If Kevin F. McKeegan didn’t have a rein on communication in his law firm, things might turn into a zoo — or at least a rowdy game of telephone.
“Sometimes being a managing partner is a little bit like herding cats,” says McKeegan of his position at Meyer, Unkovic & Scott LLP. “I have ideas and goals and aspirations for the firm. But to make them happen, I’ve got to get everybody rowing in the same direction.”
He repeats messages to make sure the 80 employees and 19 equity partners are hearing the same thing.
Smart Business spoke to McKeegan about how to communicate consistently with your employees.
Q. What are the keys to communicating across a company?
It’s important to keep in mind that what you say to one group doesn’t necessarily filter through to other groups. If it does filter through, it doesn’t necessarily filter through in the way you intended it. So it’s important that you don’t think that just because you’ve talked to one constituency and communicated what needs to be communicated, that that message has gotten across to everybody in the organization. Communicate up and down and across the lines.
I make sure that I attend as many group meetings as I possibly can. I think that’s important for a number of reasons, particularly for the staff and the associates. They know that I’m there if they have an issue or complaint. I’ll hear it directly rather than second-hand. And it gives me an opportunity to repeat the same message that the owners have heard and discussed.
Q. How do you keep your message consistent?
You try to work out the articulation of it in advance. Aside from using the same words, you have to make sure you’re articulating as much as possible the same goal all the time. No plan remains the same once it starts meeting reality, but articulating the goals consistently is the important thing.
It’s critical that you don’t just walk into a meeting and say, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do.’ You have these discussions ahead of time — for example, with the COO, with the management committee — and, frankly, even outside of those formal meetings: informal discussions. Take a partner to lunch, kick an idea around, stop somebody in the hallway, ask if they have a few minutes to discuss it.
Out of those sorts of discussions, you tend to get an idea where people’s thoughts are, where a consensus can be reached and, oftentimes, maybe even better ideas as to how to implement something. Very seldom do I expect anything I say to be met without a question or a comment. You talk to as many people ahead of time as possible so you hope you’ve anticipated all the questions.
When you’re reporting to owners, they expect that you be more forthcoming — which isn’t to say you’re not transparent with other constituencies but maybe not quite as detailed. Financial information, that’s information that, with a private partnership such as ours, should be limited mostly to the ownership group. But you can tell people in general terms, without revealing specifics, how the firm is doing: ‘We made budget this month. We were profitable last year.’ That’s sufficient usually to get the point across.
