All posts by : Lawyers With Purpose

I remember a time when every time I suggested we have a meeting, bodies would cringe. In retrospect I don't blame them. Most meetings are wholly ineffective. But when you examine the purpose of meetings and the distinction between a great meeting and a frustrating meeting, it quickly becomes apparent how important they are, but more importantly how to make every meeting a powerful one.

Most people become frustrated with meetings because they tend to be a “bitch” session, an opportunity for people to share what's not working. Often meetings lack structure or intended results prior to the meeting. Instead they're meant as a session to “figure it out”. While on occasion these meetings may be necessary, they are not productive and often lead to frustration.

There are two types of powerful meetings. (1) The first is check-in meetings; that is, meetings on a regular basis (once a week in our office) where you check in with everyone else to see how the firm or individuals are doing as compared to the goals and standards that have been set. This type of meeting is to ensure accountability is essential for long-term personal and firm success. (2) The second powerful meeting is a discovery meeting. In a discovery meeting you bring different perspectives together from key individuals that you think are important in making a critical decision. The significance of making these meetings successful is that you must have a controlled agenda as to time and parameters around each part of the meeting that provide for:

1) brain dump time; a time where all can shoot out ideas without judgment!
2) refinement time; when all of the issues raised are refined to identify the most important and relevant ones, and then
3) strategic time; when the participants strategize a solution to the core objective for the meeting that was potentially not even conceived prior to the beginning of the meeting.

Check-in meetings and discovery meetings, when managed and facilitated properly, can be very empowering and lead to major breakthroughs in firm operations and individual growth.

So the next time you have a meeting don't cringe, make it a powerful one.

Dave Zumpano, Estate Planning Attorney, Just Like You!

What is the greatest success you’ve had since joining LWP?

We have successfully used the systems to develop a referral network from other professionals. It has gained momentum and now drives clients to our workshops, and to appointments, every month.

What is your favorite LWP tool? I appreciate the live listserv. Whenever I’m looking for an answer I can’t find elsewhere, the live listserv gives me a way to not only ask a question but to have a dialogue and drill down into an issue in detail. Then I’m able to go back to the recording later and listen again if I need to. I also learn quite a bit from hearing the answers to other callers’ questions.

How has being part of LWP impacted your team and your practice?

Our estate planning practice has become a much more central part of our practice, and we’re taking the initiative as a team to keep our pipeline full. Rather than waiting for, and responding to, the latest “crisis” case, we’re helping our clients make effective long-range estate and asset protection plans – and getting paid well to do so. The LWP community gives us a support network to make sure we stay on track.

To learn more about our membership, please visit us at www.lawyerswithpurpose.com

The average enrollment cycle in the Estate Planning arena is 9-18 months. Now, that might sound horrifically long, but it’s the absolute raw truth. And it’s no phenomenon that Estate Planning and Elder Law Attorneys that I talk to across the county are experiencing the same thing in their own practices.

The irony, the coincidence. There’s a saying my initial mentor taught me: “So go the coach, so go the coachee.” The very reason most attorneys struggle with how to guide clients to a decision is because they are unwilling to do so themselves. Which radiates an essence of the following decision making process Over explain … Process …. Deflect … Confuse … Repeat

As an industry, attorneys are incapable of active choice without a tremendous amount of internal (possibly financial) suffering. Call it a tribe of high “Fact Finders™” or law school conditioning to research and analysis until there is no law review, case study or white paper unturned. In my humble opinion, the core of the matter is none of the above. It boils down to 1 word. Permission.

Permission, is letting go of your beliefs or a structure that no longer serves you. It’s walking away from the all or nothing thinking and no longer buying into “the way things are supposed to be.” It’s a willingness to be in a place of uncertainty and move into a place of possibility.

It’s also about honoring ourselves, what we desire from life, and letting go of worry, guilt, and blame. Sometimes permission is about how you are being, and other times permission is about what you are doing. Sometimes permission is so that we can grow, other times it’s so we can let go. Permission is a conscious decision and conversation that takes place in your head — and likely your heart

Permission shows up in our life daily as we are bombarded with choices, decisions, dilemmas and change that require us decide and declare (or not). Most often, we recognize the need for permission when we have a deep need for certainty (evidence) or when we are going against what others are wanting from us. Permission is an internal battle.

We see the need for permission to show up in our life in situations as diverse as deciding on whether or not to attend an event, terminate an employee, leave a marriage, spend your savings and retirement on a new adventure or if you should join a new organization (again), parenting, whether to go home at night, take time off of work. The list goes on and on.

Once you recognize the role permission plays in your life, you’ll see how almost every decision and choice is being driven by this silent control freak. When we can bring awareness to this internal meter of “right, wrong, good, bad, yes or no,” we can move into a place of being able to make the choices that are best for us at the time — without endless research (fear), guilt, shame and the need for certainty.

Well, maybe there will still be a little fear, but fear is a motivator and adaptable: especially when you are operating from a place of permission instead of resistance. At the end of the day giving you permission boils down to putting the oxygen mask on yourself first. And that’s a hard nut for most of us to crack.

The client really wants to make certain they protect their daughter from that good for nothing son in law. But without permission the selfish, judgmental voice speaks in stereo. Many attorneys have been asked by their clients at the end of the vision meeting, “Tell me what to do?” And likewise from attorneys that are about to make an investment in joining LWP.

But I can’t tell them what to do, and even if I did, it wouldn’t relieve them of any pain or uncertainty because they haven’t given themselves permission to decide and declare. They can take my advice but it won’t work because they didn’t come to it on their own. However, if I own my role as a shepherd, guide, coach and unwavering stand to lead them to a place of permission, to allow decision, decision is made. With confidence, peace and maybe even a bit of excitement.

What makes our LWP community unique is we hold our members accountable to their path and plan while providing the infrastructure to achieve it. Our members tell us they are accomplishing their goals, can finally delegate , trust their team to lead, while making more money and feel confident it won’t all break. This isn’t all our members, only the ones whom have given themselves permission. And I feel strongly that is the value proposition you bring to your clients, to declare and commit to a path and plan they believe in.

Molly Hall