December 14, 2024 • 28 mins
Unlock the secret to revolutionizing your elder law practice's goal-setting strategy with Todd Whatley as your guide. Traditional methods often leave us short of our targets, but what if your objectives were not only clear but quantifiable as well? Through the power of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), Todd shares insights on how you can set short-term, qualitative objectives and pair them with measurable key results. Discover how to elevate client satisfaction and improve response times, all within a framework that promises transparency and encourages collaboration without resorting to financial incentives.
Join the conversation as Todd walks you through practical steps to implement OKRs in your practice effectively. Learn how to set ambitious but achievable goals, align your team’s efforts seamlessly, and continuously track progress to ensure success. From expanding your client base to enhancing operational efficiency, this episode offers a roadmap for innovation and growth. Plus, Todd welcomes your questions and feedback, emphasizing community and ongoing professional development. With resources readily available and a focus on achieving specific goals, your journey towards mastering OKRs begins here.
Check out our new website www.TheElderLawCoach.com.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Thank you.
Specialized experience, Whetheryou're an established attorney
looking to refine your expertiseor an emerging lawyer seeking a
successful foray into elder law, this is your masterclass.
Now let's get started with theluminary in the field.
Here's Todd Whatley.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
That's right.
This is the Elder Law CoachPodcast.
My name is Todd Whatley and I'mso glad that you are here with
me and I'm super glad that thepodcast seems to be taking off a
little bit and I just need tobe more consistent in doing it.
And it's just, it's been acrazy last half of 2024.
And today's podcast I want totalk about something that you
(01:01):
know seems like the first firstof the year.
We always talk about goals and Ieven did a seminar last year on
goals and, to be honest, it'sjust never worked well.
I mean to come up with the goaland then to set it.
It's just.
It just never works for me.
And if you've been able to setgoals and have your goals
(01:22):
written and follow those, godbless you.
You do better at it than I do,because I've tried and I thought
surely if I do a seminar ongoals, I'm going to follow this.
To be honest, I didn't.
So I've come across somethingthat is, I think, substantially
different.
I was going to say slightlydifferent, but I think it's so
(01:44):
much different that I amthinking this is going to work
and I have done this for myoffice and everyone, I think,
jumped into it and was like, hey, this makes total sense and
it's short term, okay.
And so I think we all do betterif we look at things in a
short-term status.
And so what I'm going to talkabout is this it's not new, it's
(02:09):
new to me, but this is howGoogle went from, you know,
basically a small company towhat they are today, and they
still use these today.
And so, if you think about howdoes a company as big as Google,
as many different things asGoogle does, as huge as they are
, how do you get a company-wideidea or focus, or to say, hey
(02:37):
guys, for this next quarter,this is our focus.
And how do you do that?
And it is pretty interestinghow we do that and I did this in
my office to say, hey, here isour focus for the first quarter
of 2025.
And then how to carry that out,and also how each employee can
(03:05):
actually set their own goalsfollowing that big overarching
goal and how they can contribute.
And I thought this is reallyinteresting.
And so if you've done anyresearch on this, you probably
know what I'm talking about, butif not, I encourage you to go
do some research, and I willlist two books that I've read in
(03:26):
the show notes that I think doa pretty good job of explaining
this and showing how companiesuse it.
What I am talking about iswhat's commonly known as OKRs,
objectives and Key Results, andI think the concept is out there
with a lot of companies.
(03:46):
They may not call it exactlythis OKRs, but sometimes I've
seen some companies call itmanagement by objective, mbo,
management by objectives.
And same concept is you come upwith an overarching objective,
(04:07):
and the best thing to do that, Ithink and that's what these
books recommend and this is whatI'm doing is I'm doing a one
quarter objective.
So for the first quarter of2025, my objective for my office
is to increase awarenessthroughout the community of our
practice.
Okay, that is the overarchingobjective.
(04:30):
The objective, the definition,basically, is these are specific
qualitative goals that provideclear direction.
For example, an objective mightbe to enhance client
satisfaction in elder lawservices.
Ok, well, that's kind of vague,but it's an idea.
It's like this is our focus.
(04:52):
Ok, that is the objective ishere's what I want to see happen
by the end of this quarter isenhanced or increased client
satisfaction in our services.
It's then the key results arethings that you want to list
results.
If we got this result, I wouldknow that the objective had been
(05:16):
obtained.
Okay, so key results are theseare quantifiable outcomes that
measure the achievement of theobjective.
Okay, objectives arequalitative.
Here's a quality I want to see.
The difference is, key resultsare quantifiable, and I think
that's where general goals fallby the wayside is we don't make
(05:42):
them quantifiable and we may say, hey, over a year or whatever,
and I know that you can doshort-term goes and long-term
goes, but just stick with mehere.
Okay, so for the objective tohave a key result, for the
objective that I just mentioned,just mentioned, the key result
(06:02):
could include achieve a 95%client satisfaction rate.
Okay, numbers, you want thereto be numbers in your key
results.
So, specifically, a 95% clientsatisfaction rate.
And you do that by measuring it.
You call clients and say, hey,just curious, were you happy
(06:22):
with your service?
Yes or no?
And our goal is to have a 95%.
And at the end of the quarter,by the end of March, you can do
that survey.
And if it's 92%, it's like wedidn't meet that result.
Okay, that key result if we hit95 or 96 or 97, it's like
(06:43):
congratulations, we did it.
Okay, if we hit 95 or 96 or 97,congratulations, we did it,
okay.
And the other thing, you know,another key result to increase
client satisfaction is reduceclient complaint response time
to 24 hours.
We can know, hey, document,this person complained about
this at this time on this dayand the response to that was
(07:04):
again, it's things you canmeasure.
And the key thing with this Imean key is in the word.
Key result is, if we got thisresult, we would know that this
objective was met and theoverall company creates this
objective and then each persontakes that objective, or they
(07:27):
could take.
One of the key results is toachieve a 95% client
satisfaction rate.
That means, if you don't have away to ask clients about that,
which we don't, we've never donethat in our office and I've
always been kind of scared of it, to be honest, but in order to
(07:48):
go and find that out.
So one of the key results oryour objective is to create a
client satisfaction process.
Okay, so that could be oneemployee's objective, and then
their key results would be havethe system in place two weeks,
in two weeks, and then have aone-month goal of having
(08:14):
contacted 75 people.
Okay.
So, numbers, numbers, numbers.
You have to have numbers andthat just trickles down
throughout the company so thateach person has a piece in this.
They have their objective andthey have their key results.
And so in a quarter they cansit down because everything was
(08:35):
measurable.
They can sit down and say Ieither met this key result or I
didn't.
Okay, all right, does that makesense?
Objectives, overarching thing,key results Now, what are the
benefits of this?
Okay, what I found veryinteresting is it allows people
(08:55):
to have enhanced focus andalignment.
So I got all of my teamtogether beginning of December
and introduced them to thisconcept and said, hey, for the
first quarter, our focus is notmaking money, it's not creating
new trust, it's not education.
For us, it is to increase ourawareness in the community, and
(09:21):
a good awareness to do thingsthat increase our visibility so
that people know whatGenerations Legal Group is.
And so, by having enhancedfocus, by saying from me, the
top of this firm, to say here isthe objective.
And so if you're sitting downto say, should I do this webinar
(09:44):
that will increase my knowledgeon this, or should I call this
client and explain how a trustworks and why we recommended
this, something different thananother attorney did?
This OKR tells them which ofthose two things to do.
Don't do the webinar, becausethat's not our objective for
this quarter.
Our objective is to increaseclient satisfaction and
(10:07):
awareness, and so youautomatically have my permission
to not do the webinar and dothe phone call with the client.
Okay, does that make sense?
So my list here says OKRsensure that all team members are
working towards common goals,aligning daily activities with
the firm's strategic vision.
(10:28):
So it's like for this month ourfocus is not on making money,
it's on awareness, increasingsatisfaction, making sure and
one of our key results for thefirst quarter is to increase our
Google reviews, our hopefullyfive stars.
Our goal is to generate, Ithink, 45 or 50 five-star
(10:54):
reviews.
Okay, well, you don't do thatby doing a webinar.
You don't do that by focusingon the intricacies of trust.
You do it by calling a client,making sure that they are happy
and that we encourage them to doa Google review and give us
(11:14):
five stars, okay.
So it's enhanced focus.
Number two is improvedaccountability.
So one of the things that thiswill do is by setting clear,
measurable targets.
Team members understand theirresponsibilities and can be held
accountable for the outcomes.
So we've scheduled almostweekly meetings to say, hey, how
(11:38):
are we on this key result?
Where are we, where are you onyours?
And each team member did theirown OKR for their portion of
this practice the marketing, theMedicaid person, the attorney
who drafts trust, the nursinghome liaison, her number of
(11:59):
visits with nursing homes.
You know all of those numbers.
So at the end of this quarter,well, we meet every week to say,
hey, are you getting there?
Are you at 10% or 20% orwhatever?
You know?
How's it looking to be at theend of this quarter?
Are you going to meet your keyresult?
How's it looking to be at theend of this quarter?
(12:20):
Are you going to meet your keyresult?
And toward the end of thisquarter is a great opportunity.
We're going to do this and sitdown and say did we meet our key
results?
Now, here's something that maysurprise you.
You should not meet all of yourkey results.
Now, wait, todd, why?
Why would you say that?
Why would you say you shouldnot meet the key results?
Now, wait, todd, why?
Why would you say that?
Why would you say you shouldnot meet the key results?
Okay, so, number one these OKRsare not associated with money to
(12:47):
the employee.
This is not tied to bonuses.
This is not tied to jobperformance.
This is something.
It's just a personal challengefor them and for the practice to
get better.
You should set your key resultsto be a stretch.
Okay, that 95% clientsatisfaction, that's a big
(13:10):
number.
Okay, if we're currently at 75or 80, 95 seems like whoa, that
is way out there.
But if you tie this to aperson's bonus or to their
salary increase, they're goingto set their numbers.
They're like, hey, we're at 75.
I bet we might, could do 80.
But I want to set it at 80because I want to meet it.
(13:33):
And ta-da, I'm at 80.
So I get my bonus, I get my payraise.
No, that's not what.
We don't want 80% satisfaction,we want 95%.
And so I tell you know, when mynursing home liaison said okay,
I think we can probably youknow I'm kind of making this up,
I don't remember exactly, butshe said, okay, I'm pretty sure
(13:56):
I can see 10 per month.
I'm like okay, so your keyresult is 20.
She said, wait a second, that'sa bunch.
Okay, the OKR books andresearch and different things
have said ideally you should hitabout 80% of your key result.
If you increase it from one totwo, that's 100% increase.
(14:20):
And if you get 80% of that,that's way better than an easy
goal and it's okay.
You sit down at the end of thequarter and say, okay, I did not
meet my key result, that's okay.
Why did you not?
Did you set it way too high?
Was that a very aggressive goaland there was just no way you
(14:42):
could do that?
Or what happened?
Why did you not meet your goal?
And it's not a reprimand, it'sa problem-solving event.
That's why you don't tie thisto bonuses or pay raises.
It's truly a personal businesspush to do better.
(15:05):
All right, and I think that iskey that you said it at the
beginning of the quarter, butdon't forget to come back at the
end and say, hey, if everyonehit their key results, it's like
come on, people, this is notgood.
Okay, you did not stretchyourself enough.
What could you have done hadyou been thinking that your goal
was 50% higher or 30% higher?
(15:26):
Could you have gotten a littlebit more?
Once you hit your key result,you may think, okay, I did it,
yay, I'm done until the nextquarter when we do this again.
No, you want it to be aconstant stretch.
You want it to push you to dobetter, okay.
It also increases transparency,okay, meaning that you share
(15:49):
everyone's OKRs with everyoneelse, and this is how Google
does so well is they know thecompany objective for this
quarter is this and everybodyshould be working to that, and a
lot of times, departments maywork together and, since this is
(16:10):
not tied to bonuses or payraises, it encourages people to
work together and they'retransparent, to say, hey, I'm
having trouble with this.
And just imagine in a companythat if the salespeople are out
there saying, hey, we'repromising people this, the
(16:31):
engineers are like you can't dothat, we can't make that.
Or the salespeople are like,hey, people are asking for this
feature, can we do that?
And engineering knows, hey,maybe that falls within the
company's objective and so, yeah, we can do this.
It's transparency.
You can see what each other'sdoing and if someone's having
(16:54):
trouble with it, maybe you canhelp them.
Hey, let me adjust this.
That will help you meet yourkey result.
And it just opens up everyoneto work together and be on the
same team rather than competing,because you don't connect it to
bonuses or pay raises.
(17:15):
And, as I've mentioned, it'sencouragement for ambitious go
settings.
Ok, this is OK.
Okrs promote, settingchallenging objective, driving
innovation and growth within thepractice.
Ok, that's the purpose of that,is the key results having a
number, you set the number andyou say we're going toward this
number and that's a stretch.
(17:37):
That's a huge stretch, butstretching is good.
Okay, it pushes you to dobetter and go above and beyond.
All right.
So how do you implement OKRs inyour elder law practice?
So, number one define clearobjectives.
You as the boss, or get yourboss on board with this to say,
(17:58):
hey, I want to know what is ourfocus for this quarter?
Ok, and I want to say I don'tknow where this will fit
elsewhere.
But you know, like I said, forreal, we set the first quarter
of 2025 as increasing awareness.
Awareness and I've had peoplealready say, hey, I could have
done this to help make moremoney, but this came up and it
(18:26):
meets the objective.
I'm like don't worry about themoney, we're fine for this
quarter.
Do what increases that?
And so, once we spend a wholequarter on increasing awareness,
they don't just forget that.
That's always going to be inthere and they're going to
continue to do it.
And I will tell you the secondquarter of 2025 is going to be
we need to make some money okay,we kind of put that on the back
(18:46):
shelf for the first quarter toincrease awareness, increase
client satisfaction, you know,to increase our visibility in
the community, and we sacrificesome money to do that.
The second quarter is going tobe okay.
We need to increase our goalfor trust and powers of attorney
(19:07):
and deeds and Medicaid, and sothat's where we then take the
previous quarter's knowledge,not forgetting that, but still
use that, but still, hopefullythat converts into more trust
and more Medicaid cases, okay.
So define clear objectives,identify specific areas of
(19:30):
improvement or growth, such asclient satisfaction, operational
efficiency or communityoutreach.
Okay, think about it.
Where are you lacking?
What do you need to improve?
Number two establish measurablekey results.
I've said this so many times,but this is the key to it
Determine quantifiableindicators of success for each
(19:54):
objective.
So, for instance, to improvecommunity outreach, key results
might include host four elderlaw seminars annually or in that
quarter, or increase socialmedia engagement by 30%.
Okay, so now you're going tospend time scheduling events to
(20:14):
talk rather than seeing clientsin the office.
Your focus is very set acrossthe practice of doing what you
came up with, okay.
And number three align teamefforts.
You as the owner of thispractice, you as the person, and
I think this is just good foryou If you're the only employee
(20:35):
of your practice.
Number one we need to talkbecause you should only be doing
what you can do, but Iunderstand this is good for you
individually, as a practice andindividually.
It helps you make your to-dolist for the day and prioritize
things to do or not to do, andit's like my focus is this.
(20:56):
So I'm going to do whatincreases that focus, not
something else.
Okay, you'll get to somethingelse eventually, but it and
particularly if you have a team,it's comforting to know
everyone in this quarter.
This is our focus.
This is aligning our goals, allright.
Number four regularly reviewand adjust.
(21:17):
That's the key to this is youhave to meet at the end of the
quarter to see how the quarterwent.
Look at your key results.
They are measurable.
How did you measure up?
And, surprisingly, you don'twant to get 100% of all the key
results, okay.
So let me just throw out a fewpotential OKRs If you're like I
(21:39):
don't know what to do.
You've mentioned a few.
So one objective expand clientbase, okay, increase the number
of clients.
So a key result is increaseclient inquiries by 25% over the
next quarter.
Percent over the next quarter.
(22:00):
Keep track of how many phonecalls come in over the past and
then increase that by 25 percent.
And if you've not measured thatthen that's kind of hard to see
an increase.
But take the first month andsee what you got and then see
how that hopefully increases thenext two months.
All right.
Another key result for theobjective of expanding client
base is convert 50% of inquiriesinto retained clients.
(22:24):
Okay, I think that's pretty low, but hey, it's a start.
Okay, I would probably say 75%,because you should be.
I mean, if someone's going topick up the phone and call you,
knowing that you're an elder lawfirm, they probably have a need
that you can meet.
Not everyone's going to hireyou.
(22:44):
They don't afford it, theydon't need you.
It's the wrong practice area,but I think 75% to 80% is a
pretty good number.
Sorry about that.
Another objective is enhanceoperational efficiency.
Okay, wow, that's a bigoverarching thing, but a key
(23:05):
result is implement a new casemanagement system within two
months or by the end of thequarter.
Okay, so you know.
Okay, should I spend time doingthis webinar learning about
some special trust or do I watchwebinars on case management?
You know, ok, my focus for thisquarter is case management.
That helps you know which ofthose two things you should do.
(23:28):
Focus on case management, ok.
Another key result of that isreduce average case processing
time by 15%.
Keep track of how long it takesyou to go from initial meeting
with a trust to finish trust intheir hands, funded out the door
, done.
(23:48):
Okay, keep track of that anddecrease that time by 15%.
That's a very easy thing tomeasure.
And no, I met that or I did not.
Okay.
Another objective is to improveprofessional development.
Okay, this quarter we're goingto focus on training.
(24:11):
So now, if it's call thisclient or do this case
management stuff, no, that isnot my focus.
I'm going to watch this webinaron this new trust, how to
implement this trust or how toincorporate elder law into my
practice by calling Todd at theElder Law Coach.
So a key result is provide 10hours of elder law training per
(24:36):
attorney each quarter.
Ok, so each attorney, that'sthat's a lot of hours.
Ok, we only need typically 12for the year.
But if your goal, if yourobjective, is to improve
professional development, weknow this is the focus.
So you know some other taskversus development training.
(24:57):
You know that you need to dotraining.
Another key result is achieve100% participation rate in
professional developmentprograms.
Everybody shows up.
Okay, if you're going to missfor something that doesn't meet
this objective, don't do that.
Do this all right.
Don't do that, do this Allright.
(25:17):
So integrating OKRs into yourpractice can systematically
pursue excellence, ensuring thattheir services effectively meet
the needs of the agingpopulation while fostering a
proactive and cohesive teamenvironment.
That's just kind of a summarythat was written out for me, but
(25:38):
it's true.
So I am implementing these andI'm excited about it, and my
team seems excited because theyknow what I'm thinking.
Rather than just being ascattered mess of, hey, let's
keep the law office running forthe next quarter, no, let's
focus on something.
Let's know that we're allcoming together, that this is
our focus for these three months.
(25:59):
I think that's long enough toreally get into it and really
ingrain it, but short enoughthat, okay, we can stay on this
topic for three months.
Okay, if you're a little, youknow ADHD and you tend to
scatter everywhere, this keepsyou focused.
Okay, I hope this helps.
I hope this will help you inthe new year, or start anytime.
(26:22):
You don't have to start at thenew year.
We just seem to start the newyear with new goals and things,
and so I advise you to look intoOKRs.
I will list the two books that Iread on that and I encourage
you to do that and see if ithelps and if so, please let me
know.
And, as always, if you areinterested in elder law and want
(26:46):
me to help you go from zero toa pretty good elder law attorney
within a year, I would love towork with you.
Give us a call.
You can always email Tricia atthe elderlawcoachcom.
You can email me, but pleaseadd Tricia on there with me
because she helps me catch thoseand make sure that I don't miss
(27:08):
them because I am pretty busy.
But I would love to hear fromyou on questions or comments or
podcast topics.
I would love to hear what youwant to know.
So please email me, todd, atthe elderlawcoachcom, but also
include Tricia and she will makesure that I see it All right.
Thank y'all very much and Iwill see you next time.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Thank you for joining this episode of the Elder Law
Coach Podcast.
For those eager to take theirelder law practice to new
heights and are interested inTodd's acclaimed coaching
program, visitwwwtheelderlawcoachcom.
With Todd Watley by your side,the journey to becoming an elder
law authority has never beenmore achievable.
(27:49):
Until next time, keep learning,keep growing and stay
passionate about elder law.
Thank you.
Specialized experience, Whetheryou're an established attorney
looking to refine your expertiseor an emerging lawyer seeking a
successful foray into elder law, this is your masterclass.
Now let's get started with theluminary in the field.
Here's Todd Whatley.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
That's right.
This is the Elder Law CoachPodcast.
My name is Todd Whatley and I'mso glad that you are here with
me and I'm super glad that thepodcast seems to be taking off a
little bit and I just need tobe more consistent in doing it.
And it's just, it's been acrazy last half of 2024.
And today's podcast I want totalk about something that you
(01:01):
know seems like the first firstof the year.
We always talk about goals and Ieven did a seminar last year on
goals and, to be honest, it'sjust never worked well.
I mean to come up with the goaland then to set it.
It's just.
It just never works for me.
And if you've been able to setgoals and have your goals
(01:22):
written and follow those, godbless you.
You do better at it than I do,because I've tried and I thought
surely if I do a seminar ongoals, I'm going to follow this.
To be honest, I didn't.
So I've come across somethingthat is, I think, substantially
different.
I was going to say slightlydifferent, but I think it's so
(01:44):
much different that I amthinking this is going to work
and I have done this for myoffice and everyone, I think,
jumped into it and was like, hey, this makes total sense and
it's short term, okay.
And so I think we all do betterif we look at things in a
short-term status.
And so what I'm going to talkabout is this it's not new, it's
(02:09):
new to me, but this is howGoogle went from, you know,
basically a small company towhat they are today, and they
still use these today.
And so, if you think about howdoes a company as big as Google,
as many different things asGoogle does, as huge as they are
, how do you get a company-wideidea or focus, or to say, hey
(02:37):
guys, for this next quarter,this is our focus.
And how do you do that?
And it is pretty interestinghow we do that and I did this in
my office to say, hey, here isour focus for the first quarter
of 2025.
And then how to carry that out,and also how each employee can
(03:05):
actually set their own goalsfollowing that big overarching
goal and how they can contribute.
And I thought this is reallyinteresting.
And so if you've done anyresearch on this, you probably
know what I'm talking about, butif not, I encourage you to go
do some research, and I willlist two books that I've read in
(03:26):
the show notes that I think doa pretty good job of explaining
this and showing how companiesuse it.
What I am talking about iswhat's commonly known as OKRs,
objectives and Key Results, andI think the concept is out there
with a lot of companies.
(03:46):
They may not call it exactlythis OKRs, but sometimes I've
seen some companies call itmanagement by objective, mbo,
management by objectives.
And same concept is you come upwith an overarching objective,
(04:07):
and the best thing to do that, Ithink and that's what these
books recommend and this is whatI'm doing is I'm doing a one
quarter objective.
So for the first quarter of2025, my objective for my office
is to increase awarenessthroughout the community of our
practice.
Okay, that is the overarchingobjective.
(04:30):
The objective, the definition,basically, is these are specific
qualitative goals that provideclear direction.
For example, an objective mightbe to enhance client
satisfaction in elder lawservices.
Ok, well, that's kind of vague,but it's an idea.
It's like this is our focus.
(04:52):
Ok, that is the objective ishere's what I want to see happen
by the end of this quarter isenhanced or increased client
satisfaction in our services.
It's then the key results arethings that you want to list
results.
If we got this result, I wouldknow that the objective had been
(05:16):
obtained.
Okay, so key results are theseare quantifiable outcomes that
measure the achievement of theobjective.
Okay, objectives arequalitative.
Here's a quality I want to see.
The difference is, key resultsare quantifiable, and I think
that's where general goals fallby the wayside is we don't make
(05:42):
them quantifiable and we may say, hey, over a year or whatever,
and I know that you can doshort-term goes and long-term
goes, but just stick with mehere.
Okay, so for the objective tohave a key result, for the
objective that I just mentioned,just mentioned, the key result
(06:02):
could include achieve a 95%client satisfaction rate.
Okay, numbers, you want thereto be numbers in your key
results.
So, specifically, a 95% clientsatisfaction rate.
And you do that by measuring it.
You call clients and say, hey,just curious, were you happy
(06:22):
with your service?
Yes or no?
And our goal is to have a 95%.
And at the end of the quarter,by the end of March, you can do
that survey.
And if it's 92%, it's like wedidn't meet that result.
Okay, that key result if we hit95 or 96 or 97, it's like
(06:43):
congratulations, we did it.
Okay, if we hit 95 or 96 or 97,congratulations, we did it,
okay.
And the other thing, you know,another key result to increase
client satisfaction is reduceclient complaint response time
to 24 hours.
We can know, hey, document,this person complained about
this at this time on this dayand the response to that was
(07:04):
again, it's things you canmeasure.
And the key thing with this Imean key is in the word.
Key result is, if we got thisresult, we would know that this
objective was met and theoverall company creates this
objective and then each persontakes that objective, or they
(07:27):
could take.
One of the key results is toachieve a 95% client
satisfaction rate.
That means, if you don't have away to ask clients about that,
which we don't, we've never donethat in our office and I've
always been kind of scared of it, to be honest, but in order to
(07:48):
go and find that out.
So one of the key results oryour objective is to create a
client satisfaction process.
Okay, so that could be oneemployee's objective, and then
their key results would be havethe system in place two weeks,
in two weeks, and then have aone-month goal of having
(08:14):
contacted 75 people.
Okay.
So, numbers, numbers, numbers.
You have to have numbers andthat just trickles down
throughout the company so thateach person has a piece in this.
They have their objective andthey have their key results.
And so in a quarter they cansit down because everything was
(08:35):
measurable.
They can sit down and say Ieither met this key result or I
didn't.
Okay, all right, does that makesense?
Objectives, overarching thing,key results Now, what are the
benefits of this?
Okay, what I found veryinteresting is it allows people
(08:55):
to have enhanced focus andalignment.
So I got all of my teamtogether beginning of December
and introduced them to thisconcept and said, hey, for the
first quarter, our focus is notmaking money, it's not creating
new trust, it's not education.
For us, it is to increase ourawareness in the community, and
(09:21):
a good awareness to do thingsthat increase our visibility so
that people know whatGenerations Legal Group is.
And so, by having enhancedfocus, by saying from me, the
top of this firm, to say here isthe objective.
And so if you're sitting downto say, should I do this webinar
(09:44):
that will increase my knowledgeon this, or should I call this
client and explain how a trustworks and why we recommended
this, something different thananother attorney did?
This OKR tells them which ofthose two things to do.
Don't do the webinar, becausethat's not our objective for
this quarter.
Our objective is to increaseclient satisfaction and
(10:07):
awareness, and so youautomatically have my permission
to not do the webinar and dothe phone call with the client.
Okay, does that make sense?
So my list here says OKRsensure that all team members are
working towards common goals,aligning daily activities with
the firm's strategic vision.
(10:28):
So it's like for this month ourfocus is not on making money,
it's on awareness, increasingsatisfaction, making sure and
one of our key results for thefirst quarter is to increase our
Google reviews, our hopefullyfive stars.
Our goal is to generate, Ithink, 45 or 50 five-star
(10:54):
reviews.
Okay, well, you don't do thatby doing a webinar.
You don't do that by focusingon the intricacies of trust.
You do it by calling a client,making sure that they are happy
and that we encourage them to doa Google review and give us
(11:14):
five stars, okay.
So it's enhanced focus.
Number two is improvedaccountability.
So one of the things that thiswill do is by setting clear,
measurable targets.
Team members understand theirresponsibilities and can be held
accountable for the outcomes.
So we've scheduled almostweekly meetings to say, hey, how
(11:38):
are we on this key result?
Where are we, where are you onyours?
And each team member did theirown OKR for their portion of
this practice the marketing, theMedicaid person, the attorney
who drafts trust, the nursinghome liaison, her number of
(11:59):
visits with nursing homes.
You know all of those numbers.
So at the end of this quarter,well, we meet every week to say,
hey, are you getting there?
Are you at 10% or 20% orwhatever?
You know?
How's it looking to be at theend of this quarter?
Are you going to meet your keyresult?
How's it looking to be at theend of this quarter?
(12:20):
Are you going to meet your keyresult?
And toward the end of thisquarter is a great opportunity.
We're going to do this and sitdown and say did we meet our key
results?
Now, here's something that maysurprise you.
You should not meet all of yourkey results.
Now, wait, todd, why?
Why would you say that?
Why would you say you shouldnot meet the key results?
Now, wait, todd, why?
Why would you say that?
Why would you say you shouldnot meet the key results?
Okay, so, number one these OKRsare not associated with money to
(12:47):
the employee.
This is not tied to bonuses.
This is not tied to jobperformance.
This is something.
It's just a personal challengefor them and for the practice to
get better.
You should set your key resultsto be a stretch.
Okay, that 95% clientsatisfaction, that's a big
(13:10):
number.
Okay, if we're currently at 75or 80, 95 seems like whoa, that
is way out there.
But if you tie this to aperson's bonus or to their
salary increase, they're goingto set their numbers.
They're like, hey, we're at 75.
I bet we might, could do 80.
But I want to set it at 80because I want to meet it.
(13:33):
And ta-da, I'm at 80.
So I get my bonus, I get my payraise.
No, that's not what.
We don't want 80% satisfaction,we want 95%.
And so I tell you know, when mynursing home liaison said okay,
I think we can probably youknow I'm kind of making this up,
I don't remember exactly, butshe said, okay, I'm pretty sure
(13:56):
I can see 10 per month.
I'm like okay, so your keyresult is 20.
She said, wait a second, that'sa bunch.
Okay, the OKR books andresearch and different things
have said ideally you should hitabout 80% of your key result.
If you increase it from one totwo, that's 100% increase.
(14:20):
And if you get 80% of that,that's way better than an easy
goal and it's okay.
You sit down at the end of thequarter and say, okay, I did not
meet my key result, that's okay.
Why did you not?
Did you set it way too high?
Was that a very aggressive goaland there was just no way you
(14:42):
could do that?
Or what happened?
Why did you not meet your goal?
And it's not a reprimand, it'sa problem-solving event.
That's why you don't tie thisto bonuses or pay raises.
It's truly a personal businesspush to do better.
(15:05):
All right, and I think that iskey that you said it at the
beginning of the quarter, butdon't forget to come back at the
end and say, hey, if everyonehit their key results, it's like
come on, people, this is notgood.
Okay, you did not stretchyourself enough.
What could you have done hadyou been thinking that your goal
was 50% higher or 30% higher?
(15:26):
Could you have gotten a littlebit more?
Once you hit your key result,you may think, okay, I did it,
yay, I'm done until the nextquarter when we do this again.
No, you want it to be aconstant stretch.
You want it to push you to dobetter, okay.
It also increases transparency,okay, meaning that you share
(15:49):
everyone's OKRs with everyoneelse, and this is how Google
does so well is they know thecompany objective for this
quarter is this and everybodyshould be working to that, and a
lot of times, departments maywork together and, since this is
(16:10):
not tied to bonuses or payraises, it encourages people to
work together and they'retransparent, to say, hey, I'm
having trouble with this.
And just imagine in a companythat if the salespeople are out
there saying, hey, we'repromising people this, the
(16:31):
engineers are like you can't dothat, we can't make that.
Or the salespeople are like,hey, people are asking for this
feature, can we do that?
And engineering knows, hey,maybe that falls within the
company's objective and so, yeah, we can do this.
It's transparency.
You can see what each other'sdoing and if someone's having
(16:54):
trouble with it, maybe you canhelp them.
Hey, let me adjust this.
That will help you meet yourkey result.
And it just opens up everyoneto work together and be on the
same team rather than competing,because you don't connect it to
bonuses or pay raises.
(17:15):
And, as I've mentioned, it'sencouragement for ambitious go
settings.
Ok, this is OK.
Okrs promote, settingchallenging objective, driving
innovation and growth within thepractice.
Ok, that's the purpose of that,is the key results having a
number, you set the number andyou say we're going toward this
number and that's a stretch.
(17:37):
That's a huge stretch, butstretching is good.
Okay, it pushes you to dobetter and go above and beyond.
All right.
So how do you implement OKRs inyour elder law practice?
So, number one define clearobjectives.
You as the boss, or get yourboss on board with this to say,
(17:58):
hey, I want to know what is ourfocus for this quarter?
Ok, and I want to say I don'tknow where this will fit
elsewhere.
But you know, like I said, forreal, we set the first quarter
of 2025 as increasing awareness.
Awareness and I've had peoplealready say, hey, I could have
done this to help make moremoney, but this came up and it
(18:26):
meets the objective.
I'm like don't worry about themoney, we're fine for this
quarter.
Do what increases that?
And so, once we spend a wholequarter on increasing awareness,
they don't just forget that.
That's always going to be inthere and they're going to
continue to do it.
And I will tell you the secondquarter of 2025 is going to be
we need to make some money okay,we kind of put that on the back
(18:46):
shelf for the first quarter toincrease awareness, increase
client satisfaction, you know,to increase our visibility in
the community, and we sacrificesome money to do that.
The second quarter is going tobe okay.
We need to increase our goalfor trust and powers of attorney
(19:07):
and deeds and Medicaid, and sothat's where we then take the
previous quarter's knowledge,not forgetting that, but still
use that, but still, hopefullythat converts into more trust
and more Medicaid cases, okay.
So define clear objectives,identify specific areas of
(19:30):
improvement or growth, such asclient satisfaction, operational
efficiency or communityoutreach.
Okay, think about it.
Where are you lacking?
What do you need to improve?
Number two establish measurablekey results.
I've said this so many times,but this is the key to it
Determine quantifiableindicators of success for each
(19:54):
objective.
So, for instance, to improvecommunity outreach, key results
might include host four elderlaw seminars annually or in that
quarter, or increase socialmedia engagement by 30%.
Okay, so now you're going tospend time scheduling events to
(20:14):
talk rather than seeing clientsin the office.
Your focus is very set acrossthe practice of doing what you
came up with, okay.
And number three align teamefforts.
You as the owner of thispractice, you as the person, and
I think this is just good foryou If you're the only employee
(20:35):
of your practice.
Number one we need to talkbecause you should only be doing
what you can do, but Iunderstand this is good for you
individually, as a practice andindividually.
It helps you make your to-dolist for the day and prioritize
things to do or not to do, andit's like my focus is this.
(20:56):
So I'm going to do whatincreases that focus, not
something else.
Okay, you'll get to somethingelse eventually, but it and
particularly if you have a team,it's comforting to know
everyone in this quarter.
This is our focus.
This is aligning our goals, allright.
Number four regularly reviewand adjust.
(21:17):
That's the key to this is youhave to meet at the end of the
quarter to see how the quarterwent.
Look at your key results.
They are measurable.
How did you measure up?
And, surprisingly, you don'twant to get 100% of all the key
results, okay.
So let me just throw out a fewpotential OKRs If you're like I
(21:39):
don't know what to do.
You've mentioned a few.
So one objective expand clientbase, okay, increase the number
of clients.
So a key result is increaseclient inquiries by 25% over the
next quarter.
Percent over the next quarter.
(22:00):
Keep track of how many phonecalls come in over the past and
then increase that by 25 percent.
And if you've not measured thatthen that's kind of hard to see
an increase.
But take the first month andsee what you got and then see
how that hopefully increases thenext two months.
All right.
Another key result for theobjective of expanding client
base is convert 50% of inquiriesinto retained clients.
(22:24):
Okay, I think that's pretty low, but hey, it's a start.
Okay, I would probably say 75%,because you should be.
I mean, if someone's going topick up the phone and call you,
knowing that you're an elder lawfirm, they probably have a need
that you can meet.
Not everyone's going to hireyou.
(22:44):
They don't afford it, theydon't need you.
It's the wrong practice area,but I think 75% to 80% is a
pretty good number.
Sorry about that.
Another objective is enhanceoperational efficiency.
Okay, wow, that's a bigoverarching thing, but a key
(23:05):
result is implement a new casemanagement system within two
months or by the end of thequarter.
Okay, so you know.
Okay, should I spend time doingthis webinar learning about
some special trust or do I watchwebinars on case management?
You know, ok, my focus for thisquarter is case management.
That helps you know which ofthose two things you should do.
(23:28):
Focus on case management, ok.
Another key result of that isreduce average case processing
time by 15%.
Keep track of how long it takesyou to go from initial meeting
with a trust to finish trust intheir hands, funded out the door
, done.
(23:48):
Okay, keep track of that anddecrease that time by 15%.
That's a very easy thing tomeasure.
And no, I met that or I did not.
Okay.
Another objective is to improveprofessional development.
Okay, this quarter we're goingto focus on training.
(24:11):
So now, if it's call thisclient or do this case
management stuff, no, that isnot my focus.
I'm going to watch this webinaron this new trust, how to
implement this trust or how toincorporate elder law into my
practice by calling Todd at theElder Law Coach.
So a key result is provide 10hours of elder law training per
(24:36):
attorney each quarter.
Ok, so each attorney, that'sthat's a lot of hours.
Ok, we only need typically 12for the year.
But if your goal, if yourobjective, is to improve
professional development, weknow this is the focus.
So you know some other taskversus development training.
(24:57):
You know that you need to dotraining.
Another key result is achieve100% participation rate in
professional developmentprograms.
Everybody shows up.
Okay, if you're going to missfor something that doesn't meet
this objective, don't do that.
Do this all right.
Don't do that, do this Allright.
(25:17):
So integrating OKRs into yourpractice can systematically
pursue excellence, ensuring thattheir services effectively meet
the needs of the agingpopulation while fostering a
proactive and cohesive teamenvironment.
That's just kind of a summarythat was written out for me, but
(25:38):
it's true.
So I am implementing these andI'm excited about it, and my
team seems excited because theyknow what I'm thinking.
Rather than just being ascattered mess of, hey, let's
keep the law office running forthe next quarter, no, let's
focus on something.
Let's know that we're allcoming together, that this is
our focus for these three months.
(25:59):
I think that's long enough toreally get into it and really
ingrain it, but short enoughthat, okay, we can stay on this
topic for three months.
Okay, if you're a little, youknow ADHD and you tend to
scatter everywhere, this keepsyou focused.
Okay, I hope this helps.
I hope this will help you inthe new year, or start anytime.
(26:22):
You don't have to start at thenew year.
We just seem to start the newyear with new goals and things,
and so I advise you to look intoOKRs.
I will list the two books that Iread on that and I encourage
you to do that and see if ithelps and if so, please let me
know.
And, as always, if you areinterested in elder law and want
(26:46):
me to help you go from zero toa pretty good elder law attorney
within a year, I would love towork with you.
Give us a call.
You can always email Tricia atthe elderlawcoachcom.
You can email me, but pleaseadd Tricia on there with me
because she helps me catch thoseand make sure that I don't miss
(27:08):
them because I am pretty busy.
But I would love to hear fromyou on questions or comments or
podcast topics.
I would love to hear what youwant to know.
So please email me, todd, atthe elderlawcoachcom, but also
include Tricia and she will makesure that I see it All right.
Thank y'all very much and Iwill see you next time.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Thank you for joining this episode of the Elder Law
Coach Podcast.
For those eager to take theirelder law practice to new
heights and are interested inTodd's acclaimed coaching
program, visitwwwtheelderlawcoachcom.
With Todd Watley by your side,the journey to becoming an elder
law authority has never beenmore achievable.
(27:49):
Until next time, keep learning,keep growing and stay
passionate about elder law.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.