Archive for year: 2017

Despite the best of intentions, it’s easy to let a relationship slide. You get busy, you lose track of your contact schedule, you run out of ideas for keeping in touch… And next thing you know, your relationship has atrophied.

But, like muscle, an atrophied relationship can be rebuilt. By focusing time and attention on your relationship and maintaining consistent effort, you’ll often be able to revive a good relationship more easily than you built it in the first place.

But you might feel awkward trying to re-energize a stagnant relationship, especially if you aren’t sure that the relationship can be reinvigorated. If you find yourself about to write off a relationship, you need to be sure that the relationship can’t be resurrected. It’s easy to allow discomfort to lead you into turning a neglected but viable relationship into a dead one, and lawyers far too often write off relationships before they’re truly finished. But how do you know? Or, as someone often inquires when I’m presenting a business development workshop, Is it ever too late to rebuild professional relationships that have languished?

The short answer is that it depends on the relationship. The deeper the relationship, the more likely it can be resurrected.  If, however, you meet once and fail to follow up, or if you follow up only once or twice, the relationship will lack the firm footing necessary to allow it to flourish following a period of silence.  That said, it never hurts to try to rebuild a relationship, particularly if your sole reason for reconnecting is to re-establish communication and not to seek a favor

So, what can you do to rebuild a connection that has faded? The simplest, and often the most effective, approach is to do precisely what you would do with a friend you haven’t seen in a long time: pick up the phone and say, “I realized it’s been a while since we’ve spoken, and you’ve been on my mind.  Is this a good time to talk for a few minutes? How are things with you?  What’s new?”  If several months have passed since you were in touch with this contact, you may even begin the conversation by re-introducing yourself.  (This is where my recommendation to maintain a database of contacts proves especially helpful: you don’t have to try to remember when and where you met.)  You may experience a few awkward moments as your contact gets back into the connection, but most people will pick up relatively quickly.

If, like many lawyers, you’d rather do nine hours of painstaking document review without a coffee break than pick up with phone, you do have other options. For example, you might consider the following:

• Send an email to reconnect. You might suggest talking by telephone and either arrange a time or let your contact know you’ll be calling.  While you’ll still have to pick up the phone, you’ve created an expectation that you will call, and chances are good that you’ll avoid an awkward beginning.  If you suggest that you’ll call, though, you absolutely must do so – or run the risk of looking like a flake.
• Send an article or other resource that will interest your contact. The resource may address a legal or non-legal issue, but it must be tied in some way to a conversation you’ve had with the contact.  Attach a note that says, “I remember talking with you about [topic of resource] at [wherever you had the conversation] and thought of you when I saw this [resource].  Hope it’s useful!”  By doing so, you not only reconnect by offering assistance, but you do so in a way that will bring your conversation back to your contact’s mind and refresh the relationship.
• Issue an invitation. You might invite your contact to an open house or to attend a CLE or other seminar of interest with you.  If you deliver an invitation by mail or email, be sure to attach a note saying that you look forward to reconnecting. This personal touch will indicate to your contact that your interest is genuine.
• Seek out news about your contact. This may be a more challenging approach if you’re seeking to reconnect than to maintain a relationship, but it’s worth a quick search to see whether your contact has been in the news recently.  You may find news of a professional event (an honor awarded, a trial won, a leadership position attained) or a personal event (a new marriage, a new baby, a recreational or community activity).  Such news offers an ideal reason to get in touch again.

Take a few minutes this week to review your list of contacts. With whom should you reconnect?  Choose three to five people and reach out to them.  Building and maintaining your network is always a valuable activity, and keeping relationships alive will often pay off (often in unexpected ways) over time.

July marks Canada Day as well as Independence Day in the United States and numerous other countries.

This time of year always prompts me to ask two questions:

First, what do freedom and independence mean to me personally, professionally, politically, and culturally?

Second, what do I need to do to increase my freedom and independence, and what do I need to do to support others in doing the same?

There are many answers to these questions, but let’s limit the conversation to the professional context. This is a great time to ask where you feel free or constrained in your practice, in the way you work, in your collegial relationships, and even in the way you approach business development. If you don’t like your answer, perhaps you should choose to declare your own independence this July. Questions to consider might include:

• Do you like your practice? If not, how might you shift your focus? 
• Do you like your clients? If not, where could you find clients you’d enjoy? 
• Do you like your colleagues—or do you wish you had colleagues? Is it time to build better relationships or seek out new ones? 
• Does your business development plan fit you? If not, come up with one that does. A brilliantly conceived plan that you don’t want to execute wont help you reach your goals. 
• Does your schedule give you the freedom you want and need as a professional, a family member, as a community member, as a professional? If not, can you find ways to use your time differently, perhaps incorporating the approach espoused by the book Total Leadership (which I reviewed here) to identify activities that serve multiple domains of your life at once? 
• Does your life reflect your values? If not, exercise the freedom to change.

Once you’ve asked the questions and determined your answers, make a clear plan for any necessary follow-up activity. Your professional freedom deserves determined and consistent action.

Does social media activity really lead to new business? This question comes up quite frequently, along with its cousin, Why am I not seeing ANY results from my social media activity? Social media too often becomes a time-consuming, illusory activity that seems to promise results are just around the bend.

But some lawyers have cracked the code. I recently ran across an article titled The Social Law Firm Index 2016: Is Your Firm a Social Law Firm? which has some good tips based on a social media survey of the AmLaw 100. (If your firm is nowhere near the 100, don’t worry: the tips apply regardless of the size or type of firm.)

The whole article is worth reading, but let’s focus on the first “best practice”:

By remaining true to their primary business objectives and core brand messaging, social law firms are most effective at extending their reach and engaging with their target audience.

Vacation season (whether for the summer or winter holidays) brings fun and challenges. Do it right and you can enjoy and refresh yourself while maintaining your progress toward your goals. Fail to approach it thoughtfully, and you probably won’t like the outcome.

This week I’m sharing several greatest hits from the past with tips to help you make the most of your summer, whether you’re about to be in the full swing of it or whether it’s still six months away in your part of the world. (And, of course, these tips apply for any kind of vacation as well as no vacation at all.) Click on the links below to read the full articles.

1. Increase your efficiency by cutting the time you spend in the office:  This post shares three tips about how you can shift your approach to work so you can get more done and get out the door.
2. The Reset Button:  Two tips to help you feel less pressured, which in turn will increase your efficiency and effectiveness.
3. Addressing Burnout:  Your Productivity Depends on It:  How can disconnecting from your work improve your productivity?
4. Get Out of the Office:  Your best thoughts about work probably won’t happen at work.
5. The Productive Value of Vacation:  How short bursts of recreation can refresh and reinvigorate you.
6. How Your Holidays Can Help Your Grow Your Practice: “Your future is created by what you do today.” This article covers how to continue forward motion while enjoying your vacation season.
7. Mix Work and Play for Fun & Profit: This article covers the neglected art of gracefully shifting a social contact into a business conversation—without being that tone-deaf boor who’s always selling him- or herself.