Your Year In Review and 2011 Preview

What are you most proud of from 2010?

When I asked my lawyer clients this question last week and this week, almost all of them said they are most proud of how they have taken more control of their practice, career or work day this year. And almost all of them say they did this by developing better business practices, asserting themselves more and raising their profile within and/or outside of their firm. To start making changes, they had to be brave, step outside their comfort zone and stop doing what wasn't working.

Take time this week or weekend to list 100 accomplishments (yes 100!) from 2010 - - large, small, professional, personal, events, actions, tangibles and intangibles, whatever. No one but you needs to see your list. This is a time to be proud of yourself and who you were this year.

So acknowledge yourself and your year. You will see that you accomplished more than you realize and more than you give yourself credit for. You will also more clearly see what you want to accomplish in 2011, who and how you want to be, and how you will make it happen.

Congratulations on 2010 and best wishes for 2011.

If you are ready for coaching to make 2011 your best year yet, please contact me.

Job Searches: Stand Out From The Crowd

Writer Mike Scott interviewed me for today's Detroit Legal News article for law students and new lawyers about standing out in today's tight job market. When he called me, I thought of all the law students and recent graduates who spend most of their job search time and effort looking for and responding to postings online, and/or sending out hundreds of unsolicited resumes to employers where they know no one. I wanted to share my advice that this isn't the most effective way to spend all of your time and energy.

Law students and recent graduates should assume that if they are doing this, then hundreds of other law students and recent graduates, if not more, are responding to the same postings and sending out unsolicited resumes to every firm in their city or county. Thousands are doing the same in every state and part of the country.

Develop A Strategic Plan.

If you don't think your chance of getting a summer or permanent job through on-campus interviews or job postings is very likely, regardless of the reason, you need to develop a strategic plan for your job search. It should be a strategic plan similar to the business development plans that lawyers should create and implement to get new clients and more business from existing clients.

1. Figure out the market you will target, whether you know anyone in that market and why you are a good fit for that market.

2. Know yourself. Know what strengths you bring to an employer, and your unique attributes and experiences. If you aren't sure of your unique attributes and experiences and/or true demonstrable strengths, ask for help from people you trust and people who love you. Get their input on who you are when you are at your best.

3. Build on your strengths. If you are a leader and organizer type, find a way to get involved leading or organizing something related to your target market. If you are introverted and a great writer, let your target market get to know you through your writing. Bar associations and legal newspapers are frequently looking for more articles - submit yours without waiting for an invitation. If you like to volunteer, pull yourself away from searching for job postings online and allocate time each week to volunteering within your target market. ie. volunteer to help in some way at legal aid clinics, local or state bar association offices or events, fundraisers held within the legal community, law related golf outings, etc.

4. Be yourself and let others get to know you. In this tight job market, it is very important to get to know people who do what you want to do and/or who can refer you to others. And the most important part of this is to let them get to know you. You want to stand out in their minds.

Sitting at your computer responding to online postings or stuffing envelopes with cover letters and resumes isn't the most effective way to let people get to know you. Be honest with yourself. When you look at your cover letters and resume, what makes you stand out?

People do business with people they know, like and trust. They refer people they know, like and trust. And they hire people they know, like and trust. If you dedicate time during your job search doing things within the legal profession that you enjoy and that you are really good at, you will develop professional relationships with people who can help you now and throughout your career. You will stand out in their minds.

By building on your strengths, you'll also be gaining unique experiences and attributes that make you stand out. Think of the effect on your self-confidence, your resume and your reputation. You'll be building a great foundation for your career.

I've met hundreds, probably even thousands, of law students and recent graduates through my years of private practice, my coaching practice and all of my bar association activities. The law students and recent graduates who stand out in my mind are relatively few.

They stand out for various reasons, none of which are grades. Rather, essentially they stand out because they did things that let me get to know them. They are the ones who took initiative, asked me questions, talked with me after presentations, volunteered, took on responsibilities, got involved, asked me for help, showed up and mattered, and/or took advantage of opportunities or created opportunities for themselves and/or others.

They had different confidence levels and personalities. Not every one was a Type A, an extrovert, a leader or even a joiner. Even if I had only a few conversations or contacts with them, I got to know much more about them and their abilities than the hundreds or thousands of others who blended in because they didn't do anything to make themselves stand out in my mind.

What can you do to make yourself stand out to people who can help you in your own job search?

Here is a link to the interviews in today's Detroit Legal News by writer Mike Scott.

Career Advice For Lawyers From LeBron James

Hate it or love it, it seems that NBA superstar LeBron James' decision yesterday to leave the Cavaliers and join the Miami Heat boils down to positioning himself to win NBA championships. He knows what he wants to achieve in his career and he knows he needs help to achieve his goal. He looked for teammates and an organization that he thinks will provide the best opportunity to succeed. He made a tough and controversial decision about his own career.

My theme here is not to encourage you to leave your place of employment. Rather, I encourage you to look at how you can best position yourself to get what you want in your career and then have the courage to take the actions to achieve your goals.

If you want to develop a specialty within your practice or firm, what do you have to do first (and then next and then after that), and whose support do you need?

If you want to work with more than just a handful of lawyers within your firm, what can you do about this and who can help you make it happen? If you have tried and failed, what can you do differently next time? How can you match your needs and interests with the firm's needs and interests?

If you want more referrals, how can you expand your network into more meaningful relationships? How can you first provide value to people who are in the best position to give you referrals? How can you make it easier for other people to think of you and remember what you do when they have an opportunity to make a referral?

If you want more clients, who is in your target market and how can you best position yourself in front of your target market? How can you let more potential clients know what legal services you offer? What can be your unique niche? How can you differentiate your legal services from other lawyers' services?

Instead of sitting in your office wishing your phone would ring, or attending numerous yet random and unproductive networking events, figure out what you want, make some decisions, and take action.

As a client of mine said the other day, you're not going to get a hit if you're not in the batter's box. And you won't even get near the plate if you're not in the game. Or, as some say in golf, never up never in.

So take charge of your own practice and career. Make decisions about what you want and start positioning yourself to get what you want.

Get in the game. Step into the batter's box. Give the putt a good roll. Circling back to basketball, be your own point guard. No one else will.

If you would like help figuring out what you want, making an effective plan and/or taking actions, let's set up some coaching. You'll be glad you did, especially since you still have six months left in the year to make this one your best.

2010 Planning: Goal Setting & Values Check

Last week I posted how in December I ask my clients to review their past year and acknowledge 100 of their accomplishments. In December I also ask them to write next year's holiday letter - - as if they are looking back at the upcoming year.

When I do this exercise myself (as I had to assure one of my clients that I do), I start with a stream of consciousness or "scribbling" approach and write quickly without contemplation. I usually surprise myself with some of what I write about what happened in the upcoming year.

(A note about writing: one of my college English professors required weekly writings he called "scribbles." They were a page or two about any thought we had related to the novel we were studying. For some reason, calling them scribbles was liberating. I still often use this approach to get started writing.)

If you haven't set some goals yet for next year, or even thought about a New Year's resolution, set down that burden and scribble a 2010 Holiday Letter instead.

I think you will find it is a different way to discover your values and what you really want to accomplish in the upcoming year.

Scribble and see what unfolds for you in 2010.

What Color Is Your Success?

As I entered recurring lawyer coaching appointments in Outlook well into 2010 for three new clients this week, I used my coaching color. In designer speak, it's a "warm" color. To me, it's a "happy" color. (Perhaps also a "hoppy" color.) It's also prevalent in my home.

As I see my calendar continue to fill with this color, I can easily assess the growth in my coaching practice over the past year. I can also easily compare it against the amount of green entries - - for obvious reasons - - for business development activities. The green quickly shows me when I spent a lot of time on business development, when there were lulls, and what lies ahead in 2010. Of course, because I enjoy these activities, they could be the happy color as well, or the coaching calls could be green. But systems help us stay organized and on track, and this one works for me. As these colors expand in my calendar, I see the benefits of what I've been doing and I keep moving forward.

So here are my questions for you: What colors do you want in your 2010 calendar? When will you start coloring?

Another good question comes from a discussion I had with one of my non-lawyer clients this week. She is a young engineer in a management position and we talked about delegation and developing a key direct report. Working with him on his role, she advised him to "do [this] and it will set you up for success the rest of the day." This struck me as so simple and yet so powerful that it felt like an absolute guarantee. I turned it around and asked what would set her up for success on her challenges every day. Since that conversation, I've used this process every morning myself. How about you? What thing can you do that will set you up for success the rest of the day?