Module 5

Developing and managing performance: goals, feedback, training, careers and underperformance

Hiring someone is the beginning. The real work of a manager is to help people to do good work, to grow and to stay, and to deal fairly and early with those who are struggling. In legal practice, a particular difficulty is that many managers are lawyers who were promoted for being good at law, not at managing. They may avoid hard conversations, give vague praise and wait for the annual review to say anything that matters. This module covers the everyday tools that work better: clear goals, regular one-to-ones, specific feedback, development that is more than a course, career paths that people can see, fair promotion, delegation that builds ability and a calm, fair and documented process when someone is not meeting the standard.

General education on managing people in a legal practice, using invented people and organisations. It is not legal, employment or HR advice. Employment, discrimination, pay, working-time, dismissal and redundancy law differ between countries and change: take advice before any step that ends or changes employment.