Recently in Self Mastery Category

Last week I spoke at an NCBA CLE Program on marketing yourself and how to do it. One of the things that I tried to stress was to be yourself and not try to be what you think others expect you to be. Before you can market yourself or even run your own law firm (or even a legal team) you truly have to not only know yourself but be yourself.

I see far too many lawyers trying to live up to the lawyer image in their minds. I am absolutely convinced no one knows what a lawyer image is today. Lawyers and law firms are changing the rules daily on what is the image and look needed to succed. Those that are succeeding are doing it only because they are comfortable in their own skins.

One of the advantages of age (Wisdom of the Ages) is the ability not to worry about what others think but to worry about what you think. Once you get yourself aligned with you values, living the life of character you want, then the rest comes easy. It truly is the laws of attraction.

And every year you give yourself a personal tune-up. Think about where you are in life. Ask yourself if you are doing what you want to do. Have you made progress in your goals. Do you have a passion for what you do. And does your family have a passion for what you do.

As we come to the end of this year I am encouraging everyone I know to take a couple of days. Make it your wake-up call for this year. You can hire a facilitator or do it yourself but walk away from your business and your life and go through a thought process of where you want to be short term and long term. THEN MAKE A PLAN! Best money you have every spent.

IF YOU STAY THE WAY YOU ARE YOU WILL ALWAYS BE THE WAY YOU ARE!

Learning to be comfortable in your own skin seems like an easy thing to do but I get constantly surprised when I find lawyers have to work through a process of identifying who they are before we can begin work on what they want to do. I sometimes think the sign of human growth is when you recognize that the dreams of others is not the dreams you need to follow. You are what you are!

I recall one law firm owner who had a vision of a huge firm with many lawyer centers and the willingness to work as hard as he could to get it. I have a favorite saying that helping someone become a millionaire is easy. Finding someone who is willing to work hard for it 24/7 is the hard part.

As we started the re-organization of his firm coupled with the restructure of work habits and development of the plan it was obvious that he was not going to like a big law firm that required constant management and development with a strong time commitment to get it where it needed to go. He was going to lose touch with that which he liked to begin; i.e. hands on with clients and a fairly structured personal life. We finally regrouped, worked out what his strengths and weaknesses were, what he visualized down the road, and what he wanted now. Bottom line: He created a new vision that involved those things that made him happy and so he could achieve in 20 years the ideal life at retirement. I recently had lunch with him and he is content and close to retirement. And never regretted his decision. And I think he is my best success story.

If you have an interest, we have designed a 'personal triangle' that our clients utilize every year to define who they are and what they wish for. Email me and I will gladly give you a copy with some instructions. Don't go through life wishing for what you probably really don't want to begin with. Take time to think!

We constantly preach to the many people we come in contact with that having a dream is just as important as realizing the dream. When you feel out of balance you have forgotton how to dream. Recently we were working with an attorney and we asked this simple question: Are you living the life you were meant to live? want to live? or are you living the life that was chosen for you by circumstances?

Even we forget our own advice and when we feel out of balance we find it is because we forgot that we want the life we dreamed of living! It does not matter if anyone else agrees with us, if it fits into someone else's expectations, or if it makes sense. When you forget this you are out of balance.

And when this happens you absolutely must find your center again. You must attach yourself to your dream and keep focused on the life you want to live. When we work with clients (and this is everyone from law firm owners, paralegals, associates, sole proprietors, and just ordinary every day people) we are always surprised that the clarity of their vision is foggy, their dream can't be defined, and they are always in the imbalance mode. Nothing is more rewarding to see excitement return to a life well deserved.

James Allen puts it best and we would simply ask that you perhaps think of this from time to time: The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream..............Dreams are the seedlings of realities...." We challenge you to redefine your dream and email it to us as a stake in the ground that you will work on it. Write it down and put it in envelope and take it out from time to time. And what are you doing to move in that direction? Create a short baby step plan.

A practical tip: Share your dream. You might be pleasantly surprised what is returned to you by putting forth a dream.

Leadership is a rare skill! Leaders are born not made! Leadership exists only at the top! Leaders control, direct and prod! NOT TRUE!

 A leader is a person who rules or guides or inspires others. Leaders are concerned about the future and building people. Leadership is not job specific. Leadership is a philosophy. Leadership is at the top of the list in traits required by employers. And yet few understand what it means.

When we go into a law firm to assess the firm for best business practices (those business principals successful law firms have in place), we immediately try to determine who the leadership of the firm is. This may not necessarily be just the owners of the firm. It is usually one or more firm members who understand the vision of the firm and have figured out how to align their skills and those of the other people to drive the vision. We have seen mixtures of lawyers and paralegals and management come together to drive the firm as the true leaders of the firm. A successful law firm owner will have a group of leaders driving his or her vision. These people have several things in common. They believe in the firm's values, they understand the vision of the firm and they have aligned their vision with that of the firm

We are starting to see a great interest in our high performance programs on Leadership. Law firms are starting to realize that they will be driven to success when they expend the time and effort to teach everyone in the firm how to be leaders. The synergy in firm growth is directly related to the quality of the leadership of the firm.

Great leaders within a law firm, no matter what their position, share the following similar characteristics:
1. They have a passion for the vision of the firm. They can tell you what the owner of the firm is looking to achieve and they are very proactive in implementing the vision of the firm into their work ethic.
2. They have a strong belief in themselves. They are comfortable with whom they are and they do not feel a need to prove themselves to others.
3. They are constantly seeking wisdom. And they gain the wisdom by constantly improving their skills and seeking knowledge.
4. They have strong integrity and they are true to their values and their values will align with the values of the firm.
5. They nurture healthy relationships within the firm. They do not seek out relationships based on unhealthy attitudes but rather foster good relationships that enhance the people involved.
6. They have a can do attitude. They feel here is little they can not accomplish and their enthusiasm usually generates others to great enthusiasm.
7. They help others develop themselves into leaders. They have no ego.

Leaders tend to be one of three roles though it is not uncommon for leaders to switch back and forth among the roles.
o The TRAILBLAZER is the leader who is usually analyzing the field for trends. This person will be clear about the vision of the future and translate that vision into objectives. The Trailblazer communicates the boundaries, interfaces with others and encourages risk-taking.
o The ARCHITECT builds social and technical systems and sees how they work and makes them better. The Architect will write processes and align systems to the vision. The Architect builds a culture. This leader sets benchmarks for others to learn from.
o The COACH motivates and develops people. This person will normally have dynamic communication skills. The Coach sets the standards for performance, empowerment and is usually the mentor. The Coach is constantly encouraging people to go beyond themselves and is developing other leaders to help drive the vision of the firm.
Great leaders have a driving passion to realize the firm's vision. They will not allow events or circumstances to dictate what will happen to them. Leaders build and maintain relationships based on trust.
In working with people within firms from lawyer owners to associates to paralegals to legal secretaries and the management staff and support staff we have found time and time again that people are not working to their full potential. Leaders within a firm should be creating opportunities to help everyone in the firm be more tomorrow than they are today.
Can you be a leader? Absolutely! It starts today with an understanding that within each of us is a potential to be a leader. We teach leadership and we teach and mentor people in all positions within a law firm to learn to climb the leadership ladder. And our how to advice is simply.
BELIEVE IN YOURSELF. You must define yourself and believe in yourself to the exclusion of all other negativity aimed your way. Good leaders are comfortable with themselves. They have a belief that they were meant to be doing what they do.
LIVE WITH INTEGRITY. Integrity is being true to yourself and your values. Thus it is important to understand your core values. This is critical to leadership. People watch what you do and what you say. Leaders do not swerve from what they believe is the right thing to do.
TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR ACTIONS. You are responsible for what you do. Leaders take responsibility for how they act, how they lead, and the decisions they make.
BE PASSIONATE. Your enthusiasm and your passion for who you are and what you do will create passion in others. You must have passion for the path you walk and when you do others follow.
GIVE UP CONTROL. You must trust yourself and trust others to also walk the path of leadership. Leaders have a responsibility to allow others to step up to the plate. You create an environment where others can act.

Great leaders in a law firm understand that it is about more than themselves. Their goal is to create a law firm that outlasts themselves. Leaders are always asking themselves Are my actions and my decisions in the best interests of the firm?

Learning to be a leader means deciding that it is a necessary career skill as much as the legal skills you have to do your job. You learn to hone your leadership skills. You take seriously the art of leadership and how to do it. Ask yourself simply this: Do you follow the leader or are you the one others follow?