The future success of law firms today is unclear and uncertain. We know the environment is tough - both on the lack of clarity surrounding the development and delivery of legal services, as well as on the uncertain economic front for the firm and its clients. Leaders are constantly being asked to deliver legal work alongside their leadership tasks.

According to Darwin, it is neither the strongest species that survives nor the most intelligent but the ones most responsive to change. The only competitive advantage is the ability to learn faster and apply that learning.

The most essential skill of law firm’s Managing Partners is leadership training. This will equip Managing Partners to negotiate the changing legal landscape. The old ways of running a law firm or serving clients is no longer enough – yesterday’s tools will not secure a prosperous future. Further it can be ambiguous as to which path to take to survive, or even, thrive.

Leadership (and management) skills are not taught as part of the legal training and with little provided during the training contract, Managing Partners today are, often, in situ before they can access the training they need for managing today’s law firms.

There are many factors that can make someone a good, or even, a great leader. It is probably true too, that the necessary personal characteristics and sufficient environmental circumstances are latent within all of us and in all of our futures. MiRo is a psychometric assessment tool that can help us to reveal and capitalise our on our preferences, while strengthening our overall skillset.

MiRo cannot test for good or bad leaders but it can make some reasonable predictions about the style in which a particular person might choose to lead.