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Every law firm has problems that keep coming back. The question is whether you're willing to deal with them now or whether you'll keep paying for them later. In this episode of Maximum Lawyer, Tyson Mutrux shares a surprisingly powerful leadership lesson that came out of a conversation about conference swag bags: You can choose the pain now or the pain later.

Tyson explores how avoiding uncomfortable conversations, overlooking broken processes, and constantly stepping in to rescue your team can quietly hold your firm back. From recurring performance issues to delegation challenges, he explains why solving today's emergency isn't the same as building a business that runs better tomorrow.

What You'll Learn

• Why delaying difficult decisions often creates bigger problems
• How to distinguish temporary relief from actual resolution
• Why avoiding discomfort can shift the burden onto your team
• How to spot unreliable processes being rescued by reliable employees
• Why stepping in to fix everything can undermine delegation
• How to take the next responsible step instead of waiting for perfect conditions

Timestamps

• 00:30  What conference swag bags reveal about leadership
• 05:30  Choosing discomfort now versus a last-minute scramble later
• 07:30  Relief is not the same as resolution
• 10:35  When waiting is a plan, and when it is avoidance
• 13:00  Who pays for the discomfort leaders avoid?
• 13:55  How employees quietly compensate for broken processes
• 16:20  Setting realistic client expectations earlier
• 20:00  Fixing a demand backlog versus becoming the process

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Full Transcript: 

[00:30] Tyson Mutrux: Welcome back to Maximum Lawyer. I have a fun one today. So I was in a meeting the other day with Hannah and Becca. We're doing some planning for MaxLawCon.com. Just as a little plug, get your tickets to MaxLawCon.com. That's not what we're talking about today. Um, but we were talking about swag and specifically like the stuff that goes in the attendee bags and how we can make those bags better. Cause we want to, we want to make those way, way better than what they were. And. It's not really where you'd expect there to be a big leadership decision made or have some sort of big leadership lesson.

[01:13] Tyson Mutrux: But in the middle of that conversation, Hannah said something to Beckett, kind of stuck with me. And it really has had me thinking a lot over the last week or so. Because it really, it applies to every, just about every part about running a law firm, which is really kind of interesting. And so let me give you a little bit of context about it. So traditionally, we've allowed vendors to choose their own swag. And they get to pick what they want to give attendees. Some give things, cool things. Some give nothing. Some people put flyers in there. Um, and what happens is they ship, they either ship it to the venue, which is usually what they do, or they bring it with them.

[02:02] Tyson Mutrux: And most of them don't bring it with them. Cause that's, it's a lot of boxes, right? You have a lot of attendees, you have lots of boxes. It's, it's a lot. So you have them shipped. And usually what we're doing is we will actually rent a facility and a lot of times we'll have things shipped to that facility. And then in the days before the event, we'll bring it over to the hotel. And there's a lot of appeal to that approach where the vendors bring the swag. They choose their own merchandise. They handle getting it there. We don't have to select every item ourselves, but like that's that's part of what we're talking about is like changing up completely how we're doing things.

[02:50] Tyson Mutrux: But there's also the other side of the arrangement where things can and do always show up at the last second. And whenever things show up at the last second, what happens? So someone's got to put those things in the bags. And it was funny because The day one of the conference, I went downstairs, I get on there early and I was just I was just kind of kind of go down there and chill. We have a war room and I open the door. I should really knock on the door. Becca opens it and they are frantically like stuffing bags. So because things have arrived late and it's that's a big deal, right?

[03:35] Tyson Mutrux: A lot of it happens. A lot of that happens at the last seconds, especially as someone like as they're trying to get ready for the conference. So. The whole point is the work doesn't disappear just because the conference is about to start. It still has to be done. And so you're trying to finish the bags while you're also trying to finish everything else that needs to happen before the event. It's a lot of stress. And so what we're doing is we're discussing a different approach during the meeting. And so what would happen if we selected the swag ourselves?

[04:14] Tyson Mutrux: We could choose the items that we want. So we want to intentionally upgrade these bags anyways so we choose them ourselves we'd be more intentional with what the attendees receive and offer the vendors some sort of like sponsorship upgrades that include those items as well the way we can deal with it and that's the only way we could do it is if we did it this way um we'd have to we'd have to pass that cost onto this the vendors because it's the the margins are so so thin anyways so it would have to be done that way um and so The whole the whole goal is to give the attendees a better experience and then also more control over the process.

[05:03] Tyson Mutrux: But it would also create a lot more work up front. We'd have to develop the packages. We had to figure out the costs, explain the options to sponsors, really have like those salesy types of conversations. And some sponsors might love it. Others might, might not. Others may hate it. And we'd also be taking on more responsibility for getting the merchandise ordered and then delivered correctly and on time. So we're talking about these trade offs and Hannah says something to back all along the lines of, well, it depends on whether you want the pain now or you want the pain later.

[05:43] Tyson Mutrux: I was like, Oh my gosh. And it was so funny. I was like, that's a really good way to frame this. But what was funny about is as, as Hannah was finishing her, her thought, I waited for her to say something and then Becca to respond. And I was like, I'm talking about this on the show. That was beautiful. That was awesome. Um, so that's why I'm talking about it because, uh, it was really good. It depends on whether you want the pain now or the pain later. Uh, that was really good. Um, Because what we're doing, we were comparing something that required work with something that required no work.

[06:27] Tyson Mutrux: Right. I'm sorry, we weren't we weren't comparing something that required work with something that required no work. We were comparing two different kinds of work is what we were doing. One that involved planning. selling and making decisions earlier. The other involved dealing with uncertainty and assembling bags at the last minute. The work was going to land somewhere. It's going to land somewhere. The question was when it would land, essentially, and what else would be happening when it landed and who would have to handle it. Those are the other things. So that's what I want to talk about today. That's the context as to what I'm talking about.

[07:09] Tyson Mutrux: Because I bet that your law firm probably has its own version of those swag bags. Something you know is going to be a problem, something you've dealt with before, something that keeps coming back. And every time it comes back, there's another opportunity to ask, are we going to address this while we have some room to think? Or are we going to wait until we have to scramble?

[07:36] Tyson Mutrux: Think about that conversation you've been putting off. And relief is not the same as like resolution, right? I want you to think about that. So maybe an employee isn't meeting expectations. Maybe a business relationship isn't working for you. Maybe your team needs a decision from you. And really neither option is especially comfortable for you. And you look at your counter and you think, yeah, You know what?

[08:03] Tyson Mutrux: I'm busy today. I'm not going to deal with it today. And there may be a perfectly legitimate reason for that. You might have a trial coming up. You may have a conference that you had to go to. You might need more information. There might be something genuinely more important that needs your attention. But sometimes the reason is simpler. You just don't want to deal with it. That's usually what it is, is you just don't want to deal with it. And as a master procrastinator, I will tell you, I get that. I feel you wholeheartedly. But the reality is you probably don't want that awkward conversation.

[08:45] Tyson Mutrux: You don't want to disappoint somebody. I don't want to make a decision that creates more work before it makes anything better. Like, that's the big one, right? So the decision happens and you're really creating a lot more work for a lot of people and that it'll get better. That's the decision. That's that sucks. So sometimes you're like dealing with an overflow or something that that's one of those things where you make this decision You know it's the right decision, but your employees are going to have to go through some pain for it. So what do you do?

[09:24] Tyson Mutrux: A lot of us do. We push it off. And for a little while, that works. It feels good, right? Oh, I don't have to think about that for a while. And you've taken an uncomfortable thing out of today, right? You don't have to worry about it anymore. In reality, if you think about have you improved that situation, the answer is no. Or have you really just improved how you feel about your afternoon?

[09:54] Tyson Mutrux: That is yes, right? And those are two different things, right? You didn't improve the situation. You just made your afternoon better. That's all you did. So, again, relief is not the same as resolution. So like in the swag conversation, like keep the old approach might spare us the work of selling a new package right now. But that doesn't answer the operational question. Like how are we going to get the items into the bags without creating the last minute problem?

[10:26] Tyson Mutrux: Like we still have to answer that. But like we also want to upgrade, right? Like that's the other part of it too. We really want to have the swag upgraded substantially. And that's also important. Do we have those difficult conversations now or do we have those difficult conversations later? So I think that's a useful distinction for law firm owners, right? When you postpone something, what actually changes?

[10:52] Tyson Mutrux: What actually changes? Does waiting give you information you don't have already? Or does it create a better opportunity? Because that could be the truth. Or does it allow you to address something more important first? Those are all valid things that could be. Or does it just mean you don't have to feel uncomfortable today? apologize my dogs are barking but that's the glory of uh sometimes but i do think we need to be honest about the reason we're waiting right um because like let's revisit this after we get the numbers is a plan, right?

[11:30] Tyson Mutrux: Or I don't want to think about this right now as something else because those are two different things. Like there are times where like I'll be in a leadership meeting. I was like, oh, I need to I want I need to see the numbers before I make a decision on this. Like you show me because I'll ask the numbers. I don't have those right now. Well, give me the numbers and then I'll make a decision like that is legitimate. Like that is completely and I'm not saying it's legitimate just because it happened to me. I think making decisions based on numbers is really important.

[12:12] Tyson Mutrux: So that is an important distinction. But what's not OK is I just don't really want to think about this right now. Like, I'm just overwhelmed. That's not a that's not a good decision, in my opinion. And so sometimes what we do is we dress up that second one to make it sound more important than what it really is. We say something, we say we need to be strategic or we say the timing isn't right or we say we need to think about it, which thinking about it is actually sometimes important. What information are we actually waiting for?

[12:51] Tyson Mutrux: What would make the timing right? What's the questions or what are the questions that we still need to have answered? Those are fair questions to ask. Because if you already have enough information to take the next responsible step, more time may not be what you need. You may need to be willing to experience the discomfort of taking that next step. All right, let's talk about who pays for the pain later. There's another part of Hannah's observation that I think is probably even more important. The person who avoids the pain now may not be the person who experiences it later. So go back to those swag bags.

[13:33] Tyson Mutrux: Let's suppose we decide we don't want to deal with the work of changing the sponsorship options. Who handles the consequences when the merchandise shows up at the last minute? Who has to stop what they're doing? Who has to rearrange the priorities? Who ends up stuffing the bags? Right. And so there's a different way to evaluate that decision. Like, it's not just like which option is easier for me. It's like it's actually what does this change require from everybody else?

[14:05] Tyson Mutrux: So now in this instance, it would be Becca and Hanna and now and Becca and Hanna later. It doesn't change for this scenario, but like picture a law firm with like recurring performance issues. I think many of you can relate. Every firm at some point has an employee. No firm has a hundred percent track record of hiring. They just don't. We make decisions in hiring sometimes. So picture a law firm with some sort of recurring performance issue and an employee keeps handing off work that isn't complete. Another person catches it, they fix it, and then it moves along. the the owner, you, you know, it's happening, but you keep putting off the conversation.

[14:50] Tyson Mutrux: OK, now, to be clear, the conversation shouldn't necessarily start with blame. OK, we know that we talked about that in other episodes, but maybe the expectations were never clear. Maybe the employee needs training. Maybe the work workload is unrealistic. Maybe the handoff itself is just poorly designed, right? It could be all these different situations. You don't need to understand the problem before you decide what to do about it, though. So avoiding the conversation doesn't help you understand any of those things. It just leaves the next person fixing the work. And from the owner's perspective, everything might look okay. The work got finished.

[15:31] Tyson Mutrux: Client got what they needed. Nothing blew up. It's fantastic, right? But somebody absorbed the problem. That's what you're ignoring. Somebody stayed with it longer than what they should have had to. Somebody stopped doing their own work. Somebody made an extra call or corrected something that should have been handled earlier, okay? So before you conclude that a process is working, find out whether somebody is quietly compensating for the parts that aren't. Because there might be parts that are not working that your people are patching. And there's a big difference between a reliable process and a reliable person constantly rescuing an unreliable process.

[16:11] Tyson Mutrux: Because that part is happening all the time. People are patching things all the time for you if you're ignoring them. And the person might be you. That's the thing. The person, it could very well be you. You may be the one that's staying late, rechecking everything, answering the same questions over and over for clients. Either way, it's worth asking what would happen if... If the rescue stopped. Okay. All right. So let me give you another example. So imagine a client has expectations about their case that aren't supported by the information you currently have, which raise your hand if you've got to have had an unreasonable client.

[16:54] Tyson Mutrux: Yeah. I think we all have. You can have a candid conversation with them earlier. And this is a really important one. That's why I'm bringing this one up. So you can have that candid conversation now. And you can risk losing that client. You can explain what you know, what you don't know, and why you're concerned about their expectations. And that may be very uncomfortable. The client might be pissed off at you, and they may have some questions for you that you probably don't want to answer. You can do all that, or you can avoid the subject and hope it gets better. and you can hope it gets easier, but consider what it could look like later when you're preparing for mediation and the gap between, or trial, and the gap between the client's expectations and your assessment is still there. uh now you're not just discussing the case okay you may also also be answering like why didn't you tell me this before right that's not a fun question to have to answer the early conversation doesn't guarantee some sort of agreement It doesn't guarantee that it's going to be worked out earlier, but it doesn't make the uncertainty disappear.

[18:11] Tyson Mutrux: It gives both of you an opportunity to deal with the issue before you're under the additional pressure. Because if you are now in the middle of prepping for a trial or a mediation or something, or something big, now you're under that additional pressure. Before, you could have... had more time to deal with it now, you are risking maybe losing a client because you're giving them the advice that you need to give them. But you don't have that pressure, right?

[18:43] Tyson Mutrux: You don't have that pressure that you do now. So here's more of the leadership question I want you to sit with. Who is paying for the discomfort I'm avoiding? Is it your team? Is it your clients? Is it you at a worse time? That question belongs in the decision. So you need to choose the work that leaves you better off. That's really, really important here. There's another distinction I want to make with this. So some work gets you through today. OK, other work changes what tomorrow requires. All right. So I'm going to get to what more about what I mean by that in a second.

[19:25] Tyson Mutrux: I do want to let you all know we have the Max Law survey. The twenty twenty six state of the firm survey is out. OK. Make sure it's out for a month. We will run it for a month. Make sure you fill that out now. Take fifteen minutes or less. We've shortened it. We shortened it last year compared to the year before that. So it should take you fifteen minutes or less. We share all the data. We do a live show with all the data. We make it available to everybody. So make sure you fill that out. MaxLawSurvey.com. MaxLawSurvey.com. Really, really important that we can all share this data together and learn about our industry together.

[20:11] Tyson Mutrux: MaxLawSurvey.com. All right, back to it. Back to choosing the work that leaves you better off. So as I was saying, some work gets you through today, and other work changes what tomorrow requires. And both can be necessary, but they're not interchangeable. So let's say demand preparation keeps getting delayed in your firm. So you have this stockpile. I remember back whenever I worked for my first law firm job out of law school. And when we started, there were, I think, fifty. that were just sitting waiting. They were waiting for demands to go out on these files. They actually had physical files that were stacked up.

[20:53] Tyson Mutrux: And me and another attorney just cranked them out in a weekend. It was crazy. But let's say you're at that, right? So demand prep keeps getting delayed. Things are stacking up. So one response might be for you to personally jump in. You go through the files, you send reminders, you ask where things stand, you take over whatever needs to happen to get the demands out. And sometimes that intervention is absolutely necessary. The work still needs to get done. But after you get through that immediate problem, what happens next?

[21:28] Tyson Mutrux: Right. Did you figure out where the process was breaking down? Did you establish who owns each step? Did you identify what information needs to be available before the next person can do their part? Or did you just become the person who makes sure it happens? Because the those lead to very different outcomes and very different businesses. And I talked a little bit about this at the conference. Well, when it comes to when you step in and you override the process, you become the process is what ends up happening. If instead we knew when you you realize, OK, we have a back backlog, we need to fix the process, you fix the process and that situation, you're building a process people can execute on.

[22:17] Tyson Mutrux: In the other where you just step in and do nothing else, you're building a process that includes you checking on everybody. So you are now the process. And that second process may feel effective because things move when you got involved, but your involvement is now part of the requirement. That's the trade-off with delegation too. It's faster to just do it myself. And for this particular task today, that might be true, but going forward, that is not at all true. Make sure when this comes up, you are looking at the big picture, big picture process and looking forward. All right. That is the last thing I really want to talk about.

[23:01] Tyson Mutrux: There's a couple other items that I consider talking about, but I can hold those for another day. That's all I have. Remember to survey maxlawsurvey.com. Also, maxlawcon.com for the conference, June in Las Vegas. Hope to see you there. Have a wonderful week, everybody. We will be seeing you.