Marketing: Your Plan is the First Step to Success
I believe the most popular agenda item at the first coaching session is time management. It is not surprising in that time and energy are our two most important assets. The question typically includes how can I find time for client development and comes from lawyers who have not previously had a written plan with goals. My answer is you have to make time and the way to do it is through a plan. If you don’t, you will never “find” it.
For each lawyer, making time will be different. As lawyers I coach know, I made time for my writing and speaking preparation on Saturdays and Sundays from 6am to 9am. I chose those times because I was up anyway and because neither Nancy nor Jill cared that I was not with them. I spent Saturday afternoons with Jill. We called it our father-daughter time.
Christy Crider is a lawyer I coached from Nashville. In our first meeting we talked about planning based on priorities, a subject I wrote about in "Prepare to Win." Christy really got into it and learned to focus her time on her priorities way better than me, and better than any lawyer I know. Her priorities are her family, her church, her health and developing her long-term health care practice. If you had a chance to look at her calendar for any month you would find entries focused on those main priorities. She is able to make time for client development because she has clearly identified what is important to her and does not waste time on things less important to her.
Christy has done a series of presentations and webcasts for lawyers and law students on planning and using their time based on their priorities. She will be a panelist for our “Learning from Each Other” webcast for senior associates and junior partners on March 25, 12:00 noon - 1:00 pm central time. If you are interested in learning how to prepare a plan, contact Joyce to register for the webcast as soon as possible as space is limited
