Archive for category: Blog

Lawyers often ask me:

• Where should I start with business development?
• How do I make the best use of my rainmaking time?
• Are you out of your mind to suggest I spend that much time on business development? (The minimum is an hour a week, and the time commitment rises as your years in practice increase.  Check this link for insight into how you can serve more clients and also put in more hours on business development.)

The quote I’ve selected this month answers each of those questions.  Read it, and then consider how you can put this teaching into practice.

In marketing I’ve seen only one strategy that can’t miss — and that is to market to your best customers first, your best prospects second and the rest of the world last.

~John Romero

The Power of Professionalism
The Seven Mind-Sets That Drive Performance and Build Trust

Lawyers and those who work with lawyers have taken to debating whether law is still a profession or whether it’s “just” a business. The substance of the debate matters deeply:  without attention to the business aspects of a legal practice, the practice will flounder and, ultimately, fail.  At the same time, the distinction is almost irrelevant, since many professionals attend to business as a part of their professional approach and we have many issues more deserving of attention than mere semantics.

While The Power of Professionalism seeks to define “prfessional much more broadly than the traditional meaning of one who works in the professions, the mindsets to which the subtitle alludes has special relevance for laywers.  Lawyers’ professionalism may be judged by clients largely based on public perception of lawyers’ trustworthiness.  According to a 2010 study, only 17% of respondents rated lawyers’ honesty and ethical standards as above average, and 35% rated those characteristics as below average. There’s work to be done.

Professionals know what they’re doing, both technically and in other tangible ways.  However, as important as technical competence is, professionals are not typically defined by their competence.  Technical competency is the minimum requirement when considering whether or not someone is a professional.

Too many lawyers expect that excellent legal skill is enough for a successful practice.  However, as The Power of Professionalism argues, skill also will not define a professional.  Skill is required, but knowing how to use that skill (knowledge that can be implemented, in other words, as opposed to pure intellectual knowledge) and using it in a way that produced trust, is the mark of a professional.

Bill Wiersma, the author of The Power of Professionalism, has identified several mind-sets of trusted professionals, which might be viewed as foundational principles for professionalism.

1. Professionals have a bias for results. What’s more, those results are sustainable, consistently reproducible, and grounded in ethical behavior.
2. Professionals realize (and act like) they’re part of something bigger than themselves. A trusted advisor (long the gold standard aspiration for lawyers) is one who puts clients ahead of his or own interest, without exception.  In the view of The Power of Professionalism, this aspect expands to include placing the team’s or the firm’s interest ahead of the individual’s.
3. Professionals know things get better when they get better. While focusing on the overarching goals of someone (a client) or something (a firm) else, the professional will experience growth.  As I read this section, I flashed to lawyers who attend CLE programs to better serve their clients as opposed to those who attend merely to earn the required credits.
4. Professionals have personal standards that often transcend organizational ones. Personal standards often derive from one’s “true north”, the core values that matter most.
5. Professionals know that personal integrity is all they have. This mind-set is somewhat similar to #4, with the focus being on integrity based on authenticity, honesty, fulfilling commitments, and refusing to violate others’ trust.
6. Professionals aspire to be masters of their emotions, not enslaved by them. This mindset is subdivided into three additional principles.
   a.  Professionals are respecting when it’s difficult to be respectful.
   b.  Professionals maintain their objectivity and keep their wits about them.
   c.  Professionals manage their ego and resist the urge for immediate gratification.
7. Professionals aspire to reveal value in others. According to this principle, professionals seek to help others grow and succeed.

Whey does this matter for lawyers? In many cases, the standards of professionalism espoused by Wiersma are almost identical to the standards for solid leadership.  However, Wiersma expands these principles and demonstrates their applicability to day-to-day circumstances for a variety of workers, thus eliminating the objection that only those who have particular titles or responsibilities qualify as leaders.

Adopting the professionals’ mind-sets that Wiersma offers will also produce business development benefits. Revisit each of the mind-sets and envision a referral source attributing them to you.  Operating from these mindsets will help to grow relationships and will support a strong reputation.

You may not find anything new or earthshaking about The Power of Professionalism, but it’s an excellent reminder for lawyers at any stage of practice.

Several potential client consultations over the last few weeks have put me in mind of the old story about the tortoise and the hare. We all know the lesson, that slow and steady wins the race, and the same is true in business development — though consistent is a more accurate word here than slow.  Jumping into rainmaking activity without a solid, strategic plan is like jumping into the deep end of the pool without knowing how to swim:  you may do a few uncoordinated strokes, generating lots of splashing, but you won’t get much of anywhere.  In fact, you may get so tired you drown.

The caveat to the slow and steady approach is that waiting until the plan is perfect is just as fatal as not planning at all — and maybe more so. If you refine and rework your plan to the point that it covers all contingencies, sets up a flawless strategy that takes account of every possibility and leaves no opportunities unexplored, you’ll never move from planning to action.  The fear of making mistakes or overlooking some favorable condition creates inaction or the disjointed, uncoordinated action that tends to accompany having no plan at all.

The answer? Make a plan.  Don’t wait for it to be perfect.  Start implementing, and then refine your plan.  That’s the process you’ll follow for the rest of your rainmaking career, and it’s the only way to start and finish strong.  Want more information?  See Chapter Three of The Reluctant Rainmaker:  A Guide for Lawyers Who Hate Selling.  In the meantime, consider this month’s quotes about hurry, fear, and action.

Quotes of the Month:

Do not fear mistakes.  You will know failure.  Continue to reach out.
~Benjamin Franklin

For a nation which has an almost evil reputation for bustle, bustle, bustle, and rush, rush, rush, we spend an enormous amount of time standing around in line in front of windows, just waiting.
~Robert Benchley

Just be patient.  Let the game come to you.  Don’t rush.  Be quick, but don’t hurry.
~Earl Monroe

We have time, there’s no big rush.
~Jimi Hendrix

Action expresses priorities.
~Mohandas Gandhi

Never confuse motion with action.
~Benjamin Franklin

There are risks and costs to action.  But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction.
~John F. Kennedy

When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.
~Confucius

Get action.  Seize the moment.  Man was never intended to become an oyster.
~Theodore Roosevelt

You see, in life, lots of people know what to do, but few people actually do what they know.  Knowing is not enough!  You must take action.
~Tony Robbins

Follow effective action with quiet reflection.  From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.
~Peter Drucker

The time for action is now.  It’s never too late to do something.
~Antoine de Saint-Exupery

John Kotter, a noted expert on leadership and change management, fervently believes that attachment to the status quo is a silent but deadly killer. In A Sense of Urgency, Kotter demonstrates through numerous examples that organizations stall and atrophy as change fails.  Kotter’s bottom line?

If it ain’t broke, break it.

A Sense of Urgency draws on an earlier Kotter book titled Leading Change, in which he proposed instilling a sense of urgency as the first step of an eight-step process to implement successful transformation.  However, he found that increasing urgency is the most difficult and the least developed of the change process steps, thus prompting him to write A Sense of Urgency.

According to Kotter, change is continuous in nature. Rather than a single enormous change, such as an acquisition, continuous change exists in the form of (for example) new strategies and new projects.  Organizations must adopt a proactive approach to these continuous changes, which requires creation of an appropriate sense of real urgency.

Kotter maintains that carrying out proactive change requires organizations both to diagnose and overcome complacency (which he defines as “a feeling that a person has about his or her behavior, about what needs to be done or not done”) and to avoid false urgency, which creates a flurry of activity that distracts participants from legitimate activity that will produce meaningful change.  Kotter proposes several methods to do just that.

One of the most effective methods that Kotter recommends is to seek out opportunities and hazards coming from inside the organization, perhaps from clients, competitors, or the marketplace at large. This awareness encourages innovation and discourages complacency:  “When you don’t see opportunities or hazards, your sense of urgency drops.  With less urgency, you are even less inclined to look outside for the new possibilities and problems.  Complacency grows.”  Kotter offers a laundry list of approaches to develop this outside awareness, including listening to those who have the most interaction with the customer; using the power of video to bring important issues alive; sharing news — good and bad — with all members of the organization; sending people out as scouts to gather intelligence; and bringing key customers, prospects, new hires and information into the organization.

In addition, organizations should develop “urgent patience,” in which workers reject frenetic busywork in favor of working toward goals with purpose and intention, to avoid the danger of false urgency.  By remaining focused on key goals rather than merely generating activity, energy and attention are reserved for formulating actions that will produce desired movement.

One particularly interesting aspect of Kotter’s work is the marriage of logical, analytical, business-centered goals with an emotional connection to those goals. Bringing emotion to a solid business decision creates engagement, promotes workers to set and achieve higher goals, and prompts them to challenge the status quo and their ordinary comfort zones.  The result?  Meaningful change.

What’s in it for lawyers? There’s no question that the legal profession has undergone a complete sea change over the last several years.  The legal industry has been shaken up, and some lawyers are seizing the opportunities that are emerging.  Others, however, seem to be hunkered down, waiting for the storm to pass.  In my opinion, even when the storm itself has ended, we’re going to be left with a new world — there’s no going “home” anymore, Toto — which makes this a dangerous response.

Kotter’s theses speak to why those who are proactively seeking opportunities will be more successful than those who are just responding to crisis.  Effective change agents, he writes, “take carefully considered action to convert initial anxiety and anger into a determination to act now and win.”  Crises force re-evaluation and improvement, and in the absence of an externally-imposed crisis (a “burning platform”), Kotter urges organizations to torch their own platforms to stay abreast of change.

What has your (or your firm’s) response been to the downturn?  What has your own response been to your business development efforts?  If you or your organization tend to be reactive rather than proactive, I’d urge you to pick up A Sense of Urgency. For most lawyers, the platform has been in flames, and the resulting challenges bring both danger and opportunity. If you’re having trouble finding the opportunity, Kotter’s book provides substantial direction.  While complacency is unlikely to be the risk these days, false urgency (“We’ve got to reduce expenses!  Slash the business development budget, now!”) is running rampant in some circles.  Kotter can help.

Periodically, I like to share resources that have made my life easier and more interesting.  Here are my favorites for June:

1. Good Measure Meals. I love to cook, but I have having to cook.  Good Measure Meals is an Atlanta business the offers healthy meals for pick-up or delivery.  It isn’t cheap, but when I ran their prices in comparison to the cost of take-out / delivery / fast food, plus the cost of spoiled groceries, plus the angst of having to figure out what’s for dinner again, I decided the cost was  a no-brainer.  Most metro cities have something similar (search on healthy meal delivery), or you might investigate hiring a personal chef to cook for you weekly.  I think of this as an indulgence with major benefits.
2. Soundview Executive Book Summaries. Let’s face it:  no one has time to read all of the business books released every month.  Soundview does a good job of culling the most noteworthy books each month and providing an in-depth summary of a few, plus short overviews of a handful more.  If the summary intrigues you, you’ll want to read the whole book, but you’ll learn a lot from the summaries and you’ll likely avoid reader’s remorse.
3. Springwise. “Your Essential Fix of Entrepreneurial Ideas,” Springwise will keep you on top of trends in new businesses.  Through daily or weekly emails (so you don’t miss a thing), Springwise will give you brain candy for what’s hot now, and it may even send a tip your way that you can share with clients and prospective clients.  I like Springwise because I learn about businesses worldwide, and about once a month, something triggers a new idea for my own business.  You can even see how many Tweets and Likes a link has garnered, which offers additional evidence of “hot or not” status.
4. They Rule. Designed for visual thinkers who want to explore who sits on the Boards of Directors of various companies and institutions, this site is also useful for finding connections between board members.  They Rule is handy if you want to tease out the connections in an industry, for example.  (It’s also a great way to pass the time of day, so use with care!)