All posts by : Lawyers With Purpose

Hindsight is such a tricky thing. We’ve all dealt (tolerated) with the “good enough” employee. After a few weeks we start to see little hints. You find yourself explaining the same thing, over and over. Consistently talking them off the ledge when they are “overwhelmed”. They start calling in sick…when was the last time YOU took a sick day? Or the 1st flake of snow they say they can’t make it in because of fear the local weather channel is breathing into the community because the news is lacking anything of substance for the day.

Or maybe the signs aren’t that blatant, there simply is just something “off”. Like a chip missing or batteries not included. But you “muscle through” or start to question yourself because maybe your unrelenting standards or expectations are too high. It is only an “X” dollar an hour employee after all. Or you really start diving deep with justifying their personal situation or feeling responsible for their livelihood. The list drones on and on.

Nonetheless, when do you know your tolerating “good enough?” Let me introduce you to our star player, Marci Otts. Marci has been with LWP for 1 ½ years now. Marci experienced our baptism by fire training process that delicately includes consistently last minute changes and “emergencies.” Not long after finally truly understanding her role and goals, the head of finance quit. Marci stepped up and assumed the role of finance without an official training process. We then decided to rebrand the entire company, including the creation of a new website where 1,000’s of video, audio and word files needed to be moved in less than 1 week. Once again, Marci stepped up. In an organization of change and growth, the one thing you can depend on is constant change. And for an 8 follow through, that can be daunting!

The past 90 days have been challenging for all with rebranding the company, year end, the new year, etc. Last night, I received an email from Marci that pretty much sums up the difference between good enough and a team member whom is beyond invested in the not only the future of the company but making certain they are with you until the end.

“Can I say how amazing it is that I still think about work when I am at home, and in such a positive light! I wanted to write before I got back into work in the morning as it is really resonating with me at the moment. It is such a testament to our work when we receive feedback with such excitement and pride, I am floored by our members, and those that have chosen to push through their fears and own the future they are growing into. Just astounding. We are surrounded with such positive energy and it only reiterates that we are doing something so good and so true. I am so proud to be part of this organization. I see such a difference in those that chose their futures…whether at our retreat or during their coaching calls…we have a tidal wave of positive energy on our hands and it is my intention to continue to guide our members on this path! I want to take a moment as well to thank Dave, Molly and Victoria. I have been touched on a personal and professional level and I only see remarkable things in our future. You know you have truly found your place when you love the people you work with, the people you work for and the future you are creating is better than anything you ever could have imagined!”

So when do you know your tolerating the good enough employee? You see glimmers of the above stated email….daily. You see it within the 1st few weeks of them starting with you, and you see blatant evidence of it 12 yrs after them being with you. It really is that straightforward and simple. We just tend to complicate it by justifying how its not that bad. I have Marci’s message hanging right on my wall in my office to remind me the next time I get that feeling that so and so “may” not work out to choose the short term suffering route and move on to attract another superstar vs. good enough.

Molly Hall

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

The greatest success I have had since joining LWP has to be, without a doubt, establishing relationships through synergy meetings. I have bankers, financial advisors, assisted living facilities, social workers and even Medicaid Office workers referring clients to me. Granted it takes a while to get these referral sources to provide clients (have to establish trust). By no means am I a salesman, but when I explain the PROCESS!!! we use and the follow through we offer, people are very comfortable referring their clients to us.

What is your favorite LWP tool?

This is actually a very tough question to answer because we don’t use anything else but the LWP tools. When I say nothing else, I mean nothing else. No retainer agreements, not an interview questionnaire, not even a separate design template. If I had to pick just one tool that is my favorite it would be the Estate Plan Audit sheet. It makes it so easy for us to use the Vision Clarifier because I can show the client exactly what plans cover what is important to the client.

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

LWP provides structure that we otherwise would not have. Its systems are purposeful and deliberate. LWP has allowed us to enroll clients, not just retain clients. LWP also provides the tools that allow us to focus our practice, track our clients efficiently, and provide the exact product the client desires not just push the client into a trust of our choosing.

Last week I spent three days with estate planning attorneys training them on what they were already masters at, Medicaid and asset protection planning. I was intrigued by the end of the three days how perplexed they were at how much they didn’t know. All of the options and variations one can have when drafting a trust or asset protection plan. Most notably however was the response when they were able to see for the first time how document creation software can be more than a trust drafting system.

For example, they learned how designing a trust with the client became a celebration and an experience as we walked the client through their lifetime and asked them the various questions of what they would want to have happen. The power of customizing at every single decision point was especially intriguing. But most exciting was the result of the design experience that created a highly customized trust that was part of a package that generated all the documents necessary for the plan that the client created.

Then, what shocked them even more was discovering how the software was merely the culmination of an entire education-based client enrollment system of teaching clients what they don’t know in a two-hour workshop, followed by revisiting the 15 major challenges in estate planning and comparing them to the prospective clients current plan to identify where all the holes were. Finally allowing the client to identify which of the missing issues were most critical for them to solve.

Their process once again culminated in choosing an estate plan or asset protection plan that was hand picked by the client, based on their needs, not on software the lawyer used. The beauty of it all came together when the attorneys learned how they could design a plan according to a structure which confidently allowed them to delegate the drafting of the trust to staff.

The excitement of these lawyers seeing drafting like this. And for the first time that they may not have to draft trusts and doing estate planning could be something far greater than just legal work, but rather a creation of documents that exemplify the client’s life and goals.

I just returned from presenting a three-day training for attorneys on how to provide asset protection planning to their clients. The primary concern obviously being loss of a lifetime of assets in nursing homes.

The attendees were shocked to learn how technology can support them in not only their legal-technical needs, but also their marketing. By utilizing a process that identifies the legal issues relevant to strategic spend-down planning, technology becomes your best friend. Right before their very eyes they witnessed how utilizing the law in a processed way can quickly and easily provide them the answer to their clients’ asset protection and Medicaid needs.

They learned how to use our Medicaid qualification worksheet and how it follows the law and provides the key answers that clients need, and they saw the full power of technology. They saw how the Medicaid planning software not only generated the asset protection plan, but also the funding plan AND an opinion letter for the client or their financial advisor. Not only did it provide an opinion letter for the client but also a visual graph of what assets were going to be protected and what would be at risk and for how long.

Finally legal-technical competency meets technology and as a result everybody wins: the lawyer, the client, and your family! And your team because once everything is generated from the software it is neatly tucked away in a file for a thorough documentation of everything that is input.

The term leader, leadership, step up, etc., are all the buzz of today’s wish list in building a team. Yet when we ask people what leadership means to them we sadly find the meaning having an underlining theme of  “working with people that don’t 'bother' me, do their job, make sure the team is doing what they need to and a team where I can 'delegate to and they get it.'” Or some other compound variations that equal relieving them from any form of relationship—put your head down, do your work and you will get your paycheck. We’ve even heard “They should be thankful they have a job in this economy.” We can assure you; this is no way shape or form, leadership.

In our experience leadership is charting or changing the course for taking a stand for power for the people. It is simply put as mindfulness with hope and compassion.

Mindfulness is Self Awareness + Social Awareness + Self Management.

Self Awareness is showing up on time with empowering energy, general concern for everyone’s time and experience while with you. Social Awareness is holding people up, refraining from gossip, showing up focused, honoring your meetings, keeping your word and taking full responsibility for how you show up in the world. Self Management is showing up prepared without an unstable tone combination w/tension demands an onward motion. Even though most leaders are active, you don’t want to show up harsh with self serving need to “delegate.” The minute you become disengaged and start pointing at them you resign from being a leader.

Leadership is not strength or force.  It is not based on “old school” thinking that smart is good enough and that great leaders are tough and can always hang while leading—no one can sustain continuous strain. It is not survival of the fittest. Leadership does not manage from a place of control – go along to get along & must stay in the box built. It is not from a place of political position – sway whatever way, don’t make decisions or from a place of authoritative—fear based.

Every great leader touches your head to make you think, touches your heart to make you feel and always gives you something to carry with you later, a walk away message. The way we see leadership:

• Never dehumanizes, fills up, to guide, to include and create
• Tend and befriend vs. command and control
• Willing to live the examined life, a spiritual seeker
• How we do what we do, is just as important as what we do
• Emotional intelligence
• Power is used to bring wisdom and clarity for others
• Not forced, common practice
• In order to empower, you have to give up your power
• Of the people, for the people while honoring them for their conviction

There is a new way of leadership that we are so excited to see glimmers of in small businesses across the country. The mental, physical and psychological toll extracted by the “old school”  pressures have lead to escalating personal sacrifice and ultimately, the well-phenomenon known of “burnout.” Through recognizing the cycle of Sacrifice and Renewal, entrepreneurs are renewing themselves using Mindfulness, Hope and Compassion. Through renewal, leaders can counteract the effects of work-related pressures, perform at their best over the long-term, and lead their companies to sustain long-term financial success.

5 Key Attributes to Unlock the Leader Within You

• Have  a vision, be with a company that has one
• Be authentic (know they self)
• Be competent, while projecting warmth in your presence and delivery
• Have confidence to make decisions
• Be a communicator

What we find so amazing about the true abilities leaders, even when they have lead in a lot of areas. They have an ability to get people behind one another and bring the best in them out. They identify their weaknesses, and provide them solutions to increase their efficiency and productivity. They have the ability to be the manager (traffic control cop) and make sure that tasks are getting completed, with an empowering leadership element in that. It usually is very difficult to be manager/leader at the same time, but a true leader can accomplish this at all times. They can verbalize the “hard” things to say, even when it hurts, because it is accurate and necessary for the success of the company and the individuals in the company to personally succeed. 

A leader is loyal and committed with a calming way that permits people to let go of panic and trust in themselves to accomplish their goals.  A leader has the ability to help individuals sort through a tremendous amount of information and put them on a path of clarity and direction, with specific short term steps that lead to long term success

You know you have a great leadership when you have engaged employees that are innovative and empowered to get the job done!

Molly Hall