Huse Shares What Lawyer Teams Can Learn About the Power of Collaboration from Rowing Crew

Jill Huse was recently published by JD Supra for her article "What Lawyer Teams Can Learn About the Power of Collaboration from Rowing Crew." In it, she discusses the benefits of team-based business development coaching over individualized. Below is a preview of the article. You can read it in its entirety here on the JD Supra website. There is much value from working in teams. Whether it's an administrative team, a practice group, an industry team, or a key client account team, good things happen when people come together to achieve a common goal.

Team-based coaching programs create stronger relationships and achieve more than individual coaching programs. For best practices in creating and leveraging successful teams, let’s look at what we can learn from one of the oldest team sports around – rowing.

Relationships develop from shared experience “Good thoughts have much to do with good rowing. It isn’t enough for the muscles of a crew to work in unison; their hearts and minds must also be as one.” – George Yeoman Pocock

One of the managing partners I work with calls it “the glue” – the ubiquitous something firms need to be a true partnership, a high-functioning team.

Not much else can replicate the bond created from a shared experience. When you join others to work on a project, digging into details, managing uncertainty, and seeing it through to conclusion, it's memorable. What you often find is it is less about the thing you were working toward and more about the journey you took together to get there.

Some of the blame for the amount of attrition from associate ranks in law firms today is due to many firms, during and after the recession, discontinuing the practice of hiring classes of associates straight out of law school. Not having this "pledge class" bond with a group of fellow lawyers has left many associates feeling isolated, or at least untethered. Nothing holds them at their current firm. A team coaching program can create that shared experience associates used to have by entering law firms at the same time.

Read more here.