Law Firms: Why The Dangling Carrot Reward System Won’t Work

If we go back to the early 1900’s, it was common for management to use something called the carrot and the stick approach.

What is the Carrot & The Stick Approach?

There is an old story that emphasized the necessity of the carrot and the stick.  In order to get a donkey to move forward and pull a cart, you would dangle a carrot in front of him.  If he stopped you would hit him with a stick. The mule would move towards the carrot and away from the stick therefore the cart would go.

Corporations, business owners, and law firms believed that the carrot and the stick approach was the only way to make their workers productive.

 The carrot and the stick was a simple method. Reward the behavior you seek by dangling a carrot, with some sort of compensation, in front of the attorney; or punish the undesired behavior, with a figurative stick behind them.

They sandwiched a carefully monitored lawyer between a carrot, the reward, and a stick, the punishment.

The Reward/Carrot

Jessica, a two-year associate, just received a $20K per year increase in pay. “I don’t want to sound ungrateful,” she almost whispered.

“To show our appreciation, I think we all tried to work harder, which is funny when most of us worked a 60- 80-hour week,” Jessica continued. “But, we felt somewhat beholding, grateful and guilty all at the same time.”

“It is hard to explain. I felt awkward,” She said.  “I mean, how much more work could I do? The raise was good, but it didn’t actually address our underlying issues.”

Financial incentives or using money as a dangling carrot, without addressing any underlying issues may not always work.

My Neighbor Vicky Had Many Carrots

For example, when I think of carrots or rewards, I remember my friend Vicky, who lived next door when we were children. Vicky’s parents both worked for the government and traveled most of the time. Vicky was home alone with a variety of nannies or babysitters. I remember she was always lonely.

Vickie’s parents always arrived with a beautiful new doll, cute clothes, toys, puzzles and interesting books. Vicky had more material objects than she could ever desire. In high school, she was the first to have a car. I remember it was a baby blue convertible. Despite the many carrots and rewards Vicky received, she was always unhappy.

Vicky told me, “What I want more than anything is to spend time with my parents. I would give everything away for just one week alone with both of them.”  My friend never talked with her parents about spending more time with them.  No amount of money, clothes or toys filled her void.

Money Doesn’t Solve Everything

The same can be said for lawyers who receive an increase in salary when the real reason they are dissatisfied has not been addressed.

Is the associate happy about receiving an increase in pay? Yes, absolutely! However, we must note on the list below that money was not even on the list of the top five reasons associates leave their law firms.

Like my friend Vicky, money does not solve all of the issues. In fact, according to modern-day science, what brings joy to a worker is the act of creative and conceptual work, without either a carrot or a stick.

Although an associate may feel like it at times, they are not hamsters on a wheel. Enthusiastic lawyers, especially Millennials are motivated by the desire to do something that is bigger than themselves. Being part of a team is imperative. Associates want to believe that their work makes a big difference. Threats and power do not scare them. Their biggest fear is that they have not made an impact in the world.

Top 5 Issues for Associates

The main reasons associates leave their law firm are:

1. Lack of mentoring and developmental training.
2. Little or no interactions and support from partners.
3. Constant pressure for billable hours.
4. No consideration for balance or quality of life.
5. No career track or incentives for advancement.

We can see that money is not among the first five reasons that associates leave their firm, move to in-house or stop practicing law altogether.

5 Important Solutions

Instead of the dangling carrot, the solutions are easy and are extremely cost effective.

1. Create pods, teams of associates to work on cases as a group.
2. Appoint a rotating monthly group leader to represent the team who works directly with the partner.
3. The Team monitors deadlines to get work done while working out flexibility for team members.
4. Pod members assign manageable flex times as needed.
5. Each rotating pod/team leader is being groomed for leadership.

Effective firm leadership today

This team approach is a win/win for management and associates. It inspires enthusiasm, increases engagement and engenders loyalty, retention, higher productivity and greater profits to the law firm.

Let’s retire the past management model of treating workers like donkeys. Law firms miss the point if they think bigger carrots, more pay, more bonuses will do the job. Neither will partners who shun, demote or ostracize lower performing lawyers motivate them.

While the carrot and stick company policies may have worked somewhat in previous generations, it has proven to be ineffective in motivating lawyers today.

Associates want autonomy, freedom, and independence to work with passion and purpose in their law practice. Creating pods will solve a multitude of problems and addresses the five top reasons for attrition.

Lawyers care about their job, their firm, and their colleagues. Making a few modifications in management style, and retiring the carrot and stick approach will yield high retention and increased profits.

Pamela DeNeuve, Law Firm Strategists for Retention

Email:  pamela@pameladeneuve.com

Website: https://pameladeneuve.com

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/pameladeneuve  

Call Pamela:  (904) 607-1211

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