Leadership for Lawyers

A Lawyer in Uzbekistan? We’ve Got That

Joining a law firm network can bring you referrals, connect you with co-counsel around the world and even provide a legitimate reason for interesting and productive travel. Sound like it's for you and your firm? Could be. This morning, marketing guy Mark Beese explains the concept, the cost and the upside and downside of the whole law firm network thing.  Read my AttorneyatWork.com Daily Dispatch on law firm networks. More...

Turning a Retreat into an Advance; A Guide for Creating a Killer Retreat

I always thought that the word "retreat" was a lousy moniker for what firms do to reconnect with colleagues, recharge their batteries and plot their next strategic moves.  Dictionary.com defines "retreat" as:

    1. the forced or strategic withdrawal of an army or an armed force before an enemy, or the withdrawing of a naval force from action.

    2. the act of withdrawing, as into safety or privacy; retirement; seclusion.

    3. a place of refuge, seclusion, or privacy.

Instead, I'd like to see them referred to an "Advance".  The definition has a much more productive meaning:

    1.  to move or bring forward: The general advanced his troops to the new position.

    2.  to bring into consideration or notice; suggest; propose.

    3.  to improve; further: to advance one's interests.

As a former law firm CMO and consultant, I've planned dozens of retreats, from all-firm to partner retreats, practice and industry group retreats, associate retreats and marketing/business development team retreats.  Here's a guide for creating an effective and memorable "Advance."

1.  An "Advance" is a retreat with a purpose

Align your retreat objectives with one or more key firm goals for the year, such as increased business development, merger integration, client service focus, changing service delivery models, etc...  Create a theme for the event and tie all elements (keynote, breakouts, recreational activities, dinner...) to the theme. (click below for more...)

Marketing Individual Lawyers

Steve Bell of Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice and John Hellerman of Hellerman Baretz Communications, working on the premise that clients hire lawyers, not firms, penned an insightful article on why it is good marketing to promote individual lawyers with a few great tips:

• Define what you offer (articulate your Value Proposition)
• Ask for referrals
• Engage in a personal PR campaign
• Speak in small group settings
• Become a point of contact, a connector
• Communicate what makes you successful (My clients would say....)
• Create powerful introductions (Verbal Business Card)
• Repurpose your efforts; recycle every talk, article, blog post, email news item for other purposes.
• Share content through blogs and social media.

 

Lawyers can Benefit from Coaching

Last month I spoke to the Legal Marketing Association Chapter in Denver on coaching lawyers, along with Bob Weiss of Alyn-Weiss Associates and Karen Samuel Jones, a parter at Perkins Coie.  Janet Ellen Raasch wrote a brief article on the panel discussion.  With Janet's permission, here's the article:

Just like athletes, Lawyers can benefit from (business development) coaching

by Janet Ellen Raasch

Professional athletes rely on their coaches – experienced individuals who help them hone their performance skills, create focused competition strategies and maintain a high level of motivation over the course of a career.

Similarly, a good coach can help any lawyer who is thrown into the competitive arena of business development.

Business development skills are rarely taught in law school.  If these do not come naturally to you, a coach can help.

Business development strategy is hard to formulate in the daily scramble to produce quality work for your clients.  If such focus does not come naturally to you, a coach can help.

The motivation to engage in business development activities runs hot and cold.  It may be sparked by a good article, speaker or training session, but can be difficult to maintain.  If you find it difficult to stay motivated, a coach can help. (more...)

A Recipe for Culture Change

Perhaps the greatest challenge to today's law firm leaders is how to change a firm's culture.  In this Strategy + Business article, "Eat Your Peas: A Recipe for Culture Change"  author Rutger von Post outlines the steps a leader needs to take to effect positive change, using Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution TV show as a model.  Oliver set out to change the eating habits in the most unhealthiest town in America.  Here's a summary:

1. Learn and understand the local culture:  The problem doesn't lie with an individual or statistic, rather it is part of the culture.  In your firm, what are the underlying assumptions, beliefs, values and behaviors that drive (or prevent) desired behavior?  Do attorneys avoid cross-marketing because they don't trust their partners?  Do they fail to share information and experience because they feel they need to protect their silo?   Ask attorneys one-on-one about why they do (or don't) engage in certain activities to understand the values and beliefs behind the culture.
2. Communicate a vision of a positive, future reality:  Leaders must repeatedly communicate what the future could be like if goals are met. 
3. Demonstrate success:  Start small and build on successes.  Oliver started with inspiring one family to eat their peas.  Lawyers are more skeptical than most, and a luke-warm success or early failure will doom your efforts to make change.  I encourage leaders to quietly  'beta-test' first, refine and build a series of successes before launching a big initiative.
4. Identify key influencers:  von Post characterizes three types of influencers that are critical to culture change:   (a) Culture Carriers  - well networked, respected and influential people who are seen as informal leaders and "keepers of traditions." (b) Authority Figures - Managing Partners, Department and Practice Group Leaders, Executive Committee members and others with formal management roles. (c) Pride Builders - " people who are respected as peers and are part of the groups where change is targeted.  They embrace new behaviors as early adopters, and influence others in turn."  Once you identify key influencers, meet with them one-on-one to find ways to win support.
5. Formal and informal change:  von Post puts it this way,

"Some elements — defining the aspiration, finding key influencers, targeting behavior — are analogous to the informal elements of any organizational change initiative. Oliver’s success in Huntington came in part from his uncanny ability to energize and motivate the citizens, build informal networks, and help individuals experiment with new healthy eating behaviors. But Oliver also deployed formal mechanisms — the same kind to which executives often turn when embarking on a transformation initiative in a corporate setting — such as redesigning reporting structures, setting goals, and communicating priorities to the whole organization. These top-down, rational activities are commonly seen as primary levers for aligning the organization in the same direction."

Check out the article, then consider your recipe for cultural change.

What is the "WHY" of Your Firm?

This post by Mary Abraham caught my eye about "The Purpose-Driven Organization".  She references this TED talk by Simon Sinek, author of "Start with Why".  Sinek claims that people buy not the "What" of a company or even the "How" of a company, but rather the "Why" of a company.  Most companies (and law firms) have a good grip on what they provide and how they provide it, but struggle with the "Why" of the entity's existence. 

Sinek "The goal is not to do business with people who need what you have.  The goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe."  Watch the video:

 

When coaching lawyers - whether in a leadership or business development contact, I often ask them to articulate their vision, purpose and values.  I ask, "What is your cause?  Why are you doing this?  What good things will come from your effort?  What do you believe and how can you attract others who share your values and cause?"

Sinek:

"We follow those who lead not because we have to, but because we want to. We follow those who lead not for them, but ourselves.  And it is those that start with WHY that have the ability to inspire those around them, or find others that inspire them."

What is the Why of your firm?  Of your practice?  What ideas and values do you stand for?  How do your clients and potential clients find out about your Why?

Attorney-at-Work: Daily Tips on Client Service, Technology and Lawyer Poetry

If you haven't signed up to receive a daily email by www.attorneyatwork.com, check it out today.  Daily posts are authored by prominent experts in law firm management, technology, marketing and others.  Recently, Jordan Furlong contributed this post:

"Get Your Lawyers to Write Poetry

Specifically, get them to write legal poetry.

Have your lawyers share, once a week, a single poetic expression of legal information. They must write a poem, as short or as long as they wish, that summarizes an important case in their area of practice or expresses practical legal advice for clients. Collect these poems for three months, then publish the collection with appropriate imagery as a small booklet or PDF file, giving copies to all your clients.

The poetic form can be anything the lawyers want.

It can be iambic pentameter:

“Class actions can’t proceed,” the high court found,
“Without an issue common to the class.”
They couldn’t find a unifying ground
Of bias, so they gave Wal-Mart a pass.

It can be a limerick:

A clever young Briton named Max
Thought he lived in a haven for tax.
But some new legislation
Brought much aggravation;
Our update here has all the facts.

It can be a haiku:

The breeze may be free
But you still need a license
For your wind turbine.

And it can be schoolyard doggerel:

If your will don’t have a witness
It’ll fail the test for fitness.

Yes, of course, this is kind of silly. But it’s also kind of fun. And it has a serious purpose: training lawyers to say what they need to say as concisely and effectively as they can. Poetry is condensed prose, expressed lightly and precisely, so that the underlying truth can be more effectively shared. Think your clients could benefit from some of that?"

Check out the archive, and sign up.

49 Sandler Tips on Youtube

Looking for a few quick business development tips?  Sandler Sales Training has posted 49 videos on their YouTube channel.  Most videos are two minutes in length.  Nearly all are applicable to professional service sales.

New FT/MPF Survey Shine Light on Client Expectations

The Financial Times and Marketing Partner Forum recently published two reports (download here - free registration required) of law firms and clients that gives us a glimpse into what clients expect in a post-crisis world.  Some highlights:

• Law firms struggle more than clients with globalization.  Clients rank "International Focus" as second to "Understanding of Industry" in importance when selecting a firm.   Only about 33% of law firms felt confident working with international, emerging markets.
• Clients are increasingly focused on a structured procurement process and on-going performance management.  Clients are looking for new ways to measure and evaluate law firms and their individual lawyers.
• Both firms and clients agree that there is sigificant pressure to move away from the billable hour and move towards other pricing models.  Project management skills and processes are being required by clients to improve efficiency among law firms.  For basic work, the most important criteria is competitive pricing, but it is more of a perceived issue by law firms than by clients.  Transparency of fee pricing was very important to clients. 
• For a healthy client-firm relationship, clients want more communication between their outside lawyers and the C-suite, especially with the CEO, Chairman, and practice leaders.  No surprise, clients want firms to (in rank order)  respond quickly, understand their business, instill trust, communicate frequently, be transparent and open, develop links between 'C-Suites' of firm and client, become embedded and anticipate needs.
• Turn-offs include (rank order) slow response, lack of transparency, inappropriate advice, a sales-oriented approach, lack of attention, inconsistent service and others.
• It appears that while firms are investing heavily in social media and digital media, clients rate those marketing techniques as least effective.  Reports on current legal trends are seen as most effective by clients.followed by seminars and events.
• Want to know how to measure client satisfaction?  Client say an informal meeting is the most effective, followed by a structured meeting with lead partner and a client survey.
• Less than 10% of firms claim that they are highly effective in 'measuring performance and client satisfaction".
• Clients look for their attorneys to be highly knowledgable about their business and industry, but firms "may be neglecting this". 

For lawyers and firms seeking to service corporate clients, it is worth scrolling through "A New Dawn: Lessons for Law Firm Management in the Post-crisis World" and "FT/MPF Roadshow: Putting clients at the heart of your management".

"Transparent Generation" should think twice about what they post

Steven Silvers, on his blog "Scatterbox", writes about how employers frequenly google job candidates as part of the screening process.   Millennials, who grew up using social media before they can write cursive, should think twice about posting their innermost thoughts, feelings and pictures from last week's party.  Silver writes,

"For nearly the last decade my personal thoughts and feelings have been registered on the internet," an intern candidate wrote to me recently. "I have to wonder, do I need to start avoiding message boards I've posted on for years for the sake of an organization I'll belong to?"

It depends on the content and context, of course. But what he and his generation are coming to realize is that their use of the Internet to socialize and explore their innermost selves has created a transparent, permanent record by which complete strangers are making decisions about their future"

I've been googling candidates to learn about their digital reputations for years.  Ten years ago, I did a search on a potential candidate.  Her personal web site appeared on the first page.  One click and I saw that she posted pictures of her latest sonogram.  She was pregnant and wanted to share her new joy with her family (and apparently everyone else, includng potential employers).  I ended up interviewing her and hiring her  - she was a great addition to the team.  But the lesson was clear - everything you post, and posted about you, frames the first impression you make to potenial employers and clients. 

Read Silver's post here.