Hiring People Problem
You know that feeling when you finally hire...
and somehow your week gets heavier, not lighter?
Your calendar is fuller.
Your inbox is louder.
Your brain is fried by 4pm.
On paper, it looks like progress.
In your body, it feels like you've upgraded to a more expensive cage.
Here's what I see in a lot of small firms:
You do the "right" thing.
You hire a solicitor. Maybe an associate.
Everyone congratulates you. "You're really growing now."
But day to day, it looks like this:
- Every tricky email still gets forwarded to you "for a quick sense check"
- You're still the name on the line the client trusts, so everything serious boomerangs back
- Your team waits because "we just need your view before we move"
- You're reviewing work at 6pm that you paid someone else to do at 11am
So yes, technically you've delegated.
But practically, you've just added more tabs in your brain.
This is the trap.
Most advice stops at "hire and delegate," as if a law firm is a factory line.
But in a boutique practice, you're not selling widgets.
You're selling your judgment, under your name, inside a rigid legal framework.
Hiring doesn't change that by default.
It just changes the number of people looking to you for decisions.
What does change it is when you hire into a structure, not just into your stress.
That looks more like:
- Clear lanes: who actually leads a matter, who drafts, who chases, who talks to the client
- Senior lawyers who truly shield you, instead of being "you with training wheels"
- Processes that move a file from enquiry to paid invoice without you having to push every domino by hand
Here's the punchline:
You don't need more bodies.
You need a business that knows what to do with the ones you already have.
If you're quietly wondering whether you have a "people problem" or a "structure problem," Hit reply with "structure" and tell me how many on your team and what areas you run.
I'll send back 1-2 specific leverage points I'd focus on first for a firm like yours.
More next Tuesday
Gordon