Think about the worst boss you’ve ever had.
Maybe they expected you to be available at all hours. They filled your calendar without leaving enough time to actually get your work done. Everything was urgent. Expectations weren’t always clear, and no matter how much you accomplished, the focus was always on what you didn’t finish.
You probably wouldn’t choose to work for that person again.
What if that person is you?
Law firm owners can be incredibly demanding bosses, especially when the employee they’re managing is themselves.
You expect yourself to answer the email, handle the client problem, help the team, finish the legal work, think about the business and somehow get home at a reasonable hour.
Then, when you inevitably can’t do all of it, you decide the problem is you.
Maybe you don’t need to work harder.
Maybe you need a better boss.
Give Yourself an Actual Job
If you hired an employee and told them their job was to handle anything and everything that came up, you’d have a management problem.
Yet that’s essentially the job description many law firm owners give themselves.
Look at what you’re doing every day and ask: What actually requires me?
There will be legal work only you can do and decisions that belong to the owner, but there may also be administrative tasks, routine client communication and problems your team is capable of handling.
Your job isn’t to become faster at doing everything.
It’s to get better at deciding what shouldn’t be yours anymore.
Stop Giving Yourself an Impossible Workload
You wouldn’t assign an employee 12 hours of work and expect them to finish it in eight.
So why does your calendar assume you can?
Meetings get scheduled back-to-back. Lunch disappears. Focused work gets squeezed between calls. There isn’t room for an unexpected client issue, much less time to think about where the firm is going.
Then the unfinished work follows you home.
A better boss would look at that schedule and recognize the problem.
Give yourself room to actually do the work you’re scheduling. Protect time when you can’t be interrupted. Leave some space between meetings. Decide when your workday ends.
Your calendar should reflect the number of hours you actually want to work, not the number of hours you could theoretically stay awake.
Give Yourself the Support You’d Give Someone Else
Imagine an employee repeatedly struggling with the same task.
A good leader wouldn’t tell them to try harder forever. Eventually, you’d ask what was getting in the way.
Maybe they need training. A better process. A checklist. A template. Different technology. Or maybe the work simply belongs with someone else.
Give yourself the same consideration.
When something repeatedly consumes too much of your time, don’t automatically ask, “How can I get better at doing this?”
Ask, “Why am I still doing this?”
That question can lead to a very different answer.
This idea is explored more deeply in a recent episode of From Esq. to Owner, including how law firm owners can set more realistic expectations for themselves and build the support they need instead of simply expecting themselves to do more.
Stop Measuring Your Day by What You Didn’t Finish
Attorneys are trained to find problems. That’s useful when you’re practicing law. It’s less useful when every day ends with a mental list of everything you failed to accomplish.
Instead of asking why you didn’t get more done, look at what your day is telling you.
What interrupted you? What took longer than it should have? What did you do that someone else could handle? What keeps showing up on your calendar even though it isn’t important?
Those aren’t reasons to criticize yourself. They’re clues about what needs to change.
Maybe something needs to be delegated. Maybe your team needs clearer expectations. Maybe your calendar needs better boundaries. Maybe you’re still doing work you’ve outgrown simply because you’ve always done it.
The goal isn’t to squeeze more out of yourself tomorrow.
It’s to make tomorrow work better.
Would You Want to Work for You?
There will always be another email you could answer, another case you could work on and another improvement you could make to your firm.
If you’re waiting until everything is done before you allow yourself to stop working, you’re going to be waiting a very long time.
Being a better boss to yourself doesn’t mean lowering your standards. It means creating expectations, boundaries, and support that make those standards sustainable.
So think about how you’re managing yourself right now.
Would you expect an employee to work this way?
Would you give them this workload? Interrupt them this often? Expect them to be available at night? Focus only on what they didn’t finish?
If the answer is no, you may have found the boss who needs some work.
And if you already know something needs to change but aren’t sure how to change it, that’s where having someone outside the firm can help. Schedule a complimentary Discovery Call and start figuring out what needs to change first.
Because building a Great Practice and a Great Life shouldn’t require working for the worst boss you’ve ever had.
