PERIODICALS

Forty-Fourth Street NotesSeptember 2007

Midlevel associates are judged not onlyon their work product but also ontheir ability to supervise others. This

underscores the importance of communicatingwith junior associates.

Jay Sullivan of Exec/Comm advised the atten-dees of the City Bar’s Professional DevelopmentBreakfast Workshop, "The Successful Attorney-Manager: Delivering Constructive Feedback,"that there are basically two ways to communi-cate, as a coach and as a counselor. A goodsupervisor, says Sullivan, is both an energeticcoach and a supportive counselor.

Able coaching develops a junior associate’sskills and increases their productivity, whilecounseling, says Sullivan, can solve problemsbefore they become unmanageable and pro-mote better working relationships.

Employing coaching and counseling into yourmanagement routine will save you time andimprove your image as a good supervisingattorney.

CoachingCoaching is best used to develop legal skills,train new associates, advise associates abouttechnology changes or business focus changesthat require additional skills and provide ongo-

like this your role is more of a counselor than acoach, advises Sullivan.

When you are counseling your role is to be sup-portive. Counseling, says Sullivan, is employeecentered. Your role is to listen, advise, and helpthe associate move toward a solution.Counseling is best used to help solve personalproblems, compensation or benefit changes,changes in responsibilities, and difficult or neg-ative behavior. Remember, says Sullivan, yourrole is not to solve the problem but to help theperson work through the problem.

First, seek a private place to have the conversa-tion. State or let the associate state the problem.Respond to the emotion the issue evokes and tryto empathize. Before you can offer any help,says Sullivan, you must first show the personyou understand what he or she is going through.Once you sense the associate is ready, try to getthe person to focus on the problem and guidehim or her to a solution. Use open ended ques-tions like, "What are you doing?" and "How is itworking?". When it is time to come up with anaction plan try to let the solution come from theassociate. An associate who comes up with thesolution will be more likely to implement it, saysSullivan.

Effective coaching and counseling enhances thejunior associate’s skills, builds confidence andmotivation and shows you have the supervisoryskills necessary to succeed at the firm.

For more information on the ProfessionalDevelopment Breakfast Workshops and a com-plete schedule of upcoming sessions, please visitwww.nycbar.com.

ing feedback about work performance.Coaching, says Sullivan, is straight forward anddirective and should be kept as brief as possible.

At a coaching session, according to Sullivan,there is a multi-step process. First, remember topraise the junior associate’s job performanceand highlight what he or she is doing well. Thissets the tone for the session.

Next, raise the specific issue at hand and try todescribe it in one sentence. Make sure that thetime is right to give feedback by asking would itbe all right to talk about this issue right now?You don’t want to be giving feedback if the asso-ciate is exceptionally busy or facing a deadline.

If it is a good time to talk, start by identifyingboth successes and challenges, then look to solvethe challenges collaboratively. Don’t only offeryour own suggestions, notes Sullivan, but askthe associate for solutions. It is important tokeep an open mind. Finally, explore the nextsteps to remedy any problems and choose spe-cific actions to take.

Ideally, says Sullivan, as a supervisor you shouldbe having this type of feedback/coaching ses-sion throughout the year. It is not very useful towait until a year-end review to outline problemsthat occurred earlier in the year. Instead, saysSullivan, think of the year-end review as a sum-mary of what was already discussed throughoutthe year.

Being a great coach, advises Sullivan, meanshaving a clear vision, articulating it frequentlyand taking the junior associate beyond the suc-cessful completion of a given task.

CounselingIn your role as supervisor, there will likely betimes when a junior associate approaches youwith a personal problem he or she is having atwork, or a need arises to respond to the associ-ate’s non-performance-based behavior. In cases

P r o f e s s i o n a l D e v e l o p m e n t

COACHING AND COUNSELING IN YOUR MANAGEMENTROUTINE

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