Recruiting Guru Reveals the Secret to Attracting and Hiring Top Lawyers
Recruiting guru reveals the secret to attracting and hiring top attorneys. Focus more on meaning and leadership. Work on your firm by clarifying your values, crystallizing your vision, and defining your mission. If you do this, you'll be the most attractive law firm in the city.
(PRWEB) November 17, 2004 -- He started his search firm in 1996 on a wobbly
card table in the dining room of a one-bedroom apartment. "I can't believe how
much placement activity I've seen since then," says Scott Love, one of the
executive search industry's leading gurus. "If there's anything I've learned
about the recruiting business, it's that there's always a need for top talent.
If there's anything that I've learned about observing organizations who hire
talent, it's that most of them become successful in spite of themselves, not
because of themselves."
Love divides his time between recruiting the
leaders of organizations and consulting to those leaders to create organizations
which encourage innovation and peak performance. As a former organizational
development consultant who is also an author, syndicated leadership columnist,
and professional keynote speaker on leadership, Love says that it's leadership,
not compensation that attracts top performers.
"When I conduct a search
for an attorney for one of my law firm clients, I always hear the same
blah-blah-blah story about the number of years that it takes to make partner and
how important compensation is. Sure, money is important. But it's not what gets
peak performance out of a lawyer. The firms forget that they're recruiting human
beings who want to have meaning and purpose in life." Love tends to be critical
of how most law firms are managed. "I can't blame them because they are right
smack in the middle of a culture that resists change. But if a group of partners
is brave enough to huddle together and clarify the values, crystallize the
vision, and define the mission of their law firm, they'll be head and shoulders
above the rest of their competitors in terms of recruiting elite
talent."
Love states that authentic leadership isn't just about
attracting top talent. It's a sure-fire way to stimulate performance. Love says,
"If they want to get maximum performance out of their staff, they have to find
out what incites that kind of performance. It isn't money. It's meaning. Maslow
said it best when he called it 'self-actualization.'"
Love's legal
division of his search practice is also his most aggressive endeavor. The
Attorney Search Group follows the retained search model to find partner,
associate, and in-house counsel. An ancillary need that Love targets is to help
dysfunctional law firms get healthy through his consulting.
Love says
that most law firms never do any 'work' on how to build an effective
organization. As a result, they grow into what he calls a 'warped bonsai'. "The
branches choke each other and never are aligned for harmony and balance. If a
firm takes the time to really shape the culture and beliefs of their firm, then
they'll find themselves creating a symbiotic and synergistic network of internal
relationships. And that, more than compensation, is what people really
want."
Love's legal search firm's website is www.attorneysearchgroup.com. To access the archive of his
nationally syndicated leadership column, visit www.scottlove.com .
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/11/prweb179152.htm