Take Yourself Back to School to Help Your Practice Make the Grade
As September draws to a close, I couldn’t resist another school-themed post.
Remember the excitement of a new school year?
As a kid, I always got excited at the beginning of a new year. It represented new possibilities, new friends and learning new things. It was an opportunity to do things better than I’d done before. With new clothes, brand new notebooks and other school supplies, the new school year was a clean slate.
When we’re in school, we’re forced to learn new things all the time. But after we’ve been in practice for a number of years, the days start to merge into one another. We get stuck in a rut. Our work becomes rote. And that’s not good for us or for our clients.
Creativity is key to getting and keeping clients
More and more lawyers are entering the practice, and that means lawyers have to work harder and harder to get and keep clients. Knowing the law isn’t enough any more. In order to provide excellent service to our clients, we’ve got to stay on top of the marketplace, and on top of our clients’ wants and needs. In fact, we’ve got to anticipate their needs before they know they have them. To do that, we need to be creative.
The best way to keep that innovation and creativity going is to keep learning – keep filling our own well in order to have enough mental energy to come up with new ideas, new approaches to the law, new ways to package our services, new ways to make those services sound attractive to clients, and new ways to surprise our clients with excellent service.
I can hear you groaning already, thinking you don’t have time to learn anything new, because you’re already too busy. But the truth of the matter is that if we’re not growing, we’re stagnating, and stagnation is the downfall of your practice.
Try something completely different
One of the best ways to keep learning and open yourself up to new ideas is to take a break from the law. Learning something new doesn’t always have to mean taking the latest CLE course in your practice area or reading legal publications. Often, the best ‘new’ ideas are just old ideas reinvented from another industry.
The new school year always provided the opportunity to meet new people and make new friends. The infusion of a new perspective and a new way of looking at the world sparks inspiration and original thinking. New people can help you examine your old ideas in a new light.
Take some time this September to make a list of three new things you’d like to learn or do during this ‘school year.’ They don’t have to be law related, and if they’re not, so much the better. Most creative thinkers say their best ideas come when they’re not focused on the problem or the issue itself.
Inject new life into your practice
What will you do when you take yourself back to school this September? Will you pursue art, history, architecture, literature, or science? The possibilities are endless. Volunteer, take a class, join a new group, take up a new hobby, create something, learn a new language, build something, visit somewhere you’ve never been before, read fiction or biography or poetry, or go to a museum. You’ll be surprised at the new energy, inspiration and vitality that results, not just in your personal life, but in your law practice as well
Are you looking for something new this year? Want to meet some new people? Need help building your practice without breaking the bank?
Check out this teleseminar series especially for solos, small firms, and associates: www.lawyermeltdown.com/teleclass-shoestring.html