Scoreboards for Success: Measuring What Matters in Your Law Firm

In this episode “Scoreboards for Success,” Zinda Law Group CEO and founder Jack Zinda discusses measuring your law firm and determining what matters.

Discussed in this Episode:

• What is a Scoreboard?
• Why does it matter?
• What are the best practices?
• Mistakes law firms make

What is a Scoreboard?

A scoreboard is simply a collection of data that provides a rounded view of the law firm and how it’s functioning as a whole, shared with a large group of people. This can include fees collected, demands sent, and other things. It can create what Jack calls “fame and shame.” It celebrates those who are doing well and it makes it known who is struggling or slacking. Scoreboards for success is a great way to measure what matters in your law firm. 

Why Does it Matter?

Jack recounts a story of early in his career when the firm he was at was failing to get fees. He took a large amount of data and found out that certain lawyers were more productive than others and looked at where those certain attorneys were succeeding. By creating a data set for him to look at he was able to meet with the attorneys who were struggling, found their weaknesses and was able to coach them up to a higher standard, thus bringing the success of the entire firm up. That only lasted for a few months though and after a while Jack realized that performance would always improve when given the information, but then slump again. The solution? Keep that data available and in the open at all times.

What are the Best Practices?

Don’t just use data for data’s sake. Find out what data actually matters and motivates your team. Once you have the relevant data, use a side-by-side graph to show what their expectations are to give them a visual example of what they need to improve on. Then delegate to managers or assistants to continually pull data as new information comes in. Some people may find it disconcerting to find out that they are low on the scoreboard, so having steps in place to make sure that they get the resources they need to succeed is important. 

Mistakes Law Firms Make

You don’t need to purchase expensive or fancy software. Programs can give you too many options and KPIs that can make things overwhelming and unnecessary. Things should be simple and clean. Don’t assume that people can decipher what the numbers mean. Color coding performance is much easier for a group to understand than getting them up to speed on why and how the numbers are what they are. Remember to announce this ahead of time so people don’t think that they’re in trouble.

You can reach Jack at:

jack@zindalaw.com

512-246-2224

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