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Sometimes you need a change of pace. Sometimes that change is a vacation with no thoughts other than the immediate sights and sounds of your surroundings. Other times, it may be work, but with a difference.
After my latest West publication, Growing Your Practice in Tough Times, I decided that I had written all that I had to say. Then, came our national Road to Revenue tour. While it was a challenge to drive 11,300 miles in 21 states in 3 months, it was also a change and an opportunity to see a large portion of our gorgeous country. And, with this change, has come a new vitality to write and to create new projects. Keep your eyes open for announcements about new books and other offerings. And tune in to our regular West LegalEdcenter production. The next one will be:
Tuesday, October 25th: Upcoming Teleseminar - How Do You Fully Leverage Paralegals? Speakers: Ed Poll, Principal, LawBiz® Management and Cynthia J. Mascio, Paralegal, Rutan & Tucker LLP. One hour; $75. Live webcast begins on 10/25 at 3pm EDT. You can also download the teleseminar. Learn more.
lawbiz.com |
Are You a Leader?
Facilitate Continuous Communication
The most important function of all law firm leadership is to facilitate continuous communication, ensuring that individual agendas continue to be attuned with one another. However, The Great Recession has made communication a casualty at many firms. Their members worry about business that is disappearing and clients that do not (and cannot) pay. Cash flow and collections demands become paramount, while communicating about what is going on almost becomes an afterthought. But poor communication can cause as much stress as poor business. Piled on top of the anxiety of clients and the economy, and the pressures of seeking the best results, uncertainty about how the team is faring can leave everyone in doubt and in fear.
Keep Open, Candid Communication
In divorce practice, lawyers frequently hear the complaint that "we grew apart" and failed to keep communications open and candid as time passed. Law firms are subject to the same need to keep the communication process open, candid and frequent. The primary rainmakers of the firm, the management and the partners - all must be in concert, and all members of the firm must buy in. That is the true challenge of the managing partner or CEO leader. They must want to communicate, and all members of the firm - including associates, paralegals and staff - must be part of the communication process.
Engender a Team Effort
Leaders who are open and honest about what a firm needs to achieve, have no personal agendas, and support using sufficient resources to achieve firm-wide goals. Everyone in a law firm - lawyers, staff and support personnel - should be committed to such a team effort. Clients ultimately get their understanding of a firm by the way in which all persons, lawyers and staff, conduct themselves. A successful law office or law firm should be a team that creates quality service and work product for the benefit of clients, at a "reasonable" cost, while at the same time being profitable.
Connect With Everyone
Law firm leaders, like leaders in any organization, must connect effectively with every member of the organization through shared values and shared effort. Failure of leadership to create such shared values will cause inefficiencies, create disharmony within the firm and result in financial difficulties for, and perhaps even the failure of, the firm. Seeking the kind of consensus that many firms aspire to is a difficult challenge. Yet failure to communicate and maintain consensus ultimately causes poor economic results and unhappy people at every level. If all members of the firm are not clear about the overall goals as well as specific objectives and strategies, the problem is that there is no real firm leadership.
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8 Steps to Greater Profitability
The Lawyer's Path to Prosperity
Are you frustrated with how your law firm or practice is running? Are you looking for ways to jump-start your business? Do you want to make the dream of starting your own successful firm a reality?
This 8-CD set provides the most complete audio guide to law practice management available. From crafting a business plan to selling your practice for maximum value, Ed will lead you from start to finish through the eight most crucial steps to law firm success. Earn the living you deserve and find fulfillment throughout your career – embark on the path to success today!
Learn more.
Now Available
Price: $199
Call or Order Online at:
1-800-837-5880
lawbiz.com
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What Clients Are Saying:
"I felt 'stuck,' but I didn't know how to market myself to clients or to other firms. Ed provided a solid rounding of me to evaluate my current situation and a platform from which I could start growing my own practice."
CH
San Francisco, CA
"I look at Ed as my business partner now-my once a week essential business meeting to take the pulse of my practice. During our one-hour phone conversations, we hash out the larger and smaller business challenges of my law firm. I always come away from those conversations enlarged, challenged, and sometimes even quite shaken, but with the tools necessary to move forward down the path he and I are constantly redefining for me and my firm."
AL
Northern California
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