Balance Your Time – Control Your Practice

August 26, 2014

by Lawyers With Purpose with No Comment Coaching & Implementation Systems & Processes

An elephant balanced on a small ball, a tightrope walker, a ballerina en pointe. I am continuously amazed and impressed by balance. To me it denotes focus, grace, concentration, skill, practice, dedication and a sense of victory. After all, what is balance but a victory over gravity achieved by dedicated hard work?

After 15+ years’ experience as a team member in a number of law firms, and the past eight months as a CC&I coach to several dozen firms, one of the most striking differences I’ve noticed between successful firms and struggling firms …. is balance.

What does that mean?

LWP strongly advocates a 40/40/20 split of firm time, held in place by a time template that is honored. This means the firm spends 40% of its time on specific client-related activities, such as appointments, drafting, reviewing and processing. Anything that has a client name on it goes into the 40% client pot. Notice that I didn’t use the word “prospect.”

Anything done to encourage a prospect or prospects to become clients is allocated to marketing, not including the Vision Meeting or Initial Consultation. The rule of thumb here is for the firm to spend 40% of its time finding prospects, getting its message out, and enrolling clients into workshops (and then into a Vision Meeting) or initial consultations. This includes your weekly marketing meeting, time spent developing and cultivating your RMS process, involvement in community events, development of blogs, your website, newsletters … wherever your firm has decided to invest its resources to attract clients.

The remaining 20% of your firm time template should be reserved for firm administration. This includes your weekly staff meeting, paying bills, filing, bookkeeping, cleaning off your desk, taking out the garbage, and whatever needs to be done to oversee the mechanics of your operation.

A firm that sacrifices or neglects its time template to meet client demands is one that endangers itself and its operation. It’s just that simple.

I’ve had team members argue with me that the restrictions of a time template limit their ability to meet their clients’ needs.

A few days ago I was on a commercial airline and heard again for the zillionth time, the instructions that if an air mask drops down, the passenger should first put on his own air mask, THEN assist others. The underlying message is that you’re not going to be much help to anyone else if you don’t see to your own reserves first.

Firms that do not honor a time template that is balanced with these three disciplines are recognizable by these outcomes. See if any are relevant to your team:

Embarrassing mistakes are made in client documents and handling client matters.
Team members are tired, unorganized and discouraged.
Team members must constantly interrupt each other causing productivity to sharply decline.
Revenue can fluctuate wildly from month to month.
Long-Term goals and projects are not completed or are abandoned.
Weekly staff and marketing meetings are hit and miss, often hijacked by more pressing issues.
The firm operates in high-stress mode, focusing on what is urgent and demanding, often overlooking critical, but less urgent issues.
Your RMS process suffers from neglect and prospective synergy partners lose faith in your firm and its promises.

If your firm is not operating under a firm time template that has an effective 40/40/20 allocation and you would like help in structuring a more efficient environment, drop me a line at ncatale@lawyerswithpurpose.com.

To learn more about Lawyers With Purpose and how we can support you in your estate planning / elder law practice, please join us and experience first hand – in the room – for our Practice With Purpose Program in Phoenix, AZ, October 20-22nd. We only have limited space so click now and register today.

Nedra Catale – Coaching, Consulting & Implementation, Lawyers With Purpose

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Rules of Vacation

August 14, 2014

by Lawyers With Purpose with No Comment Coaching & Implementation Systems & Processes Team Building

I’ve had a few implementation calls with a team that is 100% committed to reaching their revenue goal. They’ve got all they need in their pipeline, marketing is producing leads, workshops are getting filled, production is keeping up as much as possible with the growth, etc. They have such determination to reach goal that it’s been inspiring to participate in their conversations, anchor them to the LWP tools and support them.

At this point, the key to their success lies in creating and committing to the old 40-40-20 time split. You know, the “40% lead generation/lead conversion, 40% revenue-producing activity, 20% firm development” ratio. The hardest part is the reality of making it happen AND holding each other accountable that they are doing what they committed to on their time template. So, to make sure they were on the same page, communicating and setting standards and ensuring that their intentions were set in stone, they created their firm's “Rules of Engagement.”

This had such an impact on the team that they decided to take their rules a step further. When talking together and planning for the upcoming vacation for the attorney, the team created some “Rules of Vacation” to make sure he took some much-needed time away without having to worry about the office during his absence.

What’s great about it is they had fun, but they also set standards for what will and will not take place on vacation. They gave permission to check in with the office, but only at certain times and for specific reasons, and that leads to boundaries and standards. The rules also make certain that he is present with his family during the time away. My favorites are #’s 7 & 8:

ATTORNEY RULES OF VACATION

Vacation means vacation – trust your team – you have the right people in the right places – they have your back when you are in the office at all times – they will have your back when you are out of the office at all times!!!
Vacation begins at 5:01 P.M. on ________, 2014. Your spouse has permission to call at 5:02 P.M. to make sure you are on your way home. You have permission to work until 9:00 P.M. on the day prior to your vacation starting, if you choose, in order to “clear the decks.”
Attorney may not call the office unless it is in response to a 911 text, email or voicemail from the team.
Attorney may check and respond to emails at assigned times approved by spouse once in the morning and once in the evening so that they don’t have anxiety about it throughout the day.
Attorney MUST at all times be on vacation.A
ttorney MUST at all times have fun.
Attorney MUST at all times be present to the family.
The family MUST make attorney put on either Mickey Mouse ears or a princess crown and send that picture to the team for future blackmail and accountability purposes.
Attorney MUST tell himself or herself every day that this vacation will not be a repeat of any dreaded prior vacations and remember what a great workplace we have created to permit such a vacation.
Attorney MUST not call the office 100 times a day!
The family MUST hold attorney accountable for any deviation from items 1 through 10 and attorney MUST be willing to accept and suffer the consequences for breaking any of the rules. (The team suggests letting the grandchildren make grandpa into their favorite princess, including putting on make-up, and sending those pictures to the team to provide ample incentive to obey rules 1 to 9.)
Attorney MUST get the initials of family members as proof that they went over the Rules of Vacation together and had fun doing it.

I, _________________, acknowledge that I have read and understand the above Rules of Vacation.

Attorney signature ______________________________

I know we are winding down vacation season and headed back to school and then quickly into the holidays. But grab onto these rules and make them your own and empower your team to communicate so you can power down on that next get away – whenever it is!

If you want to learn more about Lawyers With Purpose and how we can help you take your next vacation AND generate revenue, join us October 20-22nd in Phoenix, AZ, for our Practice With Purpose Program. Click here to register today! Seats are filling fast and October is right around the corner so grab your seat now. If you're a member and would like to come to the Practice With Purpose Program, please contact Angela directly at acrowther@lawyerswithpurpose.com.

Roslyn Drotar – Coaching, Consulting & Implementation, Lawyers With Purpose

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The Weight Of The World … Or Opportunity?

June 20, 2014

by Lawyers With Purpose with No Comment Coaching & Implementation Legal Marketing Team Building

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our Attitudes.” ― Charles R. Swindoll

After being gone from my daily yoga practice for 1 week while in Chicago at the LWP Tri-Annual Retreat I eagerly returned to my 5:45 a.m. Monday morning practice, exhausted after getting on average of 5 hours of sleep a night. As I shuffled into the studio, squawking about how tired I was our teacher began our 102 degree practice with the above quote. Needless to say, my attitude shifted. Quickly, intensely.

The entire class was about how we perceive all the “stuff” that happens to us, day in and day out. It brought me immediately back to and thinking about the 40 national law firms that shut down their practices, team in tow, for 3 solid BUSINESS days, like they do Tri-Annually, to work ON their businesses and lives.

We launch our retreats with personal shares of what has occurred in your practice since the last retreat, 4 months prior. The shares consisted of; losing team, moving offices (while losing team), personal illnesses, family illnesses, losing parents, employee embezzlement, and so on. But the absolute magnificence was there wasn’t a trace of defeat or heaviness in that ballroom. Only recognition and appreciation for the opportunities that were waiting on the other side. Each and every firm truly embodied the attitude of “behind every breakdown is a breakthrough.”

The themes swirling through the room; we are lean and mean, were a team of interdependence versus codependency, less is more, intentional focus, short term suffering, eyes wide open. And firms were sharing they had their best quarter EVER…after going from a team of 7 to 3. Or, going on our 9^th Client Services Coordinator, but that’s o.k., not tolerating anything but superstar status!

The honest, vulnerable sharing about life isn’t always about hugs & cookies but its what you choose to see when it feels like bread and water….for a blink of a moment. Until you can anchor yourself to what you know to be true. When they got over the tragedy of their worlds crashing down they anchored to the skills and tools they need to have a 2mm shift, and recourse. The Money Plan, job descriptions, time templates, whose doing what to reach goal, The Revenue focuser. They knew for those that were having to double up on roles, there were the Tri-Annual Retreat Focus Sessions waiting for them right outside the door on, Marketing, Client Services, What’s Happening Behind the Conference Room Doors, Medicaid and VA Qualification and Application, IPugs vs. LLCs, How to Plan With IRAs, Communication Skills, Power In Partnership, Annual Client Maintenance Program, How To Have An Empowered Team, Getting Financial Advisors To Do Their Homework, Client & Financial Advisory Boards, Becoming 360 – personal development coaching day, your future focuser…and so, so much more. All right at their fingertips. Like a strategically placed safety net. And the coolest part is that every single firm that shared their weight of the worlds/opportunities over the past four months did it all on their own. They hunkered down and regrouped. I have to admit, there was a small part of me that felt irrelevant. Off they go.

What shows up in your world is solely based on your perspective of what is “happening” to you. Do you see the challenges you face as a business owner (and human) like carrying the weight of the world or endless opportunities? It may sound “hokey” but there is no mistake that you open up any periodical, social media application and/or blog and there is a universal shift around “you manifest what you think.” You keep telling yourself that carrying the weight of the world “comes with the territory” you will continue to attract big monster cinder blocks of “troubles” to carry around versus “there is a lesson in this and I am grateful that I am open to discovering it. I need not only make the best of it but make the better of it. What do I need to do first?” See the difference?

The Weight of the World…or opportunity?

Molly L. Hall, Co-Founder, Lawyers with Purpose, LLC, and author of Don’t Be a Yes Chick: How to Stop Babysitting Your Boss, Transform Your Job and Work with a Dream Team Without Losing Your Sanity or Your Spirit in the Process.