Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life One Conversation at a Time
Have you ever been in one of those deadly conversations in which a lot of words fly about and yet nothing happens? Or when decisions are made and strategies are crafted, but everyone sitting around the table knows that nothing will actually change because everyone is talking around the real problem? What a waste of […]
The productive value of vacation
I’m on vacation this week, sort of. By “sort of,” I mean that I’m more or less alternating vacation and work days. Today is a work day; tomorrow, I’ll be out playing. The image to the left? That’s where I spent part of Saturday and Sunday, reading some of the books that have been on […]
Renewing lapsed professional relationships
I gave a 1-hour presentation about rainmaking last week in the Chicago office of a large law firm, and following the presentation, a lawyer approached with a question: 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 […]
Law firm associates: are you on the team?
At last week’s ABA meeting, I attended an interesting business development program titled Making Rain in a Drought. Although the presenter had generated a full presentation with PowerPoint slides, the audience began asking questions fairly quickly and their questions became the focus of the program. One question struck me particularly. A woman stood and asked […]
Want to know a secret?
I presented a Presidential Showcase Program at the ABA Annual Meeting today, titled Seven Secrets Every Lawyer Must Know to Thrive, Even in a Recession. Mark Hansen of the ABA Journal posted a short summary of the program. The presentation garnered some good questions from the standing-room only crowd.
Forecast calls for rain!
Some readers have noticed the precipitous drop in posts that began early this year. Perhaps you imagined that I was busy with clients (true!), that I’d lost interest in the blog (not true!), or that I’d run off for a Tahitian vacation (also not true — alas!). In mid-February, the stars became perfectly aligned and […]
Want to make more rain? Be a better leader.
Leaders are better rainmakers. Bold statement, isn’t it? But think about it. Would you easily place your trust in someone who manages a team of worker bees who didn’t make much individual contribution – knowing that if the manager goes down, the team will at best miss a few beats? Or would you select someone […]