By Stephen E. Seckler
"First Among Equals"
By Patrick J. McKenna and David H. Maister
The Free Press
$26
288 pages
Anyone who has ever tried to lead a discussion with a group of lawyers knows the problem: Lawyers are bright and accomplished professionals who are trained to think analytically and critically. Lawyers operate with a high level of skepticism and are accustomed to challenging the opinions of others. In short, getting a group of lawyers to agree on anything can be a tremendous challenge.
Of course, these characteristics are not unique to lawyers. In fact, these are common traits of doctors, accountants, engineers and just about any other group of professionals.
Thus, anyone in a position to lead a group of professionals faces a common set of challenges. The leader of the group often has limited authority, and even when he has this authority he does not like to use it. This is the basic premise of "First Among Equals," a new book by Patrick J. McKenna and David Maister.
"First Among Equals" is a "playbook" suitable for anyone who faces the challenge of leading a group of lawyers or other professionals. In law firms, this might mean a chair of a practice group, a chair of a firm committee, a head of a trial team, or a transactional lawyer running a deal that is staffed with several junior associates and/or lawyers from other practice groups.
According to McKenna and Maister, in professional firms department heads and project leaders often act with the belief that professionals are unmanageable. These "leaders" end up focusing exclusively on administrative matters. They continue to spend the majority of their time focused on their own careers and their own client matters.
McKenna and Maister suggest that group leaders in professional firms take the opposite approach. As stated in the introduction: "The potential power of having well-coordinated groups is too great to abandon the task. Because managing professionals is complex, it requires more attention to management, not less."
In "First Among Equals," McKenna and Maister do not discuss how professional firms should divide themselves into groups. They indicate at the start that dividing up a group of professionals by geography, practice area, industry group or client matter is beyond the scope of the book.
Their starting point is that a group has been formed but is not really functioning like a group. They begin with the assumption that someone is not only willing to lead the group, but that this leader has the proper attitude about leading the group.
In other words, they have written their book for individuals who have not only agreed to chair a department but who also believe that the success of the department as a whole is their first priority.
The authors have both spent years consulting with law firms and other professional service firms on management issues. The depth and breadth of their collective experience is clear throughout the volume.
"First Among Equals" has a logical flow that is easy to follow. After a general discussion of leadership and why partners in professional services firms frequently do not take the time necessary to be effective leaders (e.g., because partners are not rewarded for these non-billable activities and because most professionals have received little training in social, interpersonal and emotional skills), McKenna and Maister divide their discussion into four parts: getting ready (establishing your mandate, building relationships one at a time and other important roles of a group leader); coaching the individual; coaching the team; and building for the future (dealing with newcomers to the group, growth issues, etc.).
The authors include commentary from a broad mix of managers from a wide range of disciplines. In getting the reader to focus on the management issues that are commonly faced by all professional services firms, the volume communicates a clear message: If you want to manage a group of professionals, you need to hone your coaching skills and find ways to support others in their own efforts to be successful.
McKenna and Maister provide both checklists and practical tips to help group leaders succeed as coaches. The book is largely void of consultant-speak. One of the most valuable items in the book appears on the last page of the main text. Here the authors list 10 questions that every group leader should ask him or herself every week. These questions alone are worth the price of the book.
McKenna and Maister made a clear editorial decision to keep the book short and avoid using examples that are specific to a single profession. In avoiding industry specific examples, however, the illustrations are a little thin at times. We can all learn from the good and bad experiences of other professionals whether they are accountants, doctors or engineers.
"First Among Equals" is a must-read if you have just agreed to chair a practice group or a firm committee. Understand that you will probably need your own coach if you really want to implement their strategies. If there is no one at your firm to serve this role, you may need to give one of the authors a call.
But reading the book first will certainly get you thinking about the steps you need to take to turn a group of individual professionals into a well-oiled machine.
Stephen E. Seckler is president of Seckler Legal Consulting, a Boston area recruiting and coaching firm. He speaks on career issues for lawyers and has coached hundreds of attorneys on management, career and business development issues. He maintains a website at www.counseltocounsel.com where he publishes articles on an array of career-related topics. Previously he spent eight years developing attorney-training programs for Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education.
May 20, 2002
