Archive for month: July, 2014

“Pressure is what you feel when you don’t know what you are doing.”
– Peyton Manning

This quote stopped me in my tracks. My first inclination was to disagree, because I sometimes feel pressure because of a deadline or because of the importance of some activity, even though I know what I’m doing.  Digging a bit deeper, though, I think Manning has a point.

When it comes to business development, the lawyers most under pressure are those who don’t have a cohesive plan, who aren’t implementing their plan consistently, or who haven’t fully committed to one or more activities that are likely to help them secure work.  Although they know what they’re doing on certain levels, there’s a disconnect between intellectual knowing and buckling down to do the work. If you know that you should request an on-site meeting with a client, for example, and you expect that you might well land more business or receive a referral or even deepen a valuable relationship, but you don’t ask for the meeting, you’re going to feel pressure.

In contrast, if you have a plan that you’re implementing consistently, though you may feel tension until you see results from your plan, that tension is different in nature. When you know what you’re doing, both in terms of the specific activities and the timing, you also know that you can shift your plan as needed to tweak your results.

You know that you have something that’s fundamentally workable. You’ve done your homework and you’ve prepared yourself and your plan.

Do you feel pressure about business development? If you do, take a few minutes today to get to the source of that pressure. You’ll probably find that it’s one of these issues:

• You don’t know what you’re doing (you don’t have a plan or you don’t know how to implement some aspect of your plan)
• You don’t know how to make time to implement your plan consistently (so you never have an opportunity to reach momentum)
• You don’t know how to perform one or more activities incorporated in your plan (and so you haven’t even started)
• You’re terribly uncomfortable about some aspect of your plan (you aren’t confident that you can engage in business development activity without harming relationships… or your ego)
• You need to bring in new business now and you don’t yet know that your plan will work (you haven’t implemented your plan and you’re focusing on the need for business rather than on your ability to meet that need)

Which of these issues underlies the pressure you’re feeling?  Once you’ve identified the problem, you’re that much closer to solving it. If you aren’t sure where to start, please schedule a complimentary consultation so we can get acquainted and mutually decide whether I can help.

My first legal job was serving as a clerk for the Hon. J. Owen Forrester of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. I knew I wanted to be a litigator, and so working for a trial judge was my idea of the perfect job. Sure enough, I learned lessons that have lasted the test of time.

Judge Forrester died on July 1, and while attending his funeral, I asked a number of his other clerks the most important lesson he taught them. Interestingly, every person alluded to exactly the same lesson:

To be effective, solve the root problem rather
than spending time on peripheral, non-dispositive issues.

The application is clear in litigation: if you can dispose of (or win) a case based on jurisdiction or standing, very often you won’t have to address more contentious matters. You’ve heard the saying bad facts make bad law, and applying this lesson offers a way around that problem.

Today, I apply this lesson in consulting with clients about business development through planning and strategy. Without a cohesive, strategic plan, no tactics can be ultimately successful. When I begin consulting with a client, I always start with the plan, and sometimes that even leads to a deeper root issue (like what kind of practice you want to build) that must be resolved before we can create a viable strategy.

Judge Forrester taught me many other lessons critical for business and business development, including the importance of integrity and compassion; the necessity to offer more than reason alone when crafting an argument; and how to research a controlling decision back to its wellspring to understand it.  Most importantly, the Judge demonstrated his respect for every person who entered his courtroom—and the willingness to withdraw that respect if it was abused. I draw on these lessons in my professional and personal life, and they serve as the support for all of the work I do with clients.

A mentor is irreplaceable, and I (and many others) will miss the Judge terribly. But I know that he would be gratified to know that his lessons will live on and will be handed down.

What lessons have you learned from your mentors? And what lessons are you teaching those who look to you?