Monday, February 9th, 2009
After a long hiatus this lawyer coach is returning to her blog! Some of you may be wondering what happened? Why the long break? The answer is simple. I never developed the vital habit of writing short blog posts. The time commitment was considerable. With a busy coaching practice and limited time available I placed my priority on my clients and let the blogging go.
When I started this blog in December 2006 I was wrapping up my work as the Marketing Director at a large Canadian litigation firm and launching my lawyer coaching practice. I was busy right from the start but in the spring of 2008 I initiated my BASE CAMP Business Development Training Program for associates and got even busier. In addition to my one-on-one coaching clients I now was working with large groups of associates as well. With all my time spent in boardrooms and on the phone meeting with clients there was little time left for other pursuits!
As the months passed I found I missed the blog. I enjoy writing and exchanging ideas with other bloggers and a large community of readers. This New Year’s I determined to get back to blogging. I will focus on posting shorter entries more frequently. There sure is a lot to blog about! Since I stopped writing in August 2008 the legal market has transformed. I look forward to sharing my ideas and top strategies about how to maximise the opportunities in this challenging economic environment. If you have any topics or questions you would like me to address in my blog just send me an email or a comment.
It’s good to be back!
Posted in About this blog, Leadership | Permalink | No Comments »
Monday, July 14th, 2008
A new study on coaching prepared by the American Management Association has some valuable information for law firms planning to launch coaching programs and for individual lawyers who are thinking of hiring a coach.
The study is very well researched and provides an up to date report on what’s working for coaching in organizations. You can download the report from the Canadian Management Centre website here: http://www.cmctraining.org/whitepapers/?wp_id=22
One highlight from the study looked into the most important factors in determining the success of a coaching engagement:
“The strongest correlations were found between coaching expertise and coaching success and between personality and coaching success. In general, this suggests that companies that match based on the coach’s expertise or based on complementary personalities are more likely to report successful coaching programs.”
In other words, retain coaches with experience that matches your needs and interview the candidates to ensure you find a coach who fits your personality. This just seems like common sense. If you are a lawyer looking for practice development coaching then you are best retaining a coach with experience in the legal field and practice development and interviewing them to find out if they are a good “fit” for your personality.
Don’t feel like downloading the report? Here is an excerpt of the some of the other key findings from the study:
Posted in Leadership, coaching | Permalink | No Comments »Finding One: Coaching is used by only about half of today’s companies. In the
North American sample, 52% report having such programs in place, and, in the
international sample, the proportion is 55%.Finding Two: Coaching continues to gain in popularity. Among respondents
who say their organizations don’t yet have coaching programs, a sizable proportion
(37% in the North American sample and 56% in the international sample) say such
programs will be implemented in the future.Finding Three: Coaching is associated with higher performance. Correlations do
not necessarily imply causation, but respondents from organizations that use coaching
more than in the past are also more likely to report two kinds of advantages:
1. They’re more likely to report that their organizations have higher levels of
success in the area of coaching.
2. They’re more likely to say that their organizations are performing well in the
market, as determined by self-reports in the combined areas of revenue
growth, market share, profitability, and customer satisfaction.Finding Four: Coaching is primarily aimed at boosting individual performance.
The desire to improve individual performance/productivity is the most widely cited
purpose of coaching.Finding Five: Clarity of purpose counts. The more a company has a clear reason
for using a coach, the more likely that its coaching process will be viewed as successful.Finding Six: Evaluating coaching’s performance may help boost success rates. The
more frequently respondents reported using a measurement method, the more likely
they were to report success in their coaching programs.Finding Seven: It pays to interview. Having an interview with the prospective
coach has the strongest relationship with reporting a successful coaching program.Finding Eight: It pays to match the right coach with the right client.Matching
people according to expertise and personality seems to be the best strategies.Finding Nine: External training seems to work best. Externally based methods of
providing training on coaching are most strongly correlated with overall coaching
success, though they are less often used.Finding Ten: Coaching’s international future looks bright. Compared with the
North American sample, organizations in the international group have not had
coaching programs in place for as long, but more in this group plan to implement
coaching programs in the future.Finding Eleven: Peer coaching needs to become more effective. Although a little
over half of responding organizations use peer coaching, only about a third of
respondents who use it consider it to be very effective or extremely effective.
Thursday, May 8th, 2008
This is a message for all my law firm readers in British Columbia.
The British Columbia Courthouse Library Society (BCCLS) is currently planning the redevelopment of the Courthouse Library Website and they would appreciate your help.
An online survey has been launched for practicing B.C. lawyers. This survey will help the BCCLS to obtain better insight into your current technology and online usage patterns as one aspect of the development process.
The short 13 question web-based survey takes approximately three minutes to complete. Please help out by taking a few moments to complete the survey and/or encourage the lawyers in your organization to take part. Your participantion will help create a more effective resource that benefits everyone in B.C.’s legal community.
Survey respondents will also be entered into a draw for one of two 8G iPod Touch music player/portable internet devices.
On behalf of the Courthouse Library Society I’d like to thank you in advance for your anticipated assistance.
Posted in Leadership | Permalink | No Comments »Friday, February 22nd, 2008
I was in Toronto this week to attend the launch of the Legal Marketing Association’s (LMA) Toronto Chapter. Eighty attendees filled the conference room at the St. Andrews Club yesterday to celebrate the launch and hear from guest speaker Marcie Borgal Shunk from BTI Consulting Group, a Boston-based business and research company.
Congratulations to LMA Toronto
First I would like to send congratulations to LMA Toronto President Nanette Matys and Board members Elizabeth Gill, Karyn McLean, Diana Lawrence, Lynda Monteith, Dianne Rychlewski, Stuart Wood and Elizabeth Cockle, for successfully undergoing the considerable work of forming a Chapter and for organizing the impressive launch event. The LMA Toronto Chapter promises to be a valuable addition to the Toronto, and indeed Canadian, legal landscape.
Top Legal Trends in 2008
Now on to the BTI Consulting Group report on the top legal trends to watch for it 2008. Of the ten trends reported the four I will report on today are:
- Outside counsel spending is slowing. After a five year period of growth the trend is now turning and “projected market growth for 2008″ is estimated at 6.1%.
- Legal work is moving in-house, AGAIN.
- Convergence is back – more dollars for fewer firms. If you aren’t one of a client’s top two law firms then your share of the wallet is getting smaller. Side note – over 50% of companies switched their primary firms in 2008. That means if you have the position of primary firm guard it closely! And if you are a secondary firm, dislodging a primary firm can result in a considerable increase in wallet share so start planning your approach now.
- The top goal for corporate counsel for the second year in a row is cost management and value for the dollar. Don’t equate lower fees with value.
What do Corporate Counsel Mean by “value for the dollar”?
Value for the dollar is the perception of the value of the work received from the lawyer, law firm. BTI reports that this is the top unmet need expressed by Corporate Counsel. If you are seeking to take over a primary law firm spot, then build your strategy around this. Value for the dollar does not mean lower legal fees. Indeed, the firms rated highest for value are also high fee firms.
BTI reported on several measures of value:
- Understanding the client’s business: This means providing solid business solutions to the client grounded in a deep understanding of the client’s business, industry, and the specific needs related to each transaction or file. The law firm invests non-billable time in learning as much as possible about the client’s business.
- Responsiveness: Responding in a timely fashion. Responsiveness is not just about responding to phone calls and emails promptly. It more generally addresses the lawyer and law firm’s ability to meet a wide-variety of client requests. For instance, on five separate occasions BTI heard from corporate counsel that when requesting quarterly instead of monthly bills from their law firms they were told by their lawyers that their accounting departments were unable to accommodate this request.
- Commitment to help: The lawyer is truly interested in helping to solve the problem not just bill the hours.
Old News
Value for money is not a new concept. The ideas listed above make up the content of a library shelf full of books. Law firms have invested countless dollars in retreats, seminars, and conferences on the topic. The question is: why is it so difficult to get this right? The answer is time. What David Maister has referred to as investment time. It takes time, non-billable time, to get this right. And time is the one thing no lawyer has today. The billable hour demands keep going up. The “investment time” any lawyer has is scarce. If you want to achieve value for money then give your lawyers the time to deliver it.
Posted in Leadership | Permalink | No Comments »Friday, February 8th, 2008
Why are business development skills more important then ever for women lawyers?
Because in my opinion as female professionals we have reached an impasse.
In the words of Alice Eagly and Linda Carli in the September 2007 issue of Harvard Buisness Review (HBR) the glass ceiling is a misnomer. There is not artificial barrier beyond which we cannot ascend but rather a labyrinth of challenges and obstacles that must be overcome throughout our careers.
The statistics tell the story:
According to the National Association for Law Placement, a trade group that provides career counselling to lawyers and law students, only about 17 percent of the partners at major law firms nationwide [US] were women in 2005, a figure that has risen only slightly since 1995, when about 13 percent of partners were women. New York Times, March 19, 2006
Gender inequality continues to exist in management functions, and the increase in the number of female university graduates will not itself be sufficient to close the gap. Women Matter, McKinsey & Company, 2007
The latest findings from Grant Thornton’s International Business Report (IBR), released today to coincide with International Women’s Day, reveal that 38% of businesses do not have any women in senior management roles, a figure that has remained unchanged since 2004. The survey, which covers the opinions of 7,200 privately held businesses in 32 countries, represents 81% of global GDP. Press Release, Grant Thornton, 2007.
Consider the most highly paid executives of Fortune 500 companies, those with titles such as chairman, president, president, chief executive officer, and chief operating officer. Of this group, only 6% are women. Most notably, only 2% of the CEOs are women, and only 15% of the seats on the boards of directors are held by women. From HBR Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership
The rising number of women graduating from law school and entering the legal profession is not enough to shift the balance. The same applies to women entering the business world with MBA’s and other professional degrees. More women entering the labyrinth doesn’t result in a corresponding rise in the number of women making it through.
Business development in this context becomes a means for advancing. It’s about taking leadership of one’s practice. It’s about determining what you want and how to get there.
Keep in mind that your female clients are experiencing the same challenges. How can you assist them? What can you do to help them get ahead?
Now it is up to each and every one of us to take this in our own hands.
The lessening of activism on behalf of all women puts the pressure on each woman to find her own way. From HBR Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership
In January I presented on this topic for the Legal Marketing Association (LMA) Vancouver Chapter and then again in February to the TAGLaw legal network. Watch for my upcoming article in The Lawyers Weekly.
I also recommend reading Larry Bodine’s list of ten recommendations “that law firms should adopt to reduce turnover among women lawyers, geneate more business and thus boost firm revenue” with one caveat:
Women lawyers are busier than ever. Business development activities must be implemented as a vital and strategic component of the lawyer’s own career plan. Not as yet another hoop jumping exercise.
Posted in Business Development, Leadership, Women lawyers | Permalink | 5 Comments »Monday, October 15th, 2007 Posted in Leadership | Permalink | Enter your password to view comments.
