I should have had a revolving door at the front of my office. Our nice mahogany door nearly got worn right off its hinges with all the turnover I’ve caused.

We’ve all got some strengths and some weaknesses. Management has always been one of my weaknesses.

I’d hire an associate, and six months later she’d quit or I’d fire her. Six months was actually at the high end for me. I had one out the door in nine days. Another one was gone two days after starting.

It was my fault. It wasn’t my finest hour (well, more like finest years).

There was a time when most of the local divorce lawyers under 30 had worked for me at one time or another. I brought them in, chewed them up, and spit them out (or they ran away screaming).

They were quitting and getting fired so fast I didn’t bother to memorize their names.

If I’d had a revolving door, it probably would have been a liability issue because it would have been spinning so fast. I can imagine the news teaser: “Lawyer killed by revolving door; film at 11.”

Aside from the psychic damage I suffered from failing so miserably, I also damaged my reputation in the community.

I had more than a dozen lawyers wandering around trashing me. I also had gobs of clients who had to be transferred from lawyer to lawyer as their attorneys left my firm. They weren’t happy, and they didn’t hesitate to tell their friends.

Why Was the Turnover Happening?

Because I was an awful manager. I was terrible, no-good, and horrible, and that was on my best days.

I had unreasonable expectations. I was mean when people disappointed me. I had no systems. I offered minimal training. I gave only negative feedback. I played favorites, I delegated poorly. I never coached anyone other than to pick apart their performance.

If you had worked for me, you too would have quit. I was a nightmare.

How Did I Solve the Problem?

I tried books, seminars, coaching, counseling, and a mastermind group.

Mostly, it helped, but it didn’t completely fix me. I’m still not great at management.

However, I have built a thriving firm with pretty low turnover.

I’ve done that by creating a management layer between me and the attorneys. We have a managing attorney who hires, trains, and supervises the lawyers. We’ve had someone in that role for more than a decade.

I stay out of the attorneys’ business. I leave them alone. I leave the managing to the managing attorney.

Eventually, I recognized that I wasn’t going to be good at managing people. The only solution for me, so far at least, is to take me out of the managing role.

If I couldn’t manage, what could I do? I had lots of energy and suddenly lots of free time, and I needed something to do. I needed to contribute to growing our practice.

I had always been pretty good at marketing. That would be my primary focus. That way we’re using my strengths to generate enough revenue to compensate for my weaknesses. We use the revenue created with better marketing to pay excellent managers.

Play to Your Strengths

We’ve all got to figure out how to exploit our strengths and avoid doing the things we aren’t good at.

• Some lawyers are excellent at delivering client service but not so good at managing technology. They use their strength to compensate by buying the best technology and implementation.
• Some lawyers are great at management but terrible at marketing. They use their strength to afford excellent marketing assistance.

There are all sorts of combinations of strengths and weaknesses. Go with your strengths. Do what you’re good at. Leverage your strengths to compensate for your weaknesses.

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My strengths allow us to use a standard door instead of a revolving door. Your strengths are compensating in other ways. Use what you’ve got to keep moving forward.