It’s so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day operations of running a law firm that you’ve probably overlooked a HUGE component to your success—and that’s team morale.

Remember happy teams make more money—and boosting team morale is one of the easiest ways to help them do this…hands down.

 That’s because an employee treated well by her boss will radiate a “you must spend your money with our firm because this place is the best!” energy to prospective clients on the fence about signing with your law practice.    

Not to mention, happy team members are more productive, they won’t drag their feet on the clock, nor will they cut corners or blatantly disregard tasks out of sheer loyalty and gratitude for all you do for them and the great work environment you’ve attempted to provide.

So what can you do to boost team morale and create loyalty among your staff?

Try some of the following:

• Order lunch (or even breakfast) for your team often. Or just give your office manager permission to take the team out to a nice restaurant on you.  Even if you can’t be there, the gesture goes a long way.
• Surprise your team with ice-cream or water ice at 4 pm as they are finishing up their day.
• If your team is pulling 15 hour shifts helping with trial prep or upcoming litigation, hand out a few $50 bills to say thanks for burning the midnight oil with you.
•  Institute a policy on Fridays that if everyone’s work is done, the team is can get a two hour start on the weekend by leaving early.
• Say thank you and give praises often.  Your team needs to hear a balanced message from you—not just criticism when things are messed up and stress is rising high.

Taking steps to boost team morale is a time-tested principle that can’t go wrong and will easily turn into more dollars for you as your team works harder, projects a better image of your firm to prospective clients and morphs into your own little “word-of-mouth army” that constantly sings your praises to their family and friends. 

So what are you waiting for—make it your goal to boost morale this holiday season and get ready to grow!

My good friend and personal coach, Alicia Forest  just wrote an excellent post on her blog about showing gratitude to your prospects, clients and referral sournces during the holiday season.

I can’t stress enough how important this is in the legal industry and if you’ve never used a holiday to say THANK YOU to your clients–and even prospects considering your firm, now would be a great time to start!

Why?

It’s an effective keep-in-touch legal marketing tool, it’s super inexpensive with great ROI and more importantly, it shows your clients you’re just  a nice gal or guy who’s greatly appreciative of their business.

I’ve excerpted some of Alicia’s post below and I encourage you to read the rest on her site (and take notes!).

Happy Thanksgiving!

********

As we head into the season of giving, now is a great time to show appreciation to your clients and customers. Taking the time to give thanks to your clients will set you apart, increase loyalty, improve retention, inspire more sales, and deepen relationships that last long after the initial sale.

Here are 10 easy ways you can say thank you to your clients:

1. Greeting Cards

My husband often teases me that I should own stock in Hallmark for the amount of money I spend a year on cards. I love to send cards, for a specific reason or for no reason at all.

For business, you’ve probably heard of SendOutCards (and no, I’m not an affiliate or a distributor). I get a lot of cards this way, from colleagues, and it definitely deepens the relationship for me. And it is a super-easy way for you to do that with your customers too.

2. Personal Notes

I love to send personal notes too. I have specially designed notecards that I send when I just want to connect with someone after a particularly powerful coaching call, when someone makes an investment in Platinum, when I’ve made a special connection with someone in person, or when a client just needs a little cheer.

3. Invitations

One of the things you can do for your top clients is to invite them to a special event just for them. It can be a lunch or dinner at an event you’ll all be at, or carve out a portion of your own live event to spend time just with them.

You can also invite them to special teleseminar or webinar where you offer them free content just for being your top clients.

4. Small Gifts

Flowers, books, a mug, or something more specific are all thoughtful gifts for clients. They can be sent for certain occasions or just because (that’s actually my favorite way to send a gift).

Click here to keep reading more ideas on Alicia’s blog

How are you nurturing the relationships in your business? I’m not talking about the relationships with your prospects, clients, or referral sources; instead, I’m talking about the people who support you and your business.

If you haven’t thought about this question before, let me just say having a support team and building & nurturing those relationships plays a VITAL role in the success of your law practice.

Whether you are a solo with a few contractors that work on a freelance basis or you have a large in-house staff; having a team that supports you free of drama or complications is an integral part of building your business. Note: If you do not have someone to support you please put that on your list of priorities for the New Year!

However, to ensure you are receiving the best support possible, you must know how to communicate effectively with your team or they can be a regular source of stress, unnecessary work load and aggravation– just the opposite of what you want in your firm.

That is why open, honest and direct communication with your team (or at least the manager of your team if you are not the best communicator) is critical to keeping everyone in sync.

This means empowering your team with communication about what the goals of the firm are, what the marketing plans are and exactly what you expect of them. Learning how to disagree and come to resolutions where no one is walking away feeling unheard or respected is also a vital part of the process.

So with that said, here are a few tips for effective communication:

* Always respect all your team members; and insist they honor/ respect each other as well, respect is a two way street and the only way to build good team morale.

* Be sure to give your team members clear project requirements and standard operations in your office — including the HOW and WHY behind each task for clarity and understanding.

* Conduct regular team meetings WEEKLY to understand and discuss the doubts, questions and concerns of every team member and provide solutions accordingly; remember no question is ever stupid!

* Explain the why when answering questions so your team understands the desired outcome and feels empowered to make decisions on their own based on this information.

* Define the role and responsibility of every team member clearly which allows the team member to take ownership of their responsibilities, avoid confusion or un-necessary re-work.

* When in a meeting or discussion, allow everyone have their turn to speak and suggest. Meetings do not serve a purpose if you alone keep talking and ignore/ dismiss what others have to say.

* Listen to your teams opinions and use their suggestions if found to be effective. Listening plays a significant role in effective communication.

* Always be polite in your way of speaking and behavior. When you tear down, criticize, use rude tone or body language it will usually bring upon negative feelings among team members.

* Clear out any personal differences and misunderstandings by dealing with them directly in a private setting. Keeping it inside and harboring grudges against one another may affect the team spirit and have a direct impact on the quality of everything in your law business.

* Always look for ways to display acknowledgement and appreciation through face to face interaction or electronic modes when a team member performs well. Just a pat on the back, or two lines of appreciation in an email can have a great impact to motivate a team member.

* Deal with tense situations calmly. If you are unable to do that because of the situation, simply say, let me think on this for a little while and schedule a time to deal with it after you have had a chance to relax.

* Avoid placing blame on others when any work is not done. Instead, try to figure out the cause and create a solution

Of course, these are just a handful of suggestions to improve communication in your firm. Start by implementing just 1 or 2 and add new strategies weekly as you feel comfortable with them.

It may seem like a hassle, or even a waste of time at first, but as you observe how communication directly
correlates with productivity, morale, and the support you receive I guarantee this will become a permanent fixture in your law firm!

 If you are a lawyer and you blog—or reach out to local bloggers as part of your online marketing campaigns,  you’ll want to take a moment and register for a free teleseminar hosted by Kevin Houchin (a well respected lawyer that specializes in online marketing) and marketing expert, Joel Comm.

While local bar rules dictate how you can market your practice and reach out to prospects, the new FTC guidliness have made things a bit more complicated –and VERY expensive if you accidently violate one of the provisions.

Gray areas now include testimonials (which most lawyers have been quick to embrace and post online), reviews from mom bloggers and claims made on social networking sites (by you or your team).

I encourage you to take one hour tonight and hear how these new regulations will effect your law practice and what you should be doing to avoid hefty fines from the FTC (with most starting in the $16,000 range).

The webinar is tonight, 11/9/09 from 8-9 pm EST.

Got to http://www.budurl.com/ftc11 to get registered.

See you there.