Meaningfully embedding values in your firm

Most law firms have created values that they claim represent their business, but how many really adhere to them? Ed Simpson, director and CEO of The Legal Director, explores how this intention can be brought to reality.

How many firms have got the support of their employees and convinced them to embrace the firm’s values in their working lives? Playing lip service to defining a value system can really backfire. If you are undertaking this as a marketing opportunity – a chance to create some inspiring images or an impressive presentation – you risk damaging your reputation with your clients and engendering cynicism and distrust in your employees.

I have recently invested considerable time trying to define the culture of The Legal Director – to think about the values that I would like the business to be known for and to be embodied in its client legal directors. It’s still a work in progress, but here’s what I’ve learnt so far.

Why do it?

Successfully defining your values brings clarity to your firm’s identity. You know who you are and what is important to you. This is helpful. When your values underpin every process, you can guide your business with more focus, manage your communications with more authenticity and recruit with more confidence.

Recruitment and retention are issues across all sectors. Getting the right people on board is vitally important and something we pay particular attention to at TLD. Our team is dispersed across the country and our lawyers work independently. Fostering a team identity and an affinity to the TLD brand would not be possible without shared values.

Defining your values

There’s a lot riding on getting it right – choosing the core values that really encapsulate the ethos of your firm. So, how do you make your values have real meaning?

1. Firstly, you need to think carefully about what is important to you. When you have conceptualised the values that matter to you, you need to explain how that translates practically. In the context of your firm, what behaviours embody those values? If you value enthusiasm, how can your team demonstrate that?
2. Don’t choose values that should be self-evident. Being ‘honest’ and ‘professional’, or having ‘integrity’, is the bare minimum your clients can expect and not something you should be shouting about.
3. Don’t confuse aspiration for core values. Though it is important to set goals, those should be reflected in your mission statement. Choose values that are sacrosanct to your firm and relevant now.

Who gets a say?

Though you want everyone to buy-in to the business’s values, this initiative is not about building consensus. It is about senior management creating their vision and communicating it to the firm. Provided the values you espouse are ethically and strategically sound, you will be able to find people to get behind them.

Once you’ve decided on your values, then bring in other key employees who can help you define the practices and behaviours that demonstrate these values.

How do you embed them in your firm?

Creating your values is not a one-time event. In order to be a values-led organisation, you need to integrate your values into the fabric of your business and into every employee and client-related process.

1. Make sure all your external communications carry your message – your website content, what you put out on social media, your email sign off, any advertising or PR you do. Keep repeating your values!
2. And the same for your internal communications. Repeat, repeat, repeat!
3. Recruit on your values. A sure-fire way of embedding your values in your business is to hire people who share them.
4. Put your values at the centre of all employee processes: inductions, performance management appraisals, rewards, promotions – even dismissals. Ingraining them in the day-to-day running of your business demonstrates that you are genuine.
5. Find out from your clients and employees whether they think your firm operates by its values. We regularly conduct client listening exercises to check whether our values are sinking in.
6. Don’t forget to identify the behaviours (for you and your team) that give clarity to each of your values. People will then know what they need to say and do to meet the expectations of both you and your clients.

If you are thinking of launching your own value initiatives, it is worth doing it properly. Investing in the values of your business is a long-term, sometimes challenging, but always rewarding process.