Eliminate the fear to speak up
You have to make it clear as you are communicating your plan that there need not be any hesitation to express an opinion.
“There are no consequences of asking questions or being a contrarian,” Levin says. “If you have somebody that is speaking against something, they are going to say, ‘How is
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is going to hurt me in my evaluations or how I get compensated?’ We take great strides in making sure people feel they can do it and that there aren’t any consequences.”
If that’s a problem in your organization, you need to make a demonstrative effort to show people they can feel free to speak their mind. You can start by knowing what you’re talking about.
“You have to inspire confidence in the group that you are presenting to when you are asking for their support,” Levin says. “You don’t inspire a whole lot of confidence when somebody asks you a question right out of the box and you haven’t given it adequate thought and cannot respond in a concise and intelligent way.”
Instead, you convey the impression that you are hiding something and make people feel defensive.
You can also make it more comfortable for people to speak up by not overloading them with information.
“You don’t want to overwhelm them,” Levin says. “It just seems to me that what we try to do is provide them, in as clear and concise a way as possible, the strategic thinking or rationale for any decision, whether it’s expansion or investing in a particular practice group.”
Your goal is to make people feel as comfortable as possible with the ongoing discussion that takes place with a new project and to feel like their opinion is truly valued.
“When it looks like a particular office doesn’t understand the strategy, or maybe they understand it but they aren’t necessarily on the same page of that strategy, then there’s no substitute for an in-person meeting,” Levin says. “The in-person meeting is not to tell them, ‘This is how it’s going to be,’ but to listen. Go there and schedule a meeting. Give them plenty of time to raise questions or comments and address them as best as you can.
“In many cases, by providing that, you’re going to turn around some of the people that felt that way and even the ones that you don’t turn around, at least they feel that they are being valued as a member of the institution. Even if they are on the short end of the decision, they don’t do anything to sabotage it. In fact, they usually get behind it.”
It’s your step of being proactive that can make the difference in turning somebody around.
“You need to be creating the reality as well as the perception that it’s OK to ask questions and, No. 2, that your leaders and yourself will be accessible in a less public method of answering questions,” Levin says. “If an owner or partner wants to talk about things, the worst thing you can say is, ‘Just come to the meeting.’ Spend as much time as it takes to provide information and answer questions that the person has. In not all cases will it turn that person around, but I still think it’s important. They have confidence that folks are listening to them.”
Proof that Levin’s method worked is the fact that, today, Barnes & Thornburg has an office in Grand Rapids, Mich., that counsels clients in more than 50 practice areas. The firm now has 11 offices and reported $241.6 million in gross revenue, according to The American Lawyer’s annual AmLaw survey.
One of the lessons Levin has learned about implementing change is that you have to always remember that people are different.
“When I first started as a lawyer, it was more to treat everybody the same and view everybody the same,” Levin says. “That would be great if everybody was the same, but they’re not. In order to be effective, you have to manage people with that in mind. It’s good that we have people that are different that will have different backgrounds as well as different ways to attack a problem. It makes the institution stronger.”
How to reach: Barnes & Thornburg LLP, (317) 236-1313 or www.btlaw.com