I am typing this while on an airplane reading Zappos founder Tony Hseih’s book Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose on my Kindle. I have reached the part where he discusses Zappos 10 core values. They are:

  1. Deliver WOW Through Service-75% of Fortune 1000 in-house counsel are not satisfied with the service provided their outside law firms
  2. Embrace and Drive Change-Law firms seem to be the last to change on things like diversity, attorney development, marketing, social media
  3. Create Fun and a Little Weirdness- Only a few lawyers I have known have told me it was fun to work at their law firm
  4. Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open Minded-How many lawyers do you know who are adventurous? Creative? Open minded?
  5. Pursue Growth and Learning-I know many lawyers who are content with what they currently know
  6. Build Open and Honest Relationships with Communication-Relationships suffer in many law firms because communication is not good
  7. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit-Lawyers in firms compete rather than collaborate
  8. Do More with Less-Law firms tend to not invest in the development of their people. So I guess they are doing more with less. I believe law firms should invest more in hiring the right people and then developing their skills.
  9. Be Passionate and Determined-Every outstanding lawyer I know is both passionate and determined
  10. Be Humble-Hard to find a lawyer with this trait. If you have it, you must balance it with a confidence inspiring personality.

Does your law firm have core values? Are they written down? Do lawyers and staff in your firm live those core values? Are your lawyers and staff rewarded based on those core values? Is your firm able to tell a story of delivering WOW to a client through service? What can you do to improve and deliver WOW to your clients and colleagues?