Archive for category: Coaching for lawyers

We’re down to 41 days left in 2013…  Just 25 days, excluding weekends, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve.  Not much time to make a big shift…  Or is it?

The stereotypical lawyer’s answer:  it depends on what you do with that time.  And that’s why I’m inviting you to accept the 2013 Finish Strong Challenge.

Here’s how you play:

• Choose one focus for the remainder of the year.  You could select networking, getting back in touch with former clients or other contacts, getting that article written or that blog set up and populated…  The focus depends on your own business development plan, but the key here is to choose only one focus for the challenge.
  Of course, you can choose to take on other business development activity during this time, but having a single focus point will make the challenge crystal clear.
• Decide how many days you’re going to take action.  I’m a fan of consistency in business development activity, so I’d urge you to choose daily activity. (And I do mean daily, not daily on business days.)  Your challenge can be effective if you take action on selected days, but since this is a sprint to the end of the year, give serious thought to taking action as frequently as possible between now and the end of the year.  You may even find it’s a habit you’ll want to continue!  Whatever schedule you select, be sure to note it in your calendar or elsewhere so you remember which days you set up as Challenge Days.
• Select your measurable activity.  Examples might include contacting one former client per Challenge Day by telephone, by note, or in person; commenting on  a blog relevant to your practice on each Challenge Day; or making a useful introduction to a member of your network on each of your three-times-a-week Challenge Days.
  Be sure that the activity you select fits in with your business development plan.  Sprinting through pointless activity won’t do you any good.
• Set up a tracking system for your activity.  If you’re an iPhone user, look at apps such as Habit List; if you prefer low-tech, consider adopting Jerry Seinfeld’s “don’t break the chain” system.  The key here is to track your activity and your results, so you’ll be able to see the correlation.
• Set up a tracking system for your results.  Be sure that you’re noting not just new business that you land (which, depending on your practice, may or may not happen in this short time) but also interim successes such as making useful new contacts or getting invited to speak to a group of ideal clients.
• Design an accountability system for your Challenge Days.  Get a colleague or friend in on the action and check in daily by email or short (2-minute) phone calls.  If you’re a lone wolf, check out online systems like HassleMe.
• Make your declaration.  Drop me an email, and I’ll cheer you on.  No guarantees, but I might even be able to share some extra tips with you.
• Do what you committed to do, when you committed to doing it, the way you committed to doing it.  Obviously, this is the crux of the Challenge.
• After January 1, evaluate your progress.  What did you learn?  What went well, and what didn’t?  What was effective?  How do you want to carry the challenge forward into 2014?

Will you accept the Challenge?  Take 10 minutes today to make your plans — after all, with so few days left, you don’t want to miss a single one!  (If you’re finding it difficult to get started with the Challenge, you may not have a business development plan that’s clear enough to show you what to do.  If that’s the case, send me an email requesting a complimentary consultation.  Trying to build a book of business without a carefully-designed plan will leave you wandering aimlessly, wasting time.)

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 k now, your relationship has atrophied.

But, like a 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 visible 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 to do 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 the 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 to 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 in 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.

You’ve probably heard the time-proven suggestions about email:  set aside the first 90 minutes of your day for productive work, not for checking email; disable “new email” notifications; be careful when you address an email; use descriptive subject lines…  On and on and on.  If these tips are new to you, you have an opportunity to recover some of the time you’re now spending on email.

But these tips don’t tell you what to do when you’re faced with an overflowing in-box filled with client communications and requests, administrative matters, newsletters of professional and personal interest, and who knows what else.  An in-box isn’t designed for storage; important emails can easily get lost.  You need to take charge so that your daily activity isn’t subject to other people’s priorities as expressed through their emails.

Here’s how to process an overwhelming in-box easily and effectively, so you can get on to the real work.  (Be sure to set aside a block of time — at least an hour — to complete these steps if you have more than 100 emails.)

1. Sort the folder by sender.  Sorting by sender will let you drill down quickly based on how important the information is likely to be from a particular email correspondent.
   1. First, handle emails from clients, opposing counsel, or other professional contacts.  Respond quickly if possible, and if a response requires more thought or research, highlight or flag those emails or move them to a folder labeled “Respond ASAP” or similar.  Whatever you do, do not allow them to recede back into the chaos.
   2. Delete any emails that you don’t need to read, including those from retailers and spammers.  Yes, you might miss the deal of the century, but it is unlikely — and certainly not your top concern.
   3. You will likely find any emails that contain good information — perhaps ABA newsletters or other newsletters that you find useful (maybe even this newsletter).  Delete them.  If you’re concerned that you’ll miss something, move the emails to a “Review Later” folder and calendar a date by which you’ll delete anything you haven’t otherwise handled.
2. Sort your in-box by subject.  Sorting by subject may help you recognize important emails that you haven’t already caught.
   1. Delete or file everything that does not require a response.  (And note that the standard is “require”, not call for or deserve.  Your goal is to streamline.)
   2. If you can respond to an email within two minutes, do so.
   3. If the response will take more than two minutes, highlight or flag the email or move it to a follow-up folder.
3. Respond to all of the emails you have marked for follow-up.  This step will require the bulk of your time.  Set a goal to have it completed in no more than a week.
4. Resolve to process your in-box regularly going forward, using these steps:
   1. Scan your email for important emails.  During this step, delete anything that you can tell immediately does not require attention, such as a reminder of an appointment of which you are well aware or spam.  Do not read any email, though, even if you know you will delete a message as soon as you have read it.  The only purpose for this step is to find anything important that may be buried in your in-box.
   2. Read each email.
      1. Delete or file every email that does not require a response.
      2. If you can respond to an email in 2 minutes or less, do so.
      3. If an email will require a more in-depth response:
         1. If you are checking email on an hourly basis, move the mail to a folder labeled “Respond Later”, and return to it during your designated time to deal with correspondence.
         2. If you are checking email only 2 or 3 times a day and processing your email fully during that time, respond to each email — and be sure to keep track of your time, if billable.  Your initial review of your in-box will allow you to address all emails pertinent to a particular matter in one block, which will facilitate billing for your email review.
   3. File or delete each email after sending your response.

Applying these steps may take some practice, but they’re integral to avoiding email overwhelm.  Where will you start?

“You’re working too hard.  Why don’t you look for ways to work smarter?”  That was a key element of the feedback I received during this quarter’s mastermind meeting.  After hearing my colleagues’ suggestions, I put some new practices in place to help me work smarter, and I do believe I can already see a difference..

And you’ve no doubt heard this distinction before.  All sorts of management experts talk about how to work more efficiently, more effectively, maximizing the results of time.  Some of them even have good ideas.

I’ve been thinking about what it means to say that practicing law is hard work.  I don’t have any question that it is challenging and demanding, for reasons that I’ve mentioned numerous times.  When clients question whether it’s possible to “work smart” in practice, my answer is a resounding yes.

Working smart means managing your physical environment.  If you take the time to keep your desk clear, so it’s always easy to locate the files and the resources you need.  Nothing wastes time like clutter.  The simple act of taking an extra 5-10 minutes to clear and tidy your work area at the end of the day can yield significant time savings.  I had to learn this the hard way, but having learned it, it’s become a standard for myself in the office.

Working smart means managing energy.  If I’m exhausted and I try to power through rather than resting, chances are good that it’ll take me more time than usual to accomplish anything.  I’ll make more mistakes, and I won’t be as creative as I might otherwise be.  I’ve put structures in place to take advantage of my energy rhythms (you’ll often find me at my desk at 6 AM, but only rarely after 6 PM) and I’ve been working to enhance my energy with enough rest, enough exercise, good hydration and nutrition, and fun.

Working smart means managing commitments.  It’s easy to say yes to every demand, but it just isn’t smart.  Making intentional and purposeful decisions about which commitments to accept and which to decline allows me to avoid the frazzled, frantic pace that undermines good work.  By the same token, I aim to prioritize my work so that I accomplish what’s most important first.

Working smart means managing people.  Good delegation enhances effective work.  Whether it’s requesting research or asking an assistant to draft routine communications for my review and editing, delegation frees my time so I can concentrate on doing the things that others can’t do.  (Thanks to our global marketplace, getting help is easier and less expensive than ever before.  I’m hiring.  Should you?)

It’s important to note that what’s smarter for one person will be useless for another.  You must identify what makes sense for your practice, your preferences, and your clients.  (That’s why Seven Foundations of Time Mastery for Attorneys includes numerous exercises that make it easy to figure out how you can best apply the principles I share.)

Does any of this mean that it’s possible to take shortcuts and reap the rewards of practice without putting in plenty of time and effort?  Absolutely not.  But attention to smart management will make the time and effort you put into your practice pay maximum rewards.

Do you often find yourself doing one activity and thinking about another?  Maybe you check email while you’re on the phone or even while talking with someone in your office.  Or you scan the paper or browse the web while your partner or child is trying to tell you something?

We generally think we’re making good use of our too-short time by multi-tasking, right?  And yet, most of us have also had the experience of getting “busted”:  the person who’s talking realizes we aren’t listening, or we make an error because we’re juggling two (or more) tasks simultaneously.  At a minimum, our stress level goes up because the brain isn’t wired for multi-tasking.

Try being fully present with what you’re doing.  If you’re in conversation, close your email and put your phone on “do not disturb” so you can direct all of your attention to the discussion.  Conversations tend to go more quickly when you’re fully present because you’re at full attention, and you’ll notice that you catch not only what’s said, but also the things that are going unsaid that should perhaps be explored.

For instance, imagine that a colleague is briefing you on an expert witness deposition prep session and the words say all is well.  If you are fully present to your colleague, you might notice tension in his face that you would miss if you were looking at papers or email while he’s talking.  Seeing the tension, you’d have an opportunity to inquire and learn that although he can’t put his finger on the issue, something isn’t right about the testimony or the way the expert is presenting it.  That’s valuable information that could go undetected.  (Should your colleague raise the concern without being asked?  Absolutely.  However, many of us are uncomfortable bringing up a concern without any evidence to back it up, and so he might well not mention it.)

The need for presence is even more true when it comes to relationship-building as a part of client service of business development activity.  After all, if you can’t bring your full focus to your client (or potential client, or referral source), why would that person believe that you’d bring your full focus to a legal problem?  Relationships require attention, and attention and multi-tasking are incompatible.

How to become fully present?  I recommend meditation or even a quick centering exercise, which can be as simple as taking 3 or 4 slow, deep breaths.  Bring all of your attention to the present activity, and if you find your attention wandering, breathe deeply again and bring it back.  This level of focus will allow you to be more effective and less stressed.

(Think this sounds silly?  Check out these posts about the business benefits of meditation.  In the 21st century, meditation is recognized for physical and psychological benefits galore.)

As Malcolm Forbes said, “Presence is more than just being there.”  Being fully present focuses all of your senses on the task or person at hand.  It’s a learned skill.  Try an experiment:  resolve to be fully present for a couple of hours a day and see what you notice.  I’d love to hear your feedback!