Can the Lone Ranger Join a Posse? Law Firms Reap the Benefits of Service and Business Development Teams.

In today’s law firm, more and more work is being done by teams. In a 2004 study involving interviews with 100 Fortune-500 and 151 Fortune-1000 in-house counsel, effective communication, coordination and teamwork were rated as the most important criteria in the selection of outside counsel.

Businesses have long recognized the value of teamwork; many business projects are organized by team, implemented by team – and compensated by team. Because of this, business clients like to see a team-oriented approach in their law firms.

Law firm teams have the purpose of increasing revenues and boosting profits, and are usually organized around the concepts of either improving service or generating new business. A service-oriented team focuses on current matters and current client satisfaction. Since 80 percent of a typical law firm’s business comes from just 20 percent of its clients, it makes sense to form service teams around the clients who comprise this top 20 percent.

Some law-firm business development teams are organized to cross-sell more of a firm’s services to existing large clients – litigation services, for example, to a client that already uses the firm for securities law. This is a cost-effective approach, since it takes a lot less time and money to sell new services to an existing client – where a relationship already exists – than it does to attract an entirely new client.

Nonetheless, law firms must also focus some of their attention on attracting new clients. Business development teams engaged in this activity find it most effective to market a particular service (e.g., patent litigation) to a specific industry (e.g., life sciences) – working to expand their client base in an industry where they already have some visibility and are already seen as competent.

Business development teams may also face the much more difficult task of increasing the firm’s revenues and profits by creating an entirely new brand in a new industry segment.

Service teams and business development teams are different from practice groups. Most practice groups are organizational units that allow a firm to better manage itself. They are usually organized around a particular set of common services (e.g., the corporate group). Service and business development teams are ad hoc groups that are organized from the perspective of clients and potential clients.

A team shares common goals – as well as the responsibility and rewards for achieving these goals. A well-lead team accomplishes these goals in a way that leaves its members feeling more capable and more resourceful than they were before the project began.

Team members must be ready to set aside their individual needs for the greater good of the group. This is not an approach that is often rewarded at most law firms and, therefore, may not come naturally to many lawyers. According to the popular book Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team, there are five things that prevent teams from accomplishing their goals – an absence of trust, a fear of conflict, a lack of commitment, an avoidance of accountability and an inattention to results.

If a law firm’s service and business development teams are hampered by any of these dysfunctions, they can benefit from the services of an outside coach. Coaches focus on three aspects: accomplishing the real work of the team, addressing existing dysfunctions so that the team can function to the best of its ability, and participating in the team to offer real-time and off-line coaching to the group and its individual members.

Trust is the most important characteristic of a great team, and is based on the willingness of all of the team’s members to be open and “business†vulnerable. Many of us have a strong need for self-preservation, which makes being appropriately vulnerable in a business setting a very difficult hurdle to overcome. Using the Meyers Briggs Type Indicator assessment under the guidance of a coach to determine and discuss each team-member’s “type†is an excellent way to develop this kind of trust.

Teams where members trust each other are not afraid of conflict. Conflict is essential to the process. In well functioning teams, members have learned to disagree with, challenge and question one another by focusing on ideas, not personalities. Virtually everyone in our society has some fear of conflict, but with coaching virtually everyone can learn to operate effectively within this environment.

Teams that engage in unfiltered conflict – ensuring that all opinions and ideas area put on the table and considered – are able to eventually achieve genuine buy-in around important decisions. Commitment is not about achieving consensus, but rather honest emotional support for an idea, decision or direction based on the fact it is the most workable of all the options that have been considered.

Team leaders and members who have committed to decisions and standards of performance do not hesitate to hold one another accountable. The goal is to replace top-down accountability with peer-to-peer accountability.

Finally, team members that trust one another, engage in conflict, commit to decisions and hold one another accountable have developed the strength they need to set aside their natural self-interest and focus almost exclusively on what is best for the team.

Law firms realize more revenues and profits when their service and business development teams are operating as they should. When teams are dysfunctional – wasting time and money – they can benefit greatly from the outside perspective provided by a professional coach.