How it started?
For most of my professional career, the almighty billable number was the center of my professional world, in both my capacity as a timekeeper and a leader of timekeepers. I spent years tracking my time, followed by years coaching timekeepers (rule of thumb: timekeepers are recording time, not billing time), reviewing metrics and/or explaining nuances around individual timekeeping to my leadership team. While I know the billable number is not the only metric for evaluating our business professional teams, in the legal environment, it plays a significant role in informing compensation and headcount decisions.
How it’s going?
In January 2024, I transitioned to my current role as the Administrative Manager at an IP boutique law firm. My business professional team consists of non-timekeeping paralegals, paralegal assistants, and other IP specialists. While I was excited to leave the billable hour behind, a new challenge presented itself. What metrics do I use to evaluate my team? How do I justify new headcount and promotions without utilization and productivity metrics? How do I provide the most helpful feedback? To help answer these questions, I developed the following to assist with assessing and guiding my team: set clear expectations, institute mediums for delivering actionable feedback and create opportunities for professional development.
Clear Expectations
Skills Guidelines
My coordinators and I created “Skills Guidelines” for each role on my team. The guidelines are a detailed blueprint of specific and measurable actions that fill the gap between the job description and performance evaluation. While the primary goal of the skills guidelines is to provide a blueprint for day-to-day performance, the guidelines also serve as a roadmap for those desiring career growth. My team members can easily identify expectations for distinct roles/levels and find ways to excel in their current roles. We also use the skills guidelines for coaching and mentoring team members.
Focus on Professional Skills aka Soft Skills
I adopted the term “professional skills” over “soft skills” to emphasize the importance of these qualities in the workplace. These skills are highlighted throughout the skills guidelines to reinforce their significance.
- Accountability: Are you taking ownership of your work product, clients, mistakes, accomplishments and career? Are you seeking, receiving, applying and delivering feedback? Are you modeling behaviors that inspire your colleagues?
- Adaptability: Are you remaining flexible, curious, engaged and resilient in the face of change? Do you thrive when presented with new challenges?
- Communication/Collaboration: Are you succinctly conveying your ideas? Are you volunteering for team projects, overflow work or new clients? Do you use inclusive language?
- Critical thinking: Are you analytically, creatively and resourcefully problem solving? Are you adept at translating data and executing solutions?
- Emotional Intelligence: Are you self-aware? Are you expressing yourself in a healthy and respectful manner? Are you consistently demonstrating empathy towards your colleagues?
- Innovation: Are you seeking out opportunities to try something different? Are you volunteering to pilot new tools? Have you figured out how to automate some of your processes?
Actionable Feedback
Mid-Year Evaluations
Our mid-year evaluations are an informal process to track goals set in the yearly evaluation and assess current performance. They are also an opportunity to highlight accomplishments, revise goals, and identify areas for improvement.
Quarterly One-on-Ones
I meet with each of my team members quarterly to discuss a specific topic around their work, career or our processes. I use this as an opportunity to receive and deliver feedback as well as for coaching on the above identified professional skills.
Yearly Evaluations
Each team member receives an in-depth formal yearly evaluation. As during the mid-year evaluation, the previous year’s goals are tracked, new goals are set, performance based on the set expectations is assessed and accomplishments are highlighted.
Professional Development
Professional development is a thread that runs through our team culture. Whether we spend 10 minutes learning about a specific IP process during our monthly team meeting, recruiting an attorney or paralegal to provide a training, or engage in a discussion about client management strategies, we are constantly learning.
Looking ahead
As a team leader, I am responsible for empowering my team to reach their highest potential, deliver outstanding work product and achieve their career goals. My approach to leading non-timekeepers is born out of that responsibility and places emphasis on the above elements instead of the billable number.
By setting clear expectations, creating mechanisms to deliver actionable feedback, and providing robust professional development, I am cultivating an environment where my team will thrive. This continuously evolving approach helps me effectively evaluate and foster success in an organization where the almighty billable number no longer reigns supreme.
Citation: Reprinted with permission of Brendy Lynn Belony – International Practice Management Association (IPMA). This article originally appeared in the December 2024 edition of Inspired Leadership, the quarterly journal of IPMA. Inquiries should be directed to International Practice Management Association, 230 Washington Avenue Extension, Suite 101, Albany, NY 12203 or by email to [email protected].
The information and views provided in the American Bar Association (“ABA”) Standing Committee on Paralegals’ blog do not constitute official statements by the ABA and do not represent official ABA policy. The views expressed in this blog are those of the individual authors writing in their individual capacities only – not those of their respective employers, the ABA, or the Standing Committee on Paralegals as a whole.