you regularly 10 minutes late?
