TM - January 2008 - (Page 52)

Application continued from page 49 trying to keep law a profession and not require or obligate people to certain minimum hours. We’re much more concerned with the caliber of work and that people get the work done than with the number of hours they’ve been able to bill to the project. The mega-firms are looking for profits for partners so they can publish it in the national law journal. Their primary concern seems to be the bottom line. We obviously are in business, so we are, of course, concerned with the bottom line, but we hope that we take into account a lot of other factors. “We take the time to learn how to talk to customers in the way they want to be talked to,” Shaffer explained. “It all gets back to our focus on old-fashioned values and manners. If we hadn’t found the MBTI tool, there would be no common language, no common pool of meaning and a lack of cohesiveness in how we could grow those relationships.” Shaffer Title also uses the MBTI instrument as a core element of its development and performance management activities, even using type concepts to provide feedback in performance reviews. At its leadership workshop in October 2007, the company used assessment data to help develop conflict management solutions and improve productivity and job satisfaction. Impressed with the MBTI results so far, the company plans to go on to the next level, the MBTI Step II assessment. The MBTI Step II instrument builds on the insights provided by Step I, introducing a unique and complex understanding of personality, which enables clients to explore a multiplicity of individual variations within type. Particularly effective in leadership development and executive coaching, the MBTI Step II instrument breaks down each dimension of the Step I types into five facets, giving individuals a more detailed appreciation of their type. This approach can highlight how people of the same Step I type can be different and explore similarities between people with contrasting Step I preferences. Shaffer said she hopes this second instrument will give employees more insight into their behaviors and even more clarity about their type. “The MBTI framework has been very, very beneficial,” Shaffer said. “We have received a lot of positive feedback from employees on how they use it in talking to our customers and when they are having difficult conversations. Most important, we are all learning how to talk to people so they can really hear us. It really does have a language around here.” Amy Ferris is a consultant with CPP a , leading publisher and provider of products and services for individual and organizational development. She can be reached at editor@TalentMgt.com. How do you use intangible metrics, such as client satisfaction and successful litigation, to handle performance management? TM: We work in groups, in teams, and we’re very familiar with the work of the other people in the office. We do it based upon less empirical, more subjective factors, which I think is more important. [Some] places look at the empirical to determine who should receive a bonus, giving someone a bonus for spending too many hours doing a project, which may earn to the firm’s benefit by virtue of extra billing. I would rather give it to someone who’s more efficient and did a good job in less time. Stein: tom line? TM: How have your workforce performance management activities contributed to your company’s bot- Our workforce is content, happy and team-oriented, and as a result, we have much less stress on people. We have less illness than most places. I feel everybody makes a concerted effort on behalf of the firm because of the way we treat them. That actually generates greater productivity than the opposite techniques used by large firms. Stein: Some of the things you mentioned — less absenteeism, better health, greater discretionary effort — seem as though they would save the company money. TM: Right. You have to mentor young lawyers physically, emotionally and spiritually for them to develop into excellent lawyers and contributors to the community. That’s what we try to do. As a result, we don’t have the turnover, for instance, that other places have. Therefore, we don’t have to train and retrain people. A number of my partners have been with me 30, 28, 25 years. Having people around you for that length of time is a real advantage. Stein: What’s next for your organization in terms of talent management and workforce performance development? TM: Stein: January 2008 To acquire other, smaller law firms and integrate them into what we do. Our model seems to be incredibly unique and successful, which is contrary to the way that law firms in general are going. We want to make ourselves available as a model to a lot of other lawyers and smaller law firms, [to illustrate] the advantage of our size and the individualized practice that we provide. 52 talent management magazine www.TalentMgt.com http://www.TalentMgt.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of TM - January 2008

TM - January 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Learning Connections: Working With Those People Leading Edge: Hub Caps for a Buggy Human Performance: Hawthorne Effect Revisited Beyond Affirmative Action: The Changing Face of Recruitment Assessment Centers in Talent Management: Strategies, Use and Value Nontraditional Benefits- How to Hook the Best Talent Intersection of Web 2.0 and Talent Management Cross-Training for Workforce Agility Mapping Talent Among Younger Workers Dashboard: Using Personality Data to Identify and Develop High-Potential Leaders Application: Shaffer Title Uses Myers-Briggs to Develop Common Corporate Language, Jump-Start Growth Insight: Dreier, Stein & Kahan LLP: Using Strategy to Bring Back the Law Profession Advertisers' Index Editorial Resources Full Potential: Stop in the Name of Leadership

TM - January 2008

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