I recently listened to a podcast called “Fail Better” featuring actor David Duchovny interviewing accomplished individuals and talking about how important failure can be. In this episode, he was interviewing Freakonomics writer and podcaster Steven Dubner and they posed the question: why is it that failure is the best lesson; why do we seem to [...]
Biden held onto leadership as long as he could. But when it became apparent that he had lost the faith of his party, and that he couldn’t possibly beat Trump in the Presidential election, he was convinced to step down. There can be tremendous strength in quitting a strategy, and trying something different. Lawyers, and [...]
Currently, Prime is running a documentary on this famous flight demonstration team from the US Navy and Marine Corps. You might have seen them (or their Canadian counterparts, the Snowbirds) perform at an airshow. The documentary highlights the selection process, training, and performance pace of the team over a one-year period. Around the same time [...]
Years ago, when I served as the President of the Legal Marketing Association, I would get antsy if I looked around the table during board meetings, and all 12 of us were completely on-side with a new idea or project. I knew it probably meant that we weren’t being critical enough. So, I would stop [...]
When I give presentations, I’m often asked “what is the biggest contributor to a law firm’s business success?” There are so many possible answers to that question, but I know those who know me would guess I would say “planning”. Yes, I do heavily endorse personal and business planning. But that wouldn’t be my answer. [...]
(This article first appeared in SLAW). The other day, an international client of mine thinking about re-entering the Canadian marketplace asked me why there was so little loyalty in Canadian law firms these days. He was referring to the amount of lawyer churn in most law firms. I don’t believe this issue is limited to [...]
Typically, lawyers work from 40 – 80 hours per week. If they are able to bill out 2/3rds of that time, they are lucky (or organized). But it could be better. The difference between billed work and the rest of that time is often wasted or at least under-utilized time. That’s because most lawyers don’t [...]
(This post first appeared in SLAW). I provide a wide range of services to law firms, so I can always tell what’s happening in the industry by the run on certain types of services. Sometimes I seem to do nothing but coaching; lawyers wanting to improve their personal skills in a range of business areas. [...]
(This article first appeared in SLAW) These days, I’m being asked to do a lot of presentations and training on law firm leadership. People with a marketing background tend to gravitate toward this area because so much of what we do focusses on helping to improve the leadership skills of the lawyers we work with [...]
I was recently asked how a law firm management philosophy relates to the strategic planning process. It was a great question, because how we manage a firm (or plan to manage a firm) must either be aligned with firm culture, or set out to consciously adjust firm culture. So how we plan sets the tone [...]