Many folks start their practices alone. They’re working solo—literally—and have no one to talk to at the office.

You end up bouncing jury arguments off of the cleaning crew. Life is good. It’s simple. The biggest problem you have at that stage is getting more clients. The mission is simple, and you’re focused.

Then you hire someone. The world changes.

The minute you hire someone, your biggest problem becomes communication.

Communication will continue as your biggest problem…forever. The need to communicate will never subside, and it’ll never happen without effort.

Early Growth Patterns at My Firm

My first employee was Elizabeth. It took us awhile, but we figured it out. After about a year, we had our communication mastered. I had mastered the art of communicating with one employee.

Then we grew.

I remember the days when my entire team could fit in my Honda. We often jumped in and went to lunch. We’d spend lunch talking about office issues and figuring things out.

It worked, and the firm grew. The Honda was the perfect tool for managing our communication. We stayed in touch with one another without even realizing we were doing it.

We hired our way right out of that Honda. That’s when the breakdowns started.

Once you lose your communication system, you’re in trouble.

I see it now, but I didn’t see it when it was happening. I assumed we were struggling due to challenging cases, marketing difficulties, and financial issues. I didn’t realize that it was all about communication.

You’re going to smash into communication issues as soon as you hire someone. Then you’re going to hit them again when you can’t fit the new person in the car for lunch.

You’ll hit them again at certain growth levels. Each time you hit one of the communication walls, you’ll see your growth stop, and you’ll go backward. You’ll regroup, and then you’ll hire someone and, unfortunately, hit the wall again. It’ll happen over and over until you figure out a communication approach that works for your team.

Once you realize how communication affects growth, you’ll see examples all around you. You’ll see one business expand like crazy and then open other locations. You’ll see one of its competitors with one location that grows and contracts, grows and contracts, and never gets any traction.

The growth and contraction thing is what happens to many law firms. The lawyer in charge has an approach that is good enough for a certain level of growth. The firm rockets to that level and stops. It never goes beyond the initial size. It gets stuck.

Why?

Because the communication system the firm has works at one level but not at the next. It needs a new system.

What’s the Solution?

How do you change your system and break through the barrier you’re facing? How do you go from one to two? From four to five, from 20 to 21, or from 49 to 50?

Your communication system will be unique. It’ll be a central piece of your culture. It’ll be the thing that makes it feel good (or not) to work in your firm, and it’ll be the approach that makes clients happy (or not) and causes them to say good things about your business.

What will it look like?

It’ll have several elements that you’ll customize to become your culture. It will involve the following:

[ While I have you here, I wanted to remind you that you can get the latest articles delivered to your inbox a week before they go up on the web. Just one email per week. Sign up here. ]

1. Vision. It’ll start with a clear sense of what’s ahead. The leadership will have a plan and communicate it over and over. The message will stay at the center.
2. Team. The vision will be supported by a great team of people who understand the mission and objectives of the business because it gets reinforced all the time.
3. Meetings. Yes, the dreaded meetings will take place in a systematic and regular manner. They’ll happen frequently and may involve some or all of daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual meetings of the entire team or parts of the team. Every group will find a different rhythm and system.
4. Feedback. The leadership will know the team “gets it” because of frequent feedback and interaction involving frequent communication between manager and employee. That communication will certainly involve frequent communication over small developments and regular communication regarding the employees’ development within in the business.

A law firm with a good communication system in place knows what it’s trying to accomplish. That vision is communicated so often that everyone in the firm can articulate it. That happens as a result of consistent group discussion added to one-to-one discussion with each employee.

Communication is simple. Except when you need to communicate.

Fortunately, all it takes is time and effort. You can master it if you’re willing to prioritize it and make it happen. If you do it, you’ll grow. If you don’t, you’ll continue to bounce your ideas off the cleaning crew.