Procrastinating? What you don’t know can hurt your productivity.

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In the fall of 2013, I offered a webinar titled Conquer Procrastination!
How to Manage Your Time to Build a Profitable Practice and a Rich Personal Life. It turned out to be one of my most popular offerings yet. I walked through the five root causes of procrastination and what you can do to counteract each of those causes. After all, no matter how good a solution may be, if it isn’t a solution for the problem you’re experiencing, it won’t help.

How comfortable are you with the business of practicing law? Law is a profession that must operate as a business, and failing to act accordingly will eventually sink a practice, whether solo or a large firm. Lawyers often come to me because they realize they don’t know how to market their services so that the right potential clients can find them. Small firm lawyers also struggle with how to charge clients (especially with today’s emphasis on alternative fees) and other backend business. These lawyers often acknowledge that they’ve known they needed to take on business development activity, for example, but that they’ve put it off until they have no choice.

Not surprising. When you don’t know how to start on a task, or when you don’t have any idea how to do the task, it’s easy to procrastinate.

When you procrastinate on figuring out how to do the task, white lies abound. Promises about starting are made and then broken. You guarantee that we’ll figure it out as soon as you finish this project, or the next, or the next. And the dreaded task gets put off while you check email, organize files, clean the office, and do other unnecessary prep work that substitutes for the real work.

Sometimes you’ll even start searching for information about what you don’t know, but the research becomes its own distraction: instead of seeking enough information to start and then learning as you do the work, you research it so thoroughly that you could write a manual. You become the conceptual expert, but because you’re just reading, not doing, you still don’t really know what to do.

And sometimes a task becomes overwhelming because you can’t see a finish line, and so it’s daunting even to start. If you can’t determine what will mark the end of the task or the project as a whole, it may seem to be too big and too overwhelming to begin. A few clients have come to me with great ideas for a book or a client training program, but without breaking down the implementation into small steps, they remain undone.

Lack of clarity about the finish line often comes into play when you confuse tasks, meaning discrete to-do activities, with projects, which are larger activities composed of multiple tasks. Writing an article that addresses an issue relevant to your practice area is a project; tasks include conceiving the idea, offering it to a journal or newsletter, outlining the substance of the article, doing any necessary research, actually writing the article, editing then, and so on. (This same confusion also explains why you may feel that you never make progress on your to-do list. If your list includes projects that will take more than a few hours, you will likely find that the project will linger for a few days before it’s completed, just because it takes that long to put in enough hours to hit completion.)

When you realize that you’re procrastinating because you don’t know how to start or you can’t predict when you’ll finish, here’s how to stop procrastinating and start moving:

  1. Determine specifically what you need to know to get started. Sometimes knowing the first step is enough to get into action; other times you’ll need to have a better understanding of the project as a whole before you can be comfortable beginning. Either way, knowing a specific first step is critical.
  2. Define the actionable steps. If you can’t see a finish line, you probably need to break a project into tasks. (For more on this, read David Allen’s book Getting Things Done as soon as you can.)
  3. Decide on the help you need. Lawyers are especially susceptible to “lone ranger syndrome,” but sometimes deciding to go it alone is a massive mistake. Yes, you’re smart enough to figure out whatever you need to figure out, but the cost in time, energy, and missed opportunities is often too high.

If you’re procrastinating due to a lack of knowledge about how to start a project or when it will end, identify what you need to know to get back into action. The sooner you admit that you don’t know something, the sooner you can solve the problem and get moving again.

How to deliver exceptional client service

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While I was exploring the ‘net last week to get additional input to my “what is client service… really?” inquiry, I ran across a nice article titled, “How to Deliver Exceptional Client Service.” Written from the perspective of a web agency, the article starts with the bold-but-obvious thesis that just doing what the client hired you to do isn’t exceptional, nor will it set you apart from your competitors.  Consider this:

“You are hired to design and develop a new website for a retail client. The client loves the design, and the pages you develop use the latest in HTML5, CSS3, and responsive design, resulting in a website that works wonderfully across browsers and devices. The e-commerce features of the new website help the client significantly increase their online sales, and the entire project is delivered on time and on budget. Now, is this “exceptional” client service? I don’t think it is.”

Substitute words that are applicable to the kind of legal work you do—you’re hired to negotiate an employment agreement or to handle a divorce or to guide a company through a merger—and you do that, do it well, and do it within the budget the client expects. That’s good client service, sure. But it isn’t, and shouldn’t be, exceptional.

(As a side note, just doing your job in any respect isn’t enough to set you apart from others. That means strategic thinking, responsive communication, and being accessible to your clients won’t distinguish you from other good practitioners. I often urge lawyers to find their points of distinction, and too many count these attributes as extraordinary when they aren’t.)

The article sets out seven ways to uplevel your client service:

  1. Create real relationships. “If we do not engage with our clients in a real, personal way, then we are just another vendor….”
  2. Ask real questions. Connect with your clients.
  3. Participate in more than just projects. Go outside a pure business setting with your clients.
  4. Help them with services that you do not provide. This is where your network supports your business development work: make introductions to help your clients.
  5. Pick up the phone. In today’s environment in which a telephone call may be viewed as an interruption, you’ll want to be careful to equate good communication with a spontaneous telephone call, but the point remains: know how your clients want to receive communications, act accordingly, and do so in a way that builds your relationship.
  6. Face the bad times head-on. How you handle sharing bad news says volumes about you as a practitioner and about how you view your clients and your responsibility to them.
  7. Be thankful and show appreciation. The personal touch is always appreciated, even if it’s not discussed.

Be sure to read the whole article. It’s a quick read, and well worth your time.

 

Evidence-based business development decisions

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Have you ever found yourself wondering whether to pursue one or another course of action for business development purposes? Absent a crystal ball, unfortunately, it’s often difficult to know in advance what will get you the maximum reward. But if you track your results, you’ll be able to use the simplest system ever. Here’s how.

  1. Keep a record of your activities. You can make this simple or quite complex, but you’ll probably find simple to be more actionable. The simplest way to do this is to create a spreadsheet with spaces for date, activity, results,  next step, and decision. Every time you complete an activity, note it.
  2. As you begin to see results (or the lack thereof), update your spreadsheet. Many activities will get immediate results of one form or another (inviting a contact to lunch, for instance), but some may have a longer gap between action and result (actually having lunch with that contact and waiting to see whether you get work, introductions, or some other next step as a result). Schedule a monthly review to keep track of those longer-term results.
  3. Note your next steps.Assuming you’re going to continue this activity, what would your next step be? Ideally, you’d complete this entry after you see results, but if your activity is more prone to long-term results, you may need to project a next step based on the results you anticipate. If that’s the case, be sure that you go back to confirm whether those results actually came to pass. (If not, all the more reason for you to track your activity carefully and improve your predictions!)
  4. Once a quarter, review your activities and results, and decide whether you should stop or continue the activity based solely on the results you’ve attained.You might choose to overrule that decision (if, for instance, your results represent a promising midpoint toward a meaningful outcome), but this decision should be based purely on the evidence you see.
  5. For each “stop” you note, ask yourself what activity you might start to replace it. Use the evidence you’ve gathered to hone your ideas. If every indication is that attending bar association meetings is not beneficial for you, don’t add another bar group and hope for a different result. Instead, investigate an industry organization or a business group.

Want to get even better results? Ask a mentor or trusted colleague to help you determine what to start, stop, and continue. The benefit of this process (adapted from the performance review context) is that you’ll quit making decisions based on emotions like hope (“but if I keep doing this, I might land an amazing piece of business”) or fear (“I’m really comfortable doing this, and if I start doing that instead, it’s going to be hard and I might fail”). And when you remove emotion, you’ll see clearly what to do.

What should you start, stop, or continue?

The Clock Never Runs Out on Legal Business Development

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Sports is a great teaching forum for lessons about business development.

In last weekend’s Super Bowl, the Denver Broncos’ fate was sealed by the beginning of the fourth quarter. There’s always some possibility that a team can make a comeback, but 28 points down with 15 minutes to play takes that possibility almost to zero.

A friend observed that, in the 4th quarter, the Seattle Seahawks were playing just for fun, sure of a win. But here’s the thing: they continued to play hard until the last possession. Not because they “needed” to – even a few mistakes and turnovers probably would not have changed the outcome of the game – but because those who excel in any field continue competing against themselves even when they’ve achieved the initial goal. Not “Whew, we’ve won, let’s relax now,” but “Yes! We won! Now let’s see how far we can take this win!”

And by the same token, even when every player and every fan had given up hope of a Broncos victory, the Broncos continued to play as best they possibly could.  Although they didn’t play anywhere approaching the level that got them into the Super Bowl, they didn’t give up just because it was clear they were going to lose. Instead, they kept fighting to minimize the loss.

What does this have to do with legal business development? It’s all about attitude. Attitude, mindset, mental approach, belief system – all of these concepts describe not just what you do, but how you do it.

Where do you stop yourself when you’re succeeding? This shows up most frequently in the feast/famine cycle: stopping your business development work simply because you’re too busy and don’t need the work…Right up until the moment that you realize you don’t have enough work, and you have to start all over again. If things are going well, how can you ensure that you’re pushing the envelope to make things go even better?

Even more importantly, where do you stop yourself when you’re not succeeding? It doesn’t take a failure to knock some people off their game. Sometimes it’s just being slow to get results. We all want to see speedy success, but especially when it comes to bringing in new business, it doesn’t always work that way. That’s why it’s so important to check your metrics. Are you making progress toward your objectives? (And that’s why it’s important to set goals, so that you can measure progress and not just movement.)

Of course, sometimes failure is final. A critical skill is knowing when to keep pounding away and when to change course. (For more on this, see Seth Godin’s short and smart book The Dip. You’ll find my review here.)

How you choose to push yourself or back off is telling when it comes to whether you’re likely to succeed in building a consistent pipeline of new business. Next time you meet a business development goal you’ve set, ask whether there’s something more you can and should do to exceed that goal. Push yourself just a bit further. And if you catch yourself thinking that you failed or that your plan is never going to work, take a breath, question your assumptions (which often requires some outside help), and see what you can do to transform your failure into success.

Because here’s the truth: the clock never runs out on business development as it does on a football game. You don’t have to accept poor results as the end of the story. Instead, you can reevaluate your plan, reshape your strategy, rethink your objectives, and get some help. Keep fighting smart, and your failure will not be final.

Struggling with failure? Legal Rainmaking Myths offers a full section on the misapprehensions that keep smart lawyers from succeeding in legal business development. Find the Kindle version here; the print version will be available in a few weeks.

Legal Business Development: January’s Must-Read Resources

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We’re all swamped by information these days, but I’ve cut through a lot of that to unearth just three whitepapers and articles you need to read.  Without further ado:

  1. Lawyers ought to blog for an audience of two.  I often discuss blogging with my clients, whether they’re in large firms or solo practice.  Blogging is a terrific way to build a reputation and relationships, and it creates a body of work that you can draw on in numerous ways.  The pushback tends to be twofold: what can I write about, and how will I find time to write it? Keep a list of topics that would interest your ideal client, and check out this article for some “how to write” tips. Writing a note to one particular person simplifies the process and is more useful as well. Even if you aren’t a blogger, read this article for its insight into content marketing generally. It’s quick.
  2. The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Selling Anything.  The article’s overall points are strong, no nonsense, and a very doable “good human” take on selling.  And, like most lawyers, this author has an initial resistance to the idea.  It isn’t what I would call a “cheat sheet” (don’t look for a numbered action-item list) but it might just shift your attitude about sales and your understanding of the underlying dynamics.
  3. Is Your Law Firm Looking to Hire an SEO Consultant?  This whitepaper is intended for small firm and solo lawyers, but SEO is such an important topic that you should read it regardless of your practice setting.  It suggests 7 questions to ask an SEO consultant, and question 1 (which addresses in part the easy-to-overlook ethical considerations in SEO that spill over into many aspects of marketing) is critical for you to keep top-of-mind.

Have you found a resource I should have listed?  Please share!

Audio Interview with Deborah Dubree, Author of Average Is An Addiction

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Are you ever curious about what it would be like to sit down with the author of a useful book and find out how she came to write the book and to dig deeper into the topic?  Although the written word is powerful, there’s nothing like a conversation to flesh out ideas and check their application to your own situation.

This week I had the opportunity to interview Deborah Dubree, author of Average is an Addiction.  We had a terrific conversation about what it means to be average, the cost of mediocrity, how to find your “edge” over the competition, the role of emotion in high performance, and how to bounce back from the inevitable defeat.

I’d intended to record one interview, but the conversation was so good that we recorded a second, each lasting about 20 minutes.  Take a listen today to find out more about how you can step out of average, once and for all.

Download part 1 here (about 22 minutes)

Download part 2 here (about 18 minutes)


After you listen, please drop me a note and let me know how the conversation impacted you and what additional questions you’d like to ask.

Legal Business Development: Will Your Clients and Contacts Think Of You First When They Need Help?

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Jon, a midcareer lawyer working in a boutique law firm, handles white-collar criminal defense matters.  Most of his clients come through referrals from other lawyers.  Far too often, those lawyers fail to appreciate that they need someone who practices in the area every day.  Instead, they try to handle a matter themselves.  After doing the best they can and finding that their best is insufficient, they discover that they need someone who knows the government prosecutors and who can read the subtle signals in government requests.  That’s where Jon comes into the picture.

Jon can only get referrals early in the process–early enough to be of maximum assistance to the client–if the lawyers who send those referrals, think of him as soon as a white collar issue arises.  A prevalent myth holds that simply being a great lawyer who gets great results is enough to bring in business.  Unfortunately, if you are not top-of-mind for your clients and contacts, they won’t think to call you even if they do need you.  What’s more, especially if you deal with clients who are not legally sophisticated, they may need you and not even know it.

In an ideal world, your contacts will always think to call you when there’s a matter with which you might be able to help.  In the real world, your contacts are likely to be so preoccupied with their own concerns that they won’t think of you unless you have taken steps to ensure that they know your skills and that you regularly engage with them.

What’s the solution?  Deliver interesting and useful information to your clients (including former clients) and contacts on a regular basis, and use that delivery of information to build and maintain relationships with them.  When you engage in a useful way with your contacts, you raise your profile with those contacts.  You may become the go-to person in a particular area of practice by virtue of the relationships you build over time.

Here’s what you need to do:

  • Create a clear description of your practice, including examples.  Test it to be sure that a wide variety of people understand what you do and what kind of work you handle.
  • Share that description (in a natural way) when you talk with others, and share the stories that will root that description in their memory.  We’d all like to believe that a single explanation of the work we do is sufficient, but chances are that it isn’t.
  • Look for opportunities to deliver useful information.  That delivery can come in the form of widely distributed newsletters or client alerts, or you can send interesting articles or thought snippets one-by-one.  Just be sure the information you share is relevant and adds value for the recipient.
  • Whenever you get in touch with someone in your network, create opportunities to build the relationship just a little more.  Relationship-building doesn’t have to mean a 3-hour lunch.  It can be as simple as, “Did you catch the game last night?  Do you follow [seasonal sport]?  Who’s your team?”  When you keep in touch, you’ll have plenty of chances to have a short exchange that will grow your relationship.

Everyone is operating inside his or her own bubble, and it’s your job to reach into the bubble (in a welcomed, non-intrusive way) as a reminder that you’re a likeable person who’s ready to help.  Done properly, that message will be exemplified in everything you do, and you’ll feel much less pressure to make a plea for business.

 

Legal Business Development Infographics

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As you’re no doubt aware, infographics are hot.  In my view, that’s because infographics are easily consumable written “edu-tainment”.  Although they’re especially valuable for the business-to-consumer market, they can be useful to convey information to anyone.  Check, for example, this Pinterest board of law infographics collected by Gyi Tsakalakis.

I’ve been collecting infographics that concern marketing, and today I’d like to share the top four with you.  If one addresses areas you know you need to work on to build your book of business, print it out and put it somewhere you’ll see frequently.  And then, most importantly, apply the information.

  1. LinkedIn Marketing Strategy.  I like this infographic because it addresses a must-do activity that few lawyers use effectively and gives tips for beginner, intermediate, and advanced users.  The title is a little misleading in that the strategy is designed to help you gain connections and exposure but doesn’t offer a clear path to turn those into new business, but it’s a great start and one every lawyer should be working on.
  2. How to Create Content Ideas for a New Client.  Although this infographic is designed for markets who support businesses, it offers some great tips on what makes for good content.  My favorite tip (and one that I share every time I mention legal newsletters or updates) is “Don’t reiterate the news.  Find a way to connect the news to the client’s industry.”  In other words, share your insights on why the news matters to your readers.
  3. Grow Your Business:  Your simple guide to building online.  I have always maintained that the average lawyer is much better advised to outsource technical online marketing, including website building, pay-per-click advertising, and SEO.  The technology and the rules change quickly enough that trying to stay up-to-date is impractical for non-professionals.  However, you can’t outsource what you don’t understand.  This infographic gives a nice overview and flowchart for using each of these methods, as well as social media (which can be partially outsourced if closely managed) to grow a business or a practice.
  4. Your Video Marketing Handbook.  I believe that video marketing is a tremendous opportunity for lawyers.  Not the cheesy “Have YOU been in an accident” advertising style videos, but short, high-content and high-quality videos that address various legal issues and start the viewer’s relationship with a lawyer or law firm.  This infographic offers some useful information about why video matters and how to use video effectively.  More a teaser than a true handbook, it’s still a useful resource.

Legal Business Development: Evaluate the Cost/Benefit Ratio Before Agreeing to Write or Speak

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Before you decide to speak or to write an article concerning your area of practice, you must ensure that your time will be well invested.  Ask yourself the following questions:

  1. Will this reach the right audience?  Writing for or speaking to the wrong audience (meaning, an audience composed of people whom you do not serve) will not bring enough benefit to justify the investment of time, so ask this foundational question before you begin.  Your business development plan will define the right audience.
  2. How much time will this require?  Short, practical articles (done well) will deliver good results in a reasonable time.  Longer articles can be valuable in building your credibility, but they take a greater investment of time.  Speaking always requires preparation, especially if you’re delivering a new presentation.  Be realistic in your estimate of the time required — before you begin.
  3. What results would make the expenditure of time worthwhile?  As with any business development activity, you must measure the results that you get from writing or speaking.  What’s more, you must know, before you begin, what results would make it worthwhile for you to have taken on the activity.  You may find that writing an article will pay off significant dividends for credibility enhancement, for example, but if you’re hoping to bring in new business in the near future as a direct result of the time you put in, writing almost certainly isn’t your best bet.
  4. How does this opportunity to write or speak compare to more immediate high-yield activity?  Regardless of how terrific your article is, and regardless of the subject matter and the kind of results that you achieve, writing is a slow-yield opportunity.  It is incredibly unlikely that you will write an article, have it published, and have your phone ring with a potential client calling you only because they saw that article.  So, you must consider, before you begin, whether you would be better advised to invest your time in something that is a higher-yield activity.

Writing and speaking can be an effective way to increase your professional reach, or it can be a time-consuming approach that delivers disappointing results.  Going through these questions will help you to make foundational decisions that will get you on the right track — before you begin.

Book Review: Average Is An Addiction

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Average Is An Addiction by Deborah Dubree

Where are you average?  Make no mistake:  every area of life, even among top performers, separates into top, middle, and bottom tier.  Author Deborah Dubree notes that:

very few people have the guts, determination, discipline and commitment to break out of average and become the greatest at what they do.  Some people…have settle into being moderately satisfied with their current level of success.  Still others didn’t even realize they had options.

But those who are willing to be bold and push the limits of performance have the opportunity to bust through mediocrity and to move to the top in every area of their professional and personal lives.

Deborah Dubree started her career as a receptionist with a high school degree; she became owner and CEO of a $20 million commercial construction company.  Deborah is anything but average, and she now works with professional athletes (think NFL players from the Green Bay Packers, San Francisco 49ers, and more), college athletes, business professionals, and more to help them escape the trap of average.

Although this talk of getting out of mediocrity and reaching excellence might sound at first blush like motivational hoo-hah, it’s anything but.

“Average equals expendable.”  Large firm lawyers aw this principle in action at the height of the 2009 economic plunge, when those who had done all the right things and performed as expected (in other words, the average of that band of professionals) suffered layoffs.  Those who were above average either retained their jobs or had the opportunity to escape a firm’s failure by making a lateral move.

In more general terms, “[a]verage thinking leads to average behavior, which leads to average results, which leads to average and sometimes catastrophic consequences.”

Dubree instructs top performers to “tame and train the B.E.A.S.T.”:

  • B   –>   Beliefs:  eliminate unfounded and unreliable beliefs
  • E   –>   Emotions:  avoid those that undermine performance and encourage those that empower you
  • A   –>   Acute awareness:  consciously design your objectives and create a plan to reach them
  • S   –>   Self-identify:  know who you are and who you can become when you are your highest, best performing self
  • T   –>   Talk and walk:  design your self-presentation for maximum effectiveness

Through the 7 “C”s of Excellence, Dubree offers practical how-to steps on how to implement her anti-average action plan, by using choice, consciousness, change, courage, confidence, commitment, and consistency.

What’s the relevance for lawyers?

One of the key stumbling blocks for lawyers seeking to grow a book of business is contentment.  If you settle for “good enough,” it’s a safe bet that you’ll never push yourself, you’ll never go the extra mile, and you’ll never accomplish what you might otherwise have done.  You’ll be average.  (The same problem adheres for those who accept high competence in a professional skill and don’t pursue excellence.)

It’s easy to say you’re going to stop accepting average, but it’s tough to take the necessary actions and make the necessary changes without a roadmap.  Dubree’s experience in working with professional athletes should speak to lawyers:  operating in a highly competitive, lone-ranger culture in which admitting any weakness can be career suicide, it takes courage and dedication to reject the status quo and aim for higher performance.

Using the steps Dubree outlines, you’ll be able to identify the areas of your life in which you are an average performer, to decide whether that’s acceptable to you, and to step up your game if not.  This is the ideal time of year to take a retrospective look at 2013 to see whether you’re satisfied with the level of your performance or whether you’ve been merely content.  Average Is An Addiction is an entertaining and quick read, and if you apply its teachings, you can shift the trajectory of your career and your life from average to excellence.