Developing Leaders: A Case Study from the Legal Profession

Developing Leaders: A Case Study from the Legal Profession

Bonnie Bell, PHR Gus Prestera, PhD

Presented at the 2015 HR Summitof the Greater Valley Forge Human Resources Association

on October 16 | 3:00 – 4:15 | Penn State Great Valley

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Speaker

2015 Awards/Rankings•95 attorneys named Leading Lawyers for Business;23 practices recognized

•Ranked fourth in the nation for its percentageof women equity partners

•Fifteen practices ranked in the highest tiernationally

•Among the top 100 firms for female attorneys

Ballard Spahr is a national law firm of more than 500 lawyers in 14 offices.

• Law Firm Administrative Leader

• Director of Staff Development Ballard Spahr | www.ballardspahr.com

• Over 25 years of human resource related experience

• Certifications:

- The Philadelphia Paralegal Institute

- The Society for Human Resource Management (PHR)

- The Oz Principle Accountability Training

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improving the capabilities and performance improving the capabilities and performance of leaders and their employeesof leaders and their employees

Speaker

Gus Prestera• Organizational Learning and

Development Consultant

• Prestera FX | www.presterafx.com

• ~20 years experience developing workers and their leaders

• MBA and PhD Instructional Systems with Leadership Development focus

Prestera FXtraining and consulting

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To prepare you to:

1.Engage strategically with your senior leaders

2.Coach and educate managers through the process

3.Structure, facilitate, and implement staff development process

4.Navigate the potholes

Today’s Objectives

Q&A

OurSolution

OurProcess

What Did We Learn?

OurChallenge

What Happened?

Our Agenda

Our Agenda

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Our Challenge

• Executive Level Support

• Fee Earner Oriented Culture

• Mature Workforce

• Results Oriented Work Environment (ROWE)

• Lack of Dedicated People and Budget

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Objectives for Staff Development

• Same user experience across offices

• Innovative approach

• Must link to key results

• Enhanced Employee Engagement• S.M.A.R.T. Goals

Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-Bound

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OurSolutionOur Solution

CompetencyModel

Competency-Based Learning Pathways

Development Worksheet

Self Development Training

ManagerTraining

ChangeManagement

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Competency Model

Job-Specific Job-Specific Competencies Competencies describe describe technical knowledge, skills, and technical knowledge, skills, and abilities that are needed to be abilities that are needed to be successful within a specific role and successful within a specific role and function. function.

Leadership Competencies are the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to manage ourselves and others successfully. They apply firm-wide regardless of title, department or office, though they may apply differently based on your scope of leadership responsibilities.

Core Competencies are central to the mission and values of the Firm and apply to all employees equally, regardless of title, department, or office.

Competency Model

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JOB-SPECIFIC

CORE

101: Individual Contributor

201: Functional Leader

301: Leader of Others

401: Leader of Leaders

development tracks

Competency-Based

Learning Pathways

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Milestones

Goals &

Targets

Tasks & Resour

ces

TargetDates Reflect

& Assess

Self Development

Training

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Manager Training: Three Kingdoms

Realm ofProfessional

DevelopmentRealm of

PerformanceManagement

Realm ofLeadership

Development

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Four Development Conversations

11 EngageConversation 22 Align

Conversation 33 PlanConversation 44 Check-In

Conversations

ManagerTraining

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Technology ConsiderationsWhat we wanted:

•Knowledge portal as overlay, not replacement

•Seamless transition

•Learning community

•Tracking/reporting

•Convenient

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What can we access through ?What can we access through ?

1000+ providers500k+ courses

600m+ websites

tradegroupsLearning Learning

Management Management

SystemSystem

External contentInternal content Public content

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External Content We Can Access Through Degreed

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Our Process

Jul-15Jan-15

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What Happened? Where are we?

• Roll out to organization

• Level of Commitment

• The PUSH

• Reward & Acknowledge

Workin

Progress

Following initial rollout, our focus will be on follow-through and outreach

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“I Don’t Have Time!”

“You will never find time for anything.

If you want time, you must make it.”

Charles Buxton

19th Century English BrewerMinister of Parliament

PhilanthropistSocial Reformer

…and all-around “busy guy”

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What gets in the way of development?

Unable or unwilling to Unable or unwilling to prioritize itprioritize it

Can’t envision the Can’t envision the possibilitiespossibilities

Lacks access to the Lacks access to the right connectionsright connections Lacks opportunities Lacks opportunities

to apply new skillsto apply new skillsLacks alignment with Lacks alignment with

the firm’s needsthe firm’s needs

“Learning from mistakes is too risky

in this environment.”

“I need a mentor but who’s going to help

me?”

“It’s just one of those things that I

keep putting on the backburner…too

much happening.”

“How is all this development going to get me anywhere

in my career?”

Isn’t receiving or Isn’t receiving or processing feedbackprocessing feedback

“I’m taking classes on my own and

following through on my plan, but

none of it is relevant to my job.”

“I do development stuff all the time, but have I really

developed any new skills?”

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Potholes Encountered

• Lack of Accountability

• Compatibility of Technologies

• Educating Externals on Firm Culture

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Lessons Learned

Manager Manager accountabilityaccountability for for developing their team comes developing their team comes from accountability for their from accountability for their team’s performance resultsteam’s performance results

Focus Focus firstfirst on getting on getting development development conversationsconversations

happening, then technologies happening, then technologies and other factorsand other factors

Relevance: Get Relevance: Get inputinput from from bothboth learners and their learners and their

managers to ensure relevance managers to ensure relevance & alignment& alignment

Relevance: Help employees Relevance: Help employees visualizevisualize success via role success via role

models, career fairs, mentorsmodels, career fairs, mentors

Recognize, celebrate, reward Recognize, celebrate, reward behaviorsbehaviors associated with associated with

teaching, mentoring, modelingteaching, mentoring, modeling

““No time?” Teach and No time?” Teach and promote opportunistic promote opportunistic

micro-learningmicro-learning behaviors behaviors to build momentumto build momentum

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What’s Next?Advocat

es

Visibility

Show & Tell

Event

Connect Developmen

t to Performanc

e ResultsHiPo

Development

Focus Groups

Mentoring Circles

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Questions?

Developing Leaders: A Case Study from the Legal Profession

Bonnie Bell, [email protected]

Gus Prestera, [email protected]

Thank you!