Why Employees Fail

In this episode we're going to talk about employees. I have seen so much commentary in the Law Firm Mentor Movement about hiring lately and mental blocks to hiring. I think a lot of people develop mental blocks to hiring because of the problems they encounter with employees once they are on board.    So I wanted to give you a framework for thinking about the failure of your employees, the people that you have brought in that have been what you consider to be nightmares.    I talk through some of the things that will correlate with an employee failing so that when you think about once somebody is in your office, once you've hired them, do you have someone who you can remediate or do you need to start the process over again? A lot of people have a hard time firing, not necessarily even because of how distasteful or uncomfortable it is to fire someone, but because they are so uncertain about whether they're making the right decision that they perseverate over all of the things that they could have done, should have done, would have done, would have liked to do in the, in the role of managing that employee.Tune in to learn more!   In this episode we discuss: Three reasons that employees fail. The challenge of understanding an employee’s job when you haven’t performed that job. How attitude influences the ability to fit into a position role and office environment. Understanding the reasons an employee may not comply with your directions without jumping to your own immediate conclusions. How systems can help set the framework for employee success. The importance of training and following up to verify that there is understanding.   Allison Bio:   Allison C. Williams, Esq., is Founder and Owner of the Williams Law Group, LLC, with offices in Short Hills and Freehold, New Jersey. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, is Certified by the Supreme Court of New Jersey as a Matrimonial Law Attorney and is the first attorney in New Jersey to become Board-Certified by the National Board of Trial Advocacy in the field of Family Law.    Ms. Williams is an accomplished businesswoman. In 2017, the Williams Law Group won the LawFirm500 award, ranking 14th of the fastest growing law firms in the nation, as Ms. Williams grew the firm 581% in three years. Ms. Williams won the Silver Stevie Award for Female Entrepreneur of the Year in 2017.  In 2018, Ms. Williams was voted as NJBIZ’s Top 50 Women in Business and was designated one of the Top 25 Leading Women Entrepreneurs and Business Owners. In 2019, Ms. Williams won the Seminole 100 Award for founding one of the fastest growing companies among graduates of Florida State University.   In 2018, Ms. Williams created Law Firm Mentor, a business coaching service for lawyers.  She helps solo and small law firm attorneys grow their business revenues, crush chaos in business and make more money.  Through multi-day intensive business retreats, group and one-to-one coaching, and strategic planning sessions, Ms. Williams advises lawyers on all aspects of creating, sustaining and scaling a law firm business – and specifically, she teaches them the core foundational principles of marketing, sales, personnel management, communications and money management in law firms.      https://lawfirmmentor.net/masterclass    Contact Info:   Contact Law Firm Mentor: Scheduler: https://meetme.so/LawFirmMentor     Snippets   00:16:16 (48 Seconds) Don't take it personally that they're not complying with the rule, because when you go into your feelings and make it about how you're being disrespected or how you're not getting what you desire or how you have told this person over and over again and the person's not doing it, when you start making those stories real in your mind, what tends to happen is you shut down in your problem solving ability and you stop looking for what is the real reason and start assuming that your thoughts about the situation are the real reason why the employee is not complying. So that means you could very easily sternly punish or ultimately terminate someone who is not complying for reasons that could easily have been ameliorated if you had been willing to be open to have a conversation.   00:18:12 (43 Seconds) They haven't learned from you that the way you want it done is non-negotiable. So I don't say this to mean that you need to have a stern corrective conversation where you get your finger out and stick it at them and say this is non-negotiable because I'm the boss. I'm talking about an error of how we systematize. OK, so what is really, really important when we talk about employees is that there be a cultural imperative for how we do things. Even if you have not set that tone, had that conversation reorganized activity around that conversation, your employees are still picking up from the ether how things are happening in this business.