Managing Your Manager - The Micromanaging Lawyer
Managing Upwards
Harvard Business Review describes managing upwards as “the process of consciously working with your superior to obtain the best possible results for you, your boss, and the company”.
It effectively means being aware of and working in a way that supports your manager’s working style and professional goals, which may mean adapting your own working style to suit them.
Learning how to “manage your manager”, or manage upwards, will make your working life a lot easier. By managing upwards, you will build a more meaningful working relationship with your manager which will lead to improving your communication and processes.
On the other hand, working against your lawyer's style and in a way that does not support them will only create friction within your working relationship and make your day to day working life more difficult.
There are many different working styles and personalities that you may come across during your career in legal support. As a legal support professional, you may often be working for lawyers that have characteristics that present certain challenges. To work effectively with your lawyer, it will be helpful to identify these characteristics and learn how to manage them.
In this post, we will be identifying the Micromanaging Lawyer and addressing some of the challenges that come with working for one of these types of lawyers.
The Micromanaging Lawyer
How to recognise them:
The micromanaging lawyer is usually one of the easiest types of lawyer to recognise because they are always up in your business. They will always be asking for updates on tasks, and they must know where everyone is at all times. Their timeframes are often unreasonable and they will require you to drop everything to assist them, no matter what other tasks you might be working on for other fee earners.
How to manage them:
Challenge 1: Not taking it personally
Having a lawyer constantly question your work and request updates can significantly impact your confidence, making you question your own abilities and wonder whether you are good enough. Always remember that it’s not you – it's them, so don’t take their micromanaging personally. The micro-managing lawyer doesn't usually have bad intentions, even though it may seem sometimes as if they are picking on you.
Try to think about things from your lawyers perspective: they have a responsibility to their clients to deliver high quality work within strict timeframes. This includes all work that they allocate to you as their assistant.
Some lawyers are also perfectionists and because they crave perfection, they may find it hard to let go of control of any aspect of a matter, which may be another reason that your lawyer micromanages the tasks that they allocate to you.
Challenge 2: Building trust
The best way to get a micromanaging lawyer off of your back is to develop trust. If your lawyer trusts you, they are far less likely to check up on you at every opportunity. We recommend utilising the following practices to assist in developing trust between you and your lawyer:
Ensure that your work is undertaken both accurately and efficiently to the best of your ability. If you are struggling with any aspect of your role, ensure that you acknowledge this and seek further training if necessary.
If you make a mistake, own up immediately. When you do need to raise mistakes with your solicitor, try to come to them with a suggested resolution. This shows insight and initiative and will ‘lessen the blow’ when you alert your solicitor to the mistake. “I have made a mistake and this is how I will fix it” sounds a lot better to a busy lawyer than “I have made a mistake, please help me fix it”.
Do not make excuses for your mistakes or blame others. It is important for you to take
responsibility for any mistakes that you make.
Never take advantage of your solicitor's trust. For example, if your lawyer is out of the
office, you should avoid taking extended breaks or unreasonably procrastinating just because they are not there to supervise you.
Always give your solicitor realistic turnaround timeframes. Never over promise and under deliver with a micromanaging lawyer as this will only destroy any trust that you have developed.
Challenge 3: Checking In
Pre-empt your lawyer coming up to you and asking about the status of tasks by giving them regular updates on the tasks that they have assigned to you.
If your lawyer has not specified when they require the task to be done by, make sure to clarify this with them. This will minimise the risk of them coming up to chase you, at least until that time has passed.
If the timeframe they have requested is unreasonable for any reason (for example, if you have more urgent tasks to complete, or if it is simply impossible to complete the task within that timeframe), explain why you can't complete it within the specified timeframe and give them an estimated time that you will have it back to them, rather than simply letting the timeframe lapse without further communication.
If you have started a task but it has stalled for some reason (for example, if you are waiting on someone to return your call), try to update your lawyer as to why the task may be taking longer than you or they had initially anticipated.
If you work for more than one lawyer, you should keep your micromanaging lawyer updated about your workload as a whole, including the work that is being generated by any other lawyers. If your micromanaging lawyer is unaware of work you are undertaking for others, they may wonder why the work they have assigned you is taking longer than they would have expected.
Challenge 4: Raising the issue
If you find that you are still struggling to handle your micromanaging lawyer, even if you are regularly checking in with them, it might assist for you to speak to them. A good way to approach this is to ask for a meeting with your boss to discuss the issues you are having.
Any issues that you raise should be done in a respectful manner. It might be helpful for you to:
Ask for feedback on your general performance and address any issues that your solicitor may raise.
Explain to your lawyer how their conduct is making you feel and how it is affecting you. For example: "When you check in on me constantly, I feel as if you don't trust me to manage my workload and I worry that I am not doing my job to the standard that you require. It makes me doubt my capabilities."
Reiterate your skills and experience to your lawyer, reminding them that you can do your job without hand holding, and this is why they have hired you.
Challenge 5: The micromanaging bully
Sometimes, a lawyer might micromanage a support staff professional as a method of bullying. If this is the case, none of the above tactics will ease their behaviour, and this should be dealt with in the same manner as you would a bullying lawyer. This type of lawyer will also be addressed in one of our upcoming posts.
