Doing Things Differently

Most lawyers are creatures of habit, especially when it comes to time management, business development and career planning. They repeatedly do and say the same old things while hoping for a different result.

“I wish I had time to do marketing." "I apply online for in house jobs but I never hear back." "I don’t like talking about myself." "I don’t have any control over my work day.”

Lawyers rarely look objectively at what they are doing, how they are doing it and what they can do differently to improve their results. When they do take a look and start doing things differently, results are often immediate and noticeable.

1. Be intentional. For a different result, stop doing the same old thing.

A lawyer heeded some advice. She responded to a LinkedIn invitation by sending back a message with a coffee invitation to get to know the other person’s practice better. She received a resounding yes and “you’re the first person to ever send back a note in response to a LinkedIn invitation.” Instead of mindlessly accepting the invitation to link in, the lawyer had acted intentionally. Result: within a week coffee was consumed and the door for mutual referrals was opened.

A lawyer wanting a better fit decided to stop hiding in the woodwork. In her firm she always shined the light on her colleagues. She shrank from talking about herself and minimized everything she did. Yet she realized hiding her interests and experience wouldn’t get her closer to her dream job.

So she changed her perspective on talking about herself. Now she shares more about herself with her close contacts and has found appropriate ways to ask for help. Result: after two months of this change, she received a call from a contact about a position that was being held for her. Her ideal contacts list is growing and a firm client requested she take over as its lead lawyer.

What can you be more intentional about?

Next Post: Tips 2 and 3.

If you are ready for coaching to make changes, please contact me.