Our delegation skills training for lawyers is a practical session tailored for lawyers at different stages in your career. Work has to be carried out at the right level to ensure cost effectiveness. Senior lawyers need to develop the competence of their team and the practice area. This training session helps lawyers to improve their delegation skills and through this the performance of their team.
What our delegation skills training for lawyers will give you
- Ideas, tips and strategies to improve your delegation skills.
- Methodologies to work with your current approach, based in your work styles.
- Practical ways to look at delegating, like developmental & non-developmental work.
- How to make giving feedback easy.
"The trouble with delegating is I could do it quicker myself." Senior lawyer.
Three Training Options
Virtual Delegation Skills Training
- Date/Time to suit you.
- Up to 12 participants.
- 30 min – 2 hours.
- 1 session or series.
- Workshop style.
- Zoom or Teams.
- Tailored to your level.
- Trainee to Partner.
- Per workshop fee.
In-Person Delegation Skills Training
- Date/Time to suit you.
- Up to 12 participants.
- 1 – 2 hours.
- 1 session or series.
- Workshop style.
- In your office.
- Tailored to your level.
- Trainee to Partner.
- Per workshop fee.
Online Delegation Skills Training
- Learn at your pace.
- Learning videos.
- Bite sized videos.
- 2 min to 10 mins.
- 90 minutes in total.
- Workshop style.
- Tailored to your level.
- Trainee to Partner.
- Per participant fee.
Delegation Skills Training Agenda
- Introductions and objectives.
- Why delegating is a challenge for many lawyers.
- How not to delegate.
- Impact of not delegating professionally.
- The delegation time lag.
- Challenges of delegating within the team and with other teams.
- Benefits of delegating.
- Styles of delegation - different ways to delegate.
- Substantive v Stylistic trap.
- Developmental & non-developmental work to delegate.
- Understanding work styles as a basis for delegating.
- Gaining commitment as a delegator.
- Agreeing to follow up.
- Feedback and how to get it right.
- Working across departments.
- Participants' scenarios.
- Practice situations.
- Personal actions.
We adapt this agenda to suit the needs of your firm and the participants. We can make it practice area specific as well as suited to the specific level of your lawyers, whether they be partners, new or 3 to 4 years qualified associates, or junior lawyers.
Outcomes
This session gets excellent feedback because it is very practical and based on real situations. Participants gain the following:
- A better understanding of the dynamics of delegating.
- Ideas on how to improve their delegation skills.
- Concepts to better appreciate the needs of the people they are delegating to.
- A personal action plan.
- Improved delegation skills.
Follow up support
Emails are sent to participants with a pdf summary and content of the training. Participants can have access to the trainer via email for follow up support.
Why are delegation skills a challenge for many lawyers?
This is a common challenge for lawyers at all levels including Associates and Partners. Here are some of the common reasons:
- "It would be quicker for me to do the work myself."
- "I haven't got the time to delegate."
- "I will need to check and correct their work anyway!"
- "The client expects me to do the work."
- "It's my client."
- Considering the work styles...
- For the analytical lawyer it might be a question of getting the work done correctly.
- For the direct lawyer it might be a question of not having the time, or patience to delegate.
- For the social lawyer it might be a question of not wanting to bother someone.
- For the conceptual lawyer it might be a question of wanting to keep interesting work to themselves.
"My challenge is that I need to delegate to someone who is much older than me." Junior lawyer.
Levels of Delegation Skills training from Senior Lawyers to Junior Lawyers
We have developed this delegation skills training session to work at different levels in the firm, from senior lawyers to junior lawyers. The difference with these levels is that senior lawyers often know they should do it may have the confidence to be able to do it, but still don’t delegate, or delegate enough. Mid level lawyers tend to have the challenge of delivering billable hours whilst developing the team. Junior lawyers very often don’t have the confidence. Our training is adapted to the level of lawyers we’re working with. And we’ll discuss with you the specific outcomes you need from the training investment.
Delegation Skills for Senior Lawyers
Senior lawyers often don’t delegate as a conscious choice, even though they know they should. This could be for a number of reasons as indicated above, plus a belief that the junior person won’t do a good job, or simply a lack of knowledge on how to delegate successfully. Senior lawyers tend to need a workshop which understands their challenges and gives them tools to improve their delegation.
Delegation Skills for Associates
Improving delegation skills for the newly qualified associate is often essential for three reasons. Firstly the work needs to be done at the right level to be cost efficient from the client’s perspective. Secondly to develop the capabilities of junior lawyers. Thirdly to give the associate time to do higher level work.
Delegation Skills for Junior Lawyers
For the junior lawyer the session needs to work on their confidence in their delegation skills and how to delegate successfully. As one participant put it, “I’m delegating to someone who is much much older than me.” or as another said, “I have to delegate to someone who has been at the firm longer than I have been alive!”
Participant Reviews
Professional Business Communication training
This class is 3 hours but it didn’t feel like it. It helped that the class is interactive and each person gets a chance to speak at one time or another. Martin did a great job keeping us engaged. I like the way he explained the topics and I genuinenly walked away with some great pointers regarding communication styles.
Martin was a great trainer!
He made the session interesting and engaging, and gave some really helpful tips for working effectively! Definitely one of the best trainers I’ve come across in sessions like this – would recommend.
"Working Effectively" module with Martin Chapman
Martin is a really friendly instructor whose enthusiasm came through even in a virtual training session. He aimed to create rapport among the attendees which I really appreciated. It was great meeting him!
Great workshop on Professional Business Communication
Really enjoyed how interactive this workshop was. I am now putting people into communication style boxes!!
Professional Business Communication - Very instructive and interactive
It was the perfect balance between theoretical and situational approaches.
Objectives of the session
For the senior lawyer successful delegation skills are fundamental to a motivated team. For the junior lawyer delegation skills are essential to manage work efficiently. The workshop explores the individual lawyer’s default style of delegating. This default style is often driven by their personality, for this we use our work styles model. This model is simple to understand and easy to apply. It reviews a variety of ideas for developing delegation skills in the context of a time pressured day.
The specific objectives for the session are:
- Deliver clear and effective ideas on how to improve delegation.
- Ensure the ideas and concepts covered are easy to understand and simple to apply.
- Relate the ideas to the participants' real situations.
- Help the participants with their challenges in delegation.
Timing
This session can be delivered in any of the following formats:
- One hour taster session.
- 90 minute workshop - one of the most popular durations.
- 2 hour workshop - one of the most popular durations.
- 3 hour workshop.
Delegation skills based on personality or wrok styles
Why choose ITD for your Delegation Skills training?
20+ years' experience
We've been working with law firms for over 20 years. From large international firms to smaller regional firms.
Tailored to your needs
We will tailor the training to suit the needs of your firm and the participants, at no extra cost.
Work at all levels and roles
We work with all levels of fee earners and business services, so we understand the importance of delegation.
Countries and cultures
We've worked in many different countries and cultures from UK & US to UAE, Africa & Far East.
Client Case Studies
