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Controlled Growth

April 14, 2014

by Molly Hall with No Comment Coaching & Implementation Systems & Processes Team Building

Sometimes just showing up is more than enough. There’s a quote that says, “90% of life is showing up.” I couldn’t agree more. Our last LWP Practice Enhancement Retreat brought home a powerful message: The Power of Community. The groundswell of last February's retreat was interest in “controlled growth.” I have personally attended all 10 of our Practice Enhancement Retreats, and February's was life-changing and practice-changing for over 150 estate planning professionals from across the nation. We were sharing values and goals with other like-minded entrepreneurs, law students, paralegals, client service coordinators, marketing coordinators – all of these different roles joined together to create a plan where there is controlled growth.

The ongoing conversation about controlled growth played a big role in the success firms are seeing today, a little over two months since the last retreat. Some of the goals set in February have been met, some are on course to be met and some simply are not – and will not. Does that make those unmet goals a miserable failure? I would say no, quite the opposite. Those firms showed up and put pen to paper to create a path and a plan, and that alone is a success. The fact that they have the guidance system to know when to embark on the goal journey, and when it doesn’t necessarily fit and/or is no longer important, is success enough. They chose short-term pain over long-term pain and gave themselves permission to re-choose in real time.

Being there means you hear things from other members – we call them your Board of Directors – like “You have to slow down and manage that growth,” or “You just need the faith. It will work if you do X, Y and Z because we have a tried, tested and proven track record.” It means you can share what has worked and what hasn’t. One of our members declared in the room that he would be launching consistent workshops starting in a few months. His Board of Directors responded, “You can’t wait! You’ve got to do it now to leverage your time!”

These conversations with others support you with controlled and consistent growth. Most people are afraid of growth and success. It’s scary. They don’t know if they are doing it right. They are afraid they are going to blow up what is working right now. Community can be the antidote for those fears.

The 150 folks leaving Orlando after retreat week were on a high – but we are seeing now that people are beginning to gap out. June is just around the corner, and they’ll be back in the room for the next Practice Enhancement Retreat. That will bring accountability. Collaboration. Meeting with their Board of Directors. And there will be over 12 breakout sessions geared toward legal technical, practice efficiency, confidence building, creating a financial and client advisory board, a complete system for an annual client maintenance program and much, much more.

It’s hard to believe there are two short months remaining until the June Practice Enhancement Retreat. After the second week of June, most people start summer “break.” And next thing you know, Labor Day turns the corner and we are fast and furious into the holidays and the year-end wrap-up. Where does the time GO??! We were going to do X, Y and possibly Z, but…….

Sometimes we talk – but we don’t plan. Sometimes we plan, but we don’t pick the path. If every business owner were to achieve everything they’ve declared they’re going to do, we would have a bazillion fulfilled entrepreneurs, team and clients. Right about now some folks may have seven valid reasons why they are going to take a break from this retreat and join the next one so they can catch up on what they said they were going to do in February. They should consider the words of Victor Hugo, the author of “Les Misérables” and “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” who said:

“He who every morning plans the transaction of the day and follows out that plan, carries a thread that will guide him through the maze of the most busy life. But where no plan is laid, where the disposal of time is surrendered merely to the chance of incidence, chaos will soon reign.”

The way to avoid chaos and lack in your life and in the lives of those you serve is to plan your work, work your plan, revise your plan, repeat cycle. And that is how you create controlled growth. Most of us just don’t know how to do it on our own. Reserve your seat for your firm at the June Tri-Annual Retreat now. In the words of Yoda, “Do or do not. There is no Try.”

If you not a member and are interested in experiencing what Lawyers With Purpose has to offer, join us at our Practice With Purpose program June 9th, 10th & 11th. But don't hesitate – register today, spots are filling up fast! We'll see you there!

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.

Why I’m Here

April 1, 2014

by Molly Hall with No Comment Coaching & Implementation Team Building

Every Friday we have a meeting with all members of our team. We start the meeting with personal wins, professional wins and one thank you to someone you would like to acknowledge for the week (doesn't have to be someone on the team/in the room). This week the head of our Member Services Department, Angela, shared her personal win, which was also her professional win. And, I have to say, for so many reasons, it turned into a win for many of us.

Here's what Angela excitedly shared: “My win this week was our weekly CCI Meeting. Marci and Molly coaching to the entire CCI team helped me personally on so many levels. I was struggling with many things in my life, and after that call I walked away with not only a whole new perspective but excitement about how I could turn some things that were not working into a win. I never really understood why you had me sitting in these various meetings that didn’t necessarily pertain to my direct job. Now I get it, WOW!”

Our teams are often unclear as to why they are attending many of the meetings we have them in. Sometimes we hear those exact words – “Why am I here, what am I doing sitting in on this meeting, why do I need to be sitting in on this meeting.” Or, if we are paying close attention, we “hear” it visually with the eye rolling, disengagement, lack of note taking, lack of clarifying questions and/or input, that they have no idea why they are there.

Angela’s win this week reminded me that we all should take a few seconds and clarify our intention for having our team sit in on certain meetings, teleconferences or whatever we are trying to enroll them in. A simple “locker room huddle” prior to the event:

In prep: “The reason I want you to attend is to ______ (observe or plan to propose something afterwards)”;
During: “And what I expect to you to do during the meeting is ______ (take notes, just be present, present x afterwards)”;
After the event: “And I would like you to or expect for you and I to _____ ( spend 10 minutes immediately after to debrief, schedule a one-hour strategy meeting after maybe four or five weeks of these calls so you can get as much info as possible, and then we can see where you stand in your current role.

Angela’s “simple” win was so very powerful, as it reminded me to let people know the intentions of an invite vs. allowing them to flounder in “why am I here?” Angela is now not only excited for next week's CCI Meeting but also definitely sees the endless opportunities available for her personally. But if we didn’t have the weekly team meeting “WINS” format, I'm not certain we would have know what an impact it made on the member services team, and we would also have missed a great reminder to answer the question of “why am I here” prior to each meeting.

If you are not having weekly team meetings and would like a suggested agenda, please email me at mhall@lawyerswithpurpose.com to receive a complimentary agenda.

Can This Wait?

March 12, 2014

by Molly Hall with No Comment Team Building

We are all humans, so human things will occur. And sometimes our knee-jerk reaction is to run and tell someone. We try to solve it, or get it off of us, right then and there.

For example, we get a client complaint or emergency – when the attorney is getting ready to do a workshop presentation. What do you do? Do you hit the attorney with the problem, right then and there? Preempting the hurried restroom break before the workshop?

There is an ideal time and place for front-stage and back-stage activities. And this is one of those situations where we need to have a back-stage conversation with the attorney AFTER the workshop. Doing anything less is dumping on someone who needs to have a front-stage presence – cool, calm, confident and collected – when they can’t do anything with the information you dumped on them anyway. It sucks the life out of them before the lights are on them and they are presenting.

Throughout our day, things come to us that are time-sensitive and important. But is it necessary to have the conversation right then? A lot of times, when we have the opportunity to have a conversation, we always hit what is most important for US. Here are some questions to ask the mirror when you're wondering, “Can this wait?”

(1) Does the person need to know this information RIGHT NOW?

(2) Does their livelihood depend on the information?

(3) What can they do with the information?

(4) Is their house on fire? Has there been an accident? Are the kids OK? Are you canceling the workshop because of the news/information?

As team, the greatest role we have is to protect our attorney's confidence. It's one of the “Confidence Builders”. Attorneys are in back-to-back meetings most of the time. The weight of the world is on them as entrepreneurs. We see their calendars, and many times they don’t take time to eat – on their best day. And many times our only opportunity is to communicate in a hallway conversation, so we're tempted to lunge at the chance even when the issue is not crucial. If we feel it is very important for the attorney to know, we need to stop and ask “What can they do with this information right now” before we proceed.

Using the “Confidence Builders,” it may not be so important to let them know at that very moment that we got fired by a client. Although this information needs attention, we can talk about it more effectively in our team meeting later, and address “what worked / what didn’t work.” Hold anything that needs to be addressed until our next meeting or daily huddle.

Ultimately, when running a small boutique business it becomes more necessary to protect those responsible for generating revenue. And we do that by protecting their confidence and being mindful of what they are walking into. It’s not always about them protecting us. It can go both ways – which we will blog about later – but we don’t have to be on the front stage as much as they do. It is our job to protect them when they need to be ON.

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.

Equanimity – Lawyers With Purpose

February 5, 2014

by Molly Hall with No Comment Team Building

There is a famous quote by theologian Reinhold Niebuhr that says, “God, give us the grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, the courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.”

For the past three years in the month of January, I have enrolled in a 40 day challenge through my yoga studio. The premise of the challenge is based on the book “40 Days to a Personal Revolution” by Baron Baptiste. The 40 day program integrates physical, nutritional and mental exercises, all with the goal of leading us to a place of greater clarity and presence. I have yet to complete the 40 day challenge and come out as the same person I was at the beginning.

Throughout the program we work with Baptiste's “12 Laws of Transformation.” This week we are working with “Equanimity.”

Baptiste explains equanimity as “the art of meeting life as it meets you – calmly, without drama or fuss.” It got me thinking about the day-to-day life of working in a small/non-corporate/family-like office environment. It’s impossibly easy to get reactive when we feel like we aren’t in control. It happens in a million small (and big) ways throughout the day. You overhear the DOFI (LWP terms = "Director of First Impressions") telling the client X, the boss takes his or her lack of X out on the team, our kids act up, we have a slammed day with tons of money appointments on the books when a snowstorm shuts down the town. We react. And it all has a trickle-down effect with an endless cycle of stress, reactivity and blame. But we don’t get out of the cycle by wrestling for control. It’s all in how we handle it.

We think we can change things by taking charge, by “grabbing the bull by the horns.” But, as Baptiste says, “If you think about it, grabbing a bull by the horns would be a crazy thing to do.” We change by finding equanimity and learning to relax right in the middle of conflict-filled moments. And THAT is where those in our lives mirror what they witness. There is a saying you hear endlessly at LWP, “So go the coach, so go the coachee.”

We all known there are innumerable things we cannot change – we all witness that too many times throughout our day. I am learning this week, through working on equanimity, that when I give myself the permission to stop and pause, to be still, I actually do have the ability to accept the things I cannot change. With the team member I have been personally investing my time to “coach” and realizing I want it more than she does, I am able to instantly and humbly admit that willpower and ego are ultimately ineffective over the reality. And then I let go. And in essence, that is equanimity. It is the way out of frustration and force. I’m learning – IN REAL TIME – this week that resisting and control only lead to more struggle, and I am experiencing how to move through them from a less reactive space. No matter what arises.

Here’s a question: Can you see yourself as the person on a sinking ship who maintains composure, allowing you to help save the lives of others on board? I invite you to stop and power down for a few minutes and jot down where you may be holding on a bit too tightly for control, which is always harder and much more work. And think about where you can find equanimity. Because the power to do so can summon courage and save lives – yours, your team's, your business's and those of everyone you impact in your community.