Many managers in private practice and in in-house legal departments struggle with issues around staff morale.

Morale’s a complex area.

Staff can be intelligent and productive people, team players who are trusted by their colleagues and managers, working in a sector that interests them, and still report low morale in staff surveys and annual reviews.

Faced with such a scenario, some heads of department and general counsel have come to what might at first seem an odd conclusion – that they should stop canceling one-to-one meetings with staff, and that this should be a rule that is strictly adhered to.

Of course this rule does not fix all the sources of poor morale. But those who have implemented the ‘never cancel’ rule say that the effects are surprisingly wide ranging.

First, while client service is the understandable priority for lawyers in any setting, an office where it always trumps internal matters that need attention creates an unhealthy working environment.

Protecting some space for team considerations is an important correction to this outward-facing bias.

Secondly, it is a common complaint that, put in a management position, lawyers spend insufficient time on staff management issues. If some of that time is ring-fenced in this way, managers will come closer to the targets they aspire to in this area.

Thirdly, keeping to one-on-one meetings should mean that managers are made aware of issues within the team, or the fact that individuals are experiencing professional frustrations, before it is too late to deal with such problems.

Of course, issues raised may include points about the manager’s own conduct, or that of clients, which again are better off dealt with sooner rather than later.

As a workplace rule, this is a surprisingly hard one to stick to.

But certainly those who have tried hard to adhere to it are positively evangelical about this rule’s ability to solve problems in these three key areas, and in the process raising morale.