A Guide to Effective Law Firm Team Communication

Interview Transcript

00:00:00:00 – 00:00:06:15 Did you know that 82% of your team might feel misunderstood and undervalued?

00:00:06:15 – 00:00:15:01 Imagine the untapped potential your family law firm could unlock by truly hearing every voice on your team.

00:00:16:20 – 00:00:18:04 Um.

00:00:18:03 – 00:00:25:14 Welcome to the revenue roadmap.

My name is Tyler Dolph and I’m the CEO of our agency Rocket Clicks, 00:00:25:14 – 00:00:38:27 a full service, hyper focused digital marketing firm that exclusively works with family law firms across the country to grow their firm by attracting more clients and converting more 00:00:38:27 – 00:00:39:18 leads.

00:00:39:20 – 00:00:50:04 Today we have two amazing guests Anthony Karls, president and Co-Founder of Sterling Law, our family law firm, which we have grown to over 30 attorneys.

00:00:50:04 – 00:01:00:05 and Matt Hacker, our director of people operations, who is a thought leader in people management and leadership training within our agency, Rocket Clicks.

00:01:00:08 – 00:01:18:05 In this episode, we’ll be driving into critical leadership insights behind the five voices model.

How recognizing and valuing different communication skills in your team can drive better engagement, unlock hidden potential, and improve your firm’s culture and productivity.

00:01:18:05 – 00:01:25:03 All right, here we go. Welcome. Welcome, everybody.

This is revenue roadmap where we talk about driving revenue and increasing profits in local businesses.

00:01:25:03 – 00:01:35:26 So today I am with Mr. Matt Hacker. I’m Anthony Karls, president here at rocket clicks.

Matt thanks for being here with us today. We’re gonna talk a little bit more about leadership.

00:01:35:26 – 00:01:36:16 Absolutely.

00:01:36:16 – 00:01:38:00 started walking through all of this.

00:01:38:05 – 00:01:49:26 Today we’re going to talk, a little in a little more detail about our voices that we talked about last time in the giant program.

What does that mean? It sounds fun. I got a voice. You got a voice? 00:01:49:26 – 00:01:55:05 Maybe we.

Maybe we should sing together, actually. That would be a good bet for me in, with you.

00:01:55:05 – 00:02:22:20 Because you’re a good singer. So you can make up for my. I’ll sing.

So we’re gonna talk a little bit about that before we jump into that. Question for you, sir. Who question?

Who question for you. All right, someone had just 30 minutes a day to invest in personal development.

What would you say they should focus on? 00:02:22:20 – 00:02:26:04 30 minutes a day to invest in personal

00:02:27:01 – 00:02:40:04 Yep.

Any type of personal development via career or, you know, chips in their life or, you know, it’s you’re developing yourself as a as a human.

We’re. 00:02:40:04 – 00:03:03:10 There’s three different areas of leadership that I’d like to focus on.

And that, that type of development. For me it’s my spiritual development.

So I’ll put emphasis and I’ll put time into that every single day. It’s my, my relational development.

So that’s within my family. So, like, what can I do today to make myself a better person tomorrow for my family?

00:03:03:13 – 00:03:20:19 And then there’s my professional development that I do for work, and I listen to various different podcasts.

Obviously listen to this podcast. But there’s a slew of other leadership podcasts that are really, really good.

That I, I tend to listen to on, on the 00:03:21:16 – 00:03:24:16 What’s your. What’s your favorite?

00:03:24:16 – 00:03:25:29 I really love the Mindset Mentor.

00:03:26:28 – 00:03:28:07 Okay.

00:03:28:07 – 00:03:29:05 Rob Dial jr.

00:03:29:08 – 00:03:54:00 He there’s tons of content on there. The podcast, they’re short.

So you can get through a lot of them. Pro tip put it on 1.25 or 1.5 speed and you can listen a lot faster.

But he does a really good job of kind leadership into real life things that you might be going through.

So that’s probably the number one leadership podcast on my playlist, for sure.

00:03:54:02 – 00:04:01:26 And then, like I said, what can I do for my family today to be a better person for them tomorrow?

And then I, I, you know, get myself right spiritually 00:04:02:14 – 00:04:23:25 Awesome, I love that. Very, very good.

All right, so we’re gonna talk. We’re talk more about our giant program here.

So last time we talked, we we’re kind of going through this first workshop that we do with our team called Transforming Team Communication.

First big module here is called Discovering Your Leadership Voice. We talked about that a little bit.

00:04:23:28 – 00:04:39:02 So we’re going to dive a little bit into the five voices concept here.

Talk about the actual like what what our before we jump into before we jump into that.

Like why is let’s go back to the why. Why is this something that matters.

00:04:39:02 – 00:05:08:01 This matters for our business. And this matters for every business out there. Because of one.

One simple like fact. And I can say that everybody in your company speaks, but not everybody in your company is heard.

So everybody speaks, but not everybody is heard because you and I might be louder than somebody else at our company.

And usually the people who speak the loudest are the ones that are heard the most often.

00:05:08:03 – 00:05:13:06 But that doesn’t mean that everybody else doesn’t still speak, and doesn’t mean that what they have to say isn’t

00:05:14:01 – 00:05:23:06 So what does that mean here?

Let’s talk a little bit about that. So, like, that’s the big one. So now everyone speaks that everyone’s heard.

Okay. It sounds interesting. Why does that matter? 00:05:23:06 – 00:05:57:15 Why is why does that matter?

Because 82. So there’s studies have been shown that 82% of team members on your team typically feel misunderstood and undervalued.

82%. That’s a very large percentage of people. Okay. Put that on top of the fact that teams generally function at less than 60% of what their true potential actually is.

So not only do you have a majority of your team that feels misunderstood and undervalued, but also over half of your team isn’t actually working up to what their true 00:05:58:12 – 00:06:17:19 Yeah.

I think that’s from a, like, more recent Gallup poll in terms of engagement versus disengagement and actually being disengaged.

So, like, those are so like that’s a that’s a lot of expense to be carrying on a week to month, a month for a small business.

When you got some people that aren’t actively engaged and they’re not.

00:06:17:19 – 00:06:38:20 and what I would say is like, imagine having perfect numbers for these is never going to be a thing, right?

But just imagine what if those numbers were cut in half?

What if only 41% of your team, of your team was was, misunderstood and undervalued and then 30% wasn’t living up to their true potential?

That would be a game changer for business 00:06:39:16 – 00:06:44:17 Yeah. That’s still not even excellent. Yeah.

00:06:44:17 – 00:06:44:29 a

00:06:44:29 – 00:06:59:26 So how do we how do we wrap our heads around this?

Because I think this is this is an important topic. This.

When I first got introduced to this, I thought it was just very fascinating.

I’m like, okay, well that that’s some that’s some tough information. What do I do with that?

00:06:59:27 – 00:07:25:04 How do I change? And so voice is concept like as I got into it and understood, it really helped me grasp what it meant and help me really understand how people come to the table, with different perspectives that are very, very important to them in mind and how I bring things to the table that are very different from my perspective in terms of how I experience the world that are different from theirs and hence opportunity for conflict.

00:07:25:07 – 00:07:29:04 So let’s talk about this. What are the five voices? What does that mean?

00:07:29:04 – 00:07:42:09 five voices. Okay. I’m going to go through these.

So I was talking earlier about the loudness of a voice, right? Like when when certain people speak.

Everybody hears it. And when some people speak, nobody hears it 00:07:42:09 – 00:07:46:20 Because they’re a little more shy.

They might not be as outgoing with people, and that’s just part of their voice.

00:07:46:20 – 00:07:47:12 And that’s okay. That’s

00:07:48:08 – 00:07:50:02 Yeah. Let’s remember.

00:07:50:02 – 00:08:04:06 important.

So from from the the quietest voices to the loudest voices, I’m going to go in order. There’s five. Okay.

So your quietest voice is your nurturer. Okay. Nurturer. And we’re going to do a we’re going to do a whole series about each one of these.

00:08:04:07 – 00:08:33:16 Go into each one of these voices.

So excuse me, I’m not going to go into each one of them in high detail today, but nurture is your quietest voice.

Guess what? The percentage of people is in this world that are have a nurture voice.

43% 43% of the general population is a nurturer voice.

That means 43% of the people that are speaking probably aren’t being heard, because they’re not really speaking very loudly.

00:08:33:19 – 00:09:07:07 So nurture. Number one, creative. Creative is and I should say also, the nurture voice is very like, present oriented and they’re very, like, real rational based, like they’re all about nurturing relationships and they’re very relational based.

Right. So between the five voices, you can either be, future oriented or present oriented, and you could either be more so on the, the, the side of, relational, like a relationship based voice or 00:09:08:04 – 00:09:17:28 Yeah.

And these are. These aren’t like, boxes that we’re sticking in a box. And like this. You are.

But these are important. Yeah. These are more opportunities. Naturally. Yeah. 00:09:17:28 – 00:09:29:25 all speaks to our tendencies.

So we have a tendency to be more present oriented.

If you’re in nurture you have a tendency to be more relationally focused. If you are a nurture.

So that’s what I’m speaking to. 00:09:29:27 – 00:09:55:27 So first nurture second is creative.

Now creative is a little bit different. Because you could actually be a creative is a future oriented voice. Okay.

Generally people who are creative think in the future, but depending on what you’re your second voices, you could either be you could either be a a relational based creative or you could be a logic based creative.

00:09:55:27 – 00:10:07:04 So there’s some intricacies depending on what your second voice is.

That kind of talk about where you typically go from that standpoint. 9% of the general population 00:10:08:00 – 00:10:38:03 Yeah.

There’s a certain, something interesting between the nurture and the creatives. Because they’re both, from a volume perspective. Low.

But for different reasons. Nurturers will likely say less because they’re trying to maintain relational harmony. Creatives won’t speak less.

They won’t be understood more because they’re. They’re a more creative oriented voice. And typically they’re misunderstood.

It’s not that they won’t say something. 00:10:38:04 – 00:11:00:23 It’s when they speak.

No one gets it and that’s that. It’s extraordinarily frustrating. And then they pull back. Why?

Why doesn’t anybody understand what I’m saying. So it’s a it’s a different how it sounds is different in terms of literal volume.

But in terms of influential volume it’s, it’s low on the spectrum because when they speak they’re not understood.

00:11:00:23 – 00:11:07:11 Versus nurturers will likely speak less because they don’t want to disrupt the relational harmony in a group.

00:11:07:11 – 00:11:12:00 That. Yeah. That’s a great point. That’s a great point there.

There are quieter voices, but 00:11:12:27 – 00:11:18:10 Yeah. Cool. So creative. Then we had what do we got next?

00:11:18:10 – 00:11:37:25 Then middle of the pack. Third coming up is the Guardian.

So Guardian is a very present oriented voice that is all about logic.

They are the question asked of the group. So if you have somebody that asks you a question about a question, about a question that follows it up with a sub question, good chance they might be a guardian.

00:11:37:27 – 00:12:04:11 Guardians make up 30% of the general population. So that’s our third one. Fourth one is connector.

That’s what I am. I am a connector. I, I make up, and people like me make up 11% of the population.

And we are future oriented thinkers that are also relational based. So we are all about the people.

I think I talked I brought this up the last time.

00:12:04:11 – 00:12:25:02 Connectors are kind of like, hey, if you need something done, find a connector because they know somebody that knows somebody that’s going to be able to help you out.

We’re all about relational harmony and kind of in and working within teams and communicating and guiding people do that.

And then last but certainly not least, the loudest voice of the five is the pioneer.

00:12:25:05 – 00:12:46:25 The pioneer makes up 7% of the population.

So they are the lowest percentage of all of the population is that is that voice is the pioneer.

They are very future oriented thinkers and they are solely based on logic and reasoning when it comes to why they think the way they think, why they act, the way they act.

It’s because they’re all about 00:12:47:20 – 00:13:15:10 Yeah. So what’s what? You know. Think a lot.

A lot of concepts here. But when you when you have an issue in an organization and you bring people together, when you have, if you put all five of these voices around the table, which would be the ideal situation.

Because you probably gonna to come and it’s ideal if everybody actually is going to have the opportunity to be heard, because you’re likely to come out with a really good solution.

00:13:15:12 – 00:13:40:18 Once you’re aware of this, if you’re not likely will happen.

Is the pioneer and immature pioneer will run over the group because they’re the very they’re loudest and they’re going to be very future oriented.

They’re very logic. They’re great thinkers. They are going to discount most of the relational aspects of their decision.

They’re going to care a lot less about the details of how we get there.

00:13:40:20 – 00:13:56:24 You know, to a lot of pioneers, I know for myself.

As a creative pioneer, it’s like, oh, it’s like a three step process. Step one, step two, step three.

And then I talk with, you know, JP, our resident guardian, on our leadership team.

And he’s like, what this what about this. What about this. What about this? What about this?

00:13:56:24 – 00:14:29:11 What about this? And I’m like, oh, there’s actually 30 steps here.

There’s there’s a lot more that I didn’t consider. And you know, it’s more about typically the what is correct, but the how is wrong.

So you need a lot of these other voices to fill in the gaps, because when you do go to just move forward, you’re going to run into, you’re run into problems because you didn’t consider all of the other things that need to be considered or answer questions that what is questions nurtures are going to have is what’s going to happen with X, Y, and z person.

00:14:29:11 – 00:14:44:12 When we do this change, how is that going to impact them?

Are we are we considering that all of those things and they’re they’re important because if you if 43% of your team doesn’t feel like you’re on board for them and you’re for them, you’re likely going to have a really hard time with change management.

00:14:44:12 – 00:15:06:20 And one of the things, too, that I was that, you know, you had said, like, putting everybody together in a room.

One of the things I think about that I. That I’ve learned through this, that that you learn going through giant is, you know, understanding what a person’s voice is can really shine light on, on potentially like some of the reasons or the ways or the whys, I should say, on how they show up in a meeting.

00:15:06:22 – 00:15:32:03 So you might have Bill, who’s in your meeting and he like, never speaks up or he never he never talks.

Well Bill might be a nurture and bye bye bye default like nurturers.

They they’re never the first ones that are like I’ll go first, right? Because you know why?

Because all the connectors in the room, they’re they’re the ones that typically are the ones that’s like, yeah, I’ve slept with my opinion.

00:15:32:03 – 00:15:48:25 Let’s go. Let’s do this. So throughout this process, like me as a connector, I have to really sit back in a meeting and I’ve had to learn how to, like, let other people go first.

And if I know that I’m in a meeting with a nurturer and I’m leading that meeting and I’m asking for feedback, I’m going to go to that nurture and I’m going to make them speak first.

00:15:48:25 – 00:16:14:28 So so that they know that their voices heard.

And we make sure that we don’t leave that meeting without that person’s voice being heard for whatever it is that we’re talking about.

So that’s one of the things that understanding what the five voices is, that’s that’s one of the big ways that it’s really helped to open my eyes when I’m in a meeting with people to help understand why people are the way they are, which only helps our team work better, which we all know what the downhill 00:16:15:24 – 00:16:37:24 Yeah.

I mean, when you’re. When you’re from a change management perspective in a business.

And small businesses have to change pivot all the time.

Bringing a if you’re a, if you’re a pioneer or you’re more of a future oriented voice bringing in the Guardian to ask all of the questions you didn’t ask because you didn’t ask them all, like, you might have a great idea, but you got you got a bolt with some holes on the bottom of it.

00:16:38:01 – 00:16:54:14 It might be driving fast enough where it won’t sink, but it doesn’t mean there’s not going to be water in it.

And then the nurture is going to care about how the people are going to get, because you got a plan with a lot of holes bringing those two people in, to figure out how we implement this and think through the all the right questions and right considerations.

00:16:54:16 – 00:17:17:24 It’s amazing how that changes the implementation of a change in a business, because you’re actually checking all the boxes.

And, you know, I took me after getting introduced to this concept three years to really get that in my head and like make that part of how I think about process change process because it’s extraordinarily difficult, because I want to, I want to I see the future.

00:17:17:24 – 00:17:40:29 I want to move towards it. I want to move fast.

But if I move fast and the team isn’t behind me, I essentially am by myself out into the future.

And like, everybody’s like tracking behind me, wondering like, where is she going? I can’t keep up. Like, what’s happening.

So that’s not helpful. The business doesn’t grow. It doesn’t get better, the culture deteriorates.

00:17:41:05 – 00:17:42:18 It’s a lot of implications. So.

00:17:43:09 – 00:17:45:07 Absolutely. Absolutely.

Could have said it better 00:17:46:01 – 00:18:02:09 Awesome. Well, great.

So next time we get together, we’re going to dive more deeply into each of.

We’re going to start diving into each of the five voices. We’re going to start with nurture.

We’ll go to creative cover all five. And then we’ll continue our journey. So appreciate Matt. Thank you for coming.

00:18:02:09 – 00:18:03:17 sir. Have a good one.

00:18:03:17 – 00:18:15:22 Thank you so much for joining us on the revenue roadmap.

We hope you gained valuable insights on how understanding your team’s unique voices can transform communication and performance in your family law firm.

00:18:15:24 – 00:18:22:02 Don’t forget to check out other videos in this series to make sure your firm continues to thrive.