How savvy legal ops leaders add value AND protect their time
More GCs, CLOs, and business leaders are hiring legal operations professionals to scale their departments. They have grand visions of painless processes and well-oiled workflows. Improvement opportunities are endless, and leaders are grappling with how to prioritize them all.
Break out the to-do lists and burn the midnight oil, right?
Wrong.
Legal ops’ ability to deliver sustained value requires focus on high-value projects (even occasionally saying no) as the work piles on.
We asked two of the best legal ops professionals we know how they work smart and deliver results, without sacrificing their sanity.
We organized their ideas into five principles. Whether you’re a new legal ops hire or just had the role added to your plate, there’s something for you.
“The magic is in the pre-work.”
The first legal operations hire often starts day 1 with a backlog of project work. No doubt, eager legal team members and other stakeholders in HR, marketing, and sales have been waiting for an ops-focused legal teammate to show up and help out.
“Resist the temptation to go in and do all the things right away,” shares Ashlyn Donohue, Director of Legal at LinkSquares. “If necessary, force yourself to stay hands off any processes for a few weeks.” Instead, deep dive into the processes and systems where legal is a stakeholder.
In terms of a starting area, understand the business objectives and then socialize with your manager about which tactical areas to take on first – such as the contracting process. Observe the current state, affected systems, cycle times, and what stakeholders feel about how it works (including perceived bottlenecks). Map out an ideal process state versus how the process unfolds today.
Do this systematically across the workflows that affect legal and its business stakeholders the most. If you don’t know what these are, ask around: there’s a good chance everyone knows the 20% of issues that create 80% of the headaches.
“Remember that not all problems are created equal.”
The Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC) references twelve core competencies of mature legal departments. While these are admirable targets, few departments have the resources to execute them equally well.
To be successful in the role, leaders need to focus their limited time and energy on areas with the most return on investment, not necessarily the noisiest stakeholder.
“Pick and choose what you work on based on data,” guides Donohue. “By attacking the most problematic areas first, you move the needle on what moves the business.”
To continually assess progress, establish benchmarks and relevant metrics around your goals. Within nascent legal ops functions, these likely don’t exist. But once established, legal ops can continually analyze performance and quantify its value.
This builds legal ops’ resume across the organization – and may be important for adding more headcount or resources down the road. Every team needs to be able to tell its value story, and legal ops is no different.
Unfortunately, skepticism still exists about the value of legal operations. The angst arises from poor understanding of what the legal ops does and how its work resonates through legal departments.
Ashley Adams, Director, Legal Operations at Contentful, says leaders must learn to be great data storytellers: “Capture dollar and time savings. Efficiency gains must be quantified, so don’t forget to find metrics to prove your value.”
“Teach a man to fish.”
When you’re ready to execute improvements, evaluate what you can do to remove yourself from the new process down the road.
For instance, legal ops is a great resource for building playbooks. Of course – who doesn’t want a streamlined set of guidelines to navigate business processes?
But problems arise when legal operations professionals become a playbook (or report, checklist, etc.) factory.
“Reevaluate whether you should be building a playbook for every lawyer who wants one for every process,” guides Donohue. “Offer a template instead.”
Legal ops leaders who enjoy their roles – and their evenings at home with family or friends – are ruthless about elevating others and helping the business without doing all the work themselves.
Deloitte research shows how legal operations professionals are particularly pulled in many directions and susceptible to getting off-track or neglecting longer-term priorities.
Successful leaders know what they need to do in advance and are able to allocate time accordingly. In large part because they can prepare and equip others and move on.
“Don’t be afraid of no.”
Sure, it takes guts, but for top performers, saying no is a growth strategy.
Everyone takes on some work outside their core responsibilities. But when bandwidth or mental space is dried up, legal ops leaders must have a plan to stop accommodating more.
Saying no – while being both diplomatic and truthful is a critical skill, especially for new workers, who may lack the experience, confidence, or vocabulary to push back. Without the skill, legal ops leaders end up overworked and burned out.
Adams suggests legal ops leaders arm themselves with an up-to-date list of responsibilities and the time demands of each.
When new projects or responsibilities surface, evaluate them in relation to other projects on the list. “Make this a collaborative discussion with your manager, and ask them how the proposed new work fits alongside the other activities you’re working on.”
HBR encourages that, “If an assignment would detract from your core responsibilities or would compromise your ability to consistently deliver high-quality work without the significant upside of learning or relation-building, it’s probably best to decline.”
A considered no actually protects you and those who depend on you. It enables an even stronger yes – and helps you serve others, add value, and collaborate effectively.
Think in terms of helping friends, not supporting stakeholders.
Meaningful change is a long journey. For example, evaluating, implementing, and adopting a contract lifecycle management solution requires behavioral change and buy-in from various teams.
Old habits need to die as new ones take their place. But disinterested participants can resist, and derail even the most useful projects.
Nobody loves change, but people are willing to endure it for those they know and trust. We’ve written about the magic of bridge building for legal ops professionals; in particular, when they’re making life easier for their colleagues around financial reporting and sales cycle improvement activities.
Adams warns not to underestimate the value of relationship-building work. She encourages legal ops leaders to go on listening tours and meet the teams they anticipate working with.
“After every meeting, ask, ‘Is there someone else I should talk to?’ This allows you to quickly identify the colleagues you’ll most likely intersect with in the future, even if they aren’t the obvious ones on an org chart.”
Sometimes, you’re a therapist to hear their struggles. But the relational capital you earn is essential when it comes time to get help or buy-in down the road.
Conclusion
According to an Association of Corporate Counsel survey, 38% of chief legal officers agree that legal operations is related to their most strategic initiatives. From standardizing processes to managing spend and automating with technology, legal ops is integral to a well-run operations organization.
But for sustained success, legal ops leaders prioritize work with more awareness. The most productive (and happiest) performers don’t succumb to chaos or dive in on every need and ask. Instead, they leverage relationships, rank projects, and use data to manage both a useful and satisfying job experience. It's apparent when you look at their calendars: they’re deliberate with work that matters most to the business.