Timestamps
Tim spent 16 years in property management before landing at Michael Kelly Injury Lawyers in Boston as their first-ever COO.
No law background. No courtroom experience. Just a sharp business mind and a willingness to do the hard thing first.
He restructured attorney compensation, built a leadership team from scratch, and helped grow the firm. Profitability went from 13% to 28%. Staff went from 32 to 87 with contractors.
Here are the things we covered in this episode:
→ Why the right time to hire an integrator is between 20-30 employees
→ How weekly coaching accountability changed what quarterly EOS sessions can’t
→ The comp restructure that nearly broke morale and ended up building it instead
→ What “radical candor” actually looks like when the COO mandates it firm-wide
→ Why a self-aware visionary is the single most important ingredient
I’ve had a lot of conversations about the visionary/integrator relationship. Tim is one of the best examples I’ve come across of what it looks like when it actually works.
Tim, thank you for coming on the podcast and sharing your background and lessons!
Chapters
0:00 – Introduction: Tim Paoli and the Mike Kelly Law Firm
0:44 – How Tim Was Hired and What He Was Brought In to Do
2:24 – The Growth Numbers: From $3M to $20M
3:15 – What Fireproof Did That EOS Couldn’t
5:34 – Why Weekly Coaching Changes Everything
6:55 – The Power of Outside Accountability
8:21 – Radical Candor as a Cultural Operating System
10:27 – Managing the Visionary/Integrator Dynamic
12:05 – How Tim and Mike Kelly Work Together Day to Day
15:08 – Tying Integrator Comp to Firm Profitability
17:07 – The Fireproof Community: What Tim Actually Thinks
19:49 – Advice for Anyone on the Fence About Coaching
24:54 – Biggest Challenge: Restructuring Attorney Compensation
27:29 – Final Takeaways and Closing
Connect with Tim
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-paoli-5b1a7175/
https://www.instagram.com/paolitim/
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