好律师为什么当不了好领导

    雪拉指出，缺乏这些技能的不只是律师这一行。“最好的工程师不一定是最好的经理或团队领导者。”随着这些专业人士逐步升职，他们必须依赖他人的协助，“管理是完全不同的技能”。

    很多律所已开始提供领导力培训，帮助合伙人和资深律师学习法学院所不曾教授的管理技能，但这看起来并没有列为当务之急。NALP基金会2011年的一项调查显示，在职律师人数251-500名的律所将法律业务管理培训（即律所营运、领导力培训和管理技能）平均列在14项律师发展优先选项的第九位，重要性高于个人职业规划，但低于客户关系、正式导师制和律师融合度（即让律师适应律所的环境）。

    至少有两家法学院，哈佛大学（Harvard）和乔治敦大学（Georgetown）的法学院已经意识到了这一教学盲点，推出了相应的课程来教授学生管理技能。除了着重建立领导力、团队合作和协作技能，帮助律师们“从律师角色向领导者转变”，乔治敦大学还提供一项合伙人薪酬课程，教授学生“奖励明星合伙人，解决那些表现不好的合伙人的需求”，“确保薪酬能够支撑律所的策略、文化和人才管理理念。”

    如果合伙人希望留住最好的律师，解决方案或许异常简单：像对待成年人一样对待你的律师。让他们参与到律所业务中来。不要犯傻。别大喊大叫。做得好时请给予积极反馈。正如瑞斯金所述，“更粗的鞭子和更大的靴子并不能迫使人们提升表现。”换言之，如果你善待你的律师，他们的工作表现会更好。或者，正如上述Schulte的那位律师所说：“当我喜欢一个人时，我自然希望给他留下更好的印象。”

    这种方式似乎在Munger, Tolles & Olson是奏效的：根据Vault的排名，这家律所的合伙人-律师关系在业内排名第一，在2013年最佳律所雇主中排名第七。比如，通过让律师进入管理委员会以及将律所财务信息（通常仅向合伙人披露）向普通律师公开，这家律所不仅显示了对律师们的尊重，也教给了他们一些企业的基本信息。而且，由于这家律所采用“自由市场体系”，鼓励律师们自己接触合伙人找业务，合伙人也有动力与律师搞好关系。

    “它促使我们的合伙人要成为容易合作的人，”Munger执行合伙人桑德拉•塞维利亚-琼斯说：“因为他们知道，要想为自己的案件或交易争取更多资源，他们需要成为别人眼中好的团队领导人。”

    发放高额奖金的律所们，请注意了：律师们希望得到的不只是最丰厚的薪酬。（财富中文网）

    Lawyers, Sherer notes, are certainly not the only professionals that often lack these skills. "The best engineer isn't necessarily the best manager or team leader." As these professionals climb the ladder, they have to rely more on other people to help them and "that's a different set of skills."

    Many firms, though, have begun to offer leadership training to help partners and senior associates learn the management skills law school didn't teach them, yet it does not appear to be a top priority. In a 2011 survey by NALP Foundation, firms with 251-500 attorneys ranked law practice management training (e.g., firm operations, leadership training, and management skills), on average, as the ninth of 14 possible attorney development priorities, making it more important than individual career planning but less important than client relations, formal mentoring, and lawyer integration (i.e. getting the attorney acclimated to the office).

    At least two law schools -- Harvard and Georgetown -- have recognized this training gap, and have launched programs to teach their law students business skills. In addition to a heavy focus on building leadership, teamwork, and collaboration skills to help attorneys "make the shift from lawyer to leader," Georgetown offers a Partner Compensation Workshop, which, for example, instructs students on "rewarding stars while also addressing the needs of non-rainmaking partners" and "ensuring that compensation supports the firm's strategy, culture, and talent-management philosophy."

    For partners looking to hold onto their best lawyers, the solutions may be surprisingly simple: Treat your associates like adults. Involve them in the business of the firm. Don't be a jerk. Stop yelling. And give positive feedback when it is deserved. As Riskin put it, "You cannot help people perform better by buying a bigger whip and bigger boots." In other words, if you treat your associates better, they will do better work. Or, as the Schulte associate put it, "It's not even a question that when I like someone personally, I want to impress them more."

    This approach seems to be working for Munger, Tolles & Olson, ranked by Vault as the No. 1 firm in partner-associate relations and the No. 7 best law firm to work for in 2013. By putting associates on management committees, for example, and sharing the firms' financial statements with the rank-and-file (usually a privilege only enjoyed by partners), the firm shows some respect to its attorneys and teaches them some business basics. And because the firm uses a "free market system" that encourages associates to find their own work by approaching partners for assignments, partners have an incentive to behave themselves.

    "That is a motivating factor for our partners to be good people to work with," says Munger managing partner Sandra Seville-Jones, "because they know that in order for them to attract the resources that they need for their cases or transactions, they need to be seen as good team leaders."

    Law firms writing those big bonus checks ought to take note: associates are looking for more than just the fattest salary package.