A Perfect Life/A Perfect Job
It is often easy to separate in our minds our home life and work life, but they are two sides of the same coin. In this Inc.com article an entrepreneur works with a coach to develop her "life plan" and finds that changing her life started with changing her business. The questions she answered are ones we all should think about:
Core values What's most important to us?
Dreams What do we dream about? What do we want to splurge on?
Family Is the business allowing us time with our children?
Employees Are we helping them accomplish their personal goals?
Exit plan Do we want to retire? If so, what do we want the business to look like when we are ready to leave it? Who will run it? Or do we just want to reduce our hours, and if so, when?
Financial How much money do we want to make? Can the business support our income goals? How much do we need to expand the business? How much do we need to save for our later years?
Friendships Are we spending enough time with people who are important to us?
Fun Are we still having fun at work?
Interests Do we have the time and the resources to entertain and travel? What places do we want to visit in the next two to three years?
Location Where do we want to live?
Physical Health How can we maintain our health?
Relationship with each other Are we continually developing and improving our relationship?
Society Are we giving back to our community?
I've been thinking a lot about life/work balance lately. I am convinced that making my working environment better will make me a better lawyer, husband, and father -- though hopefully not in that order. I hope to post a snapshot of my business plan tomorrow. Until then, how can you improve your work to improve your life?
Get Lots of Ideas
"The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas." -- Linus Pauling
I've been doing an exercise to help me realize my goal of transforming my law practice into an innovative and fun place to work -- and get away from the billable hour. Every morning, I take a legal pad and number the left-hand margin from 1 - 25. Then I spend the next ten minutes generating 25 ideas. The ideas don't have to be business-related, but I find that they often are. I put the list in a folder behind my desk marked "ideas" and don't look at it again until I get ready to leave for the day. At the end of the week, I bring the lists home to think about the ideas. When Monday morning rolls around, I usually have at least one of the ideas that I want to incorporate permanently in my law practice. Each Monday, I'll try to share those ideas with you.
Can a law firm be a purple cow?
From Seth Godin's book Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable:
Make a list of competitors who are not trying to be everything to everyone. Are they outperforming you? If you could pick one underserved niche to target (and to dominate), what would it be? Why not launch a product to compete with your own -- a product that does nothing to appeal to this market?
My legal niche to target is going to be woman-owned small business start-ups. What's yours?
It's not just me.
This study says that business executives want more job satisfaction, and not more money.
Via The Occupational Adventure blog.
I hate billing by the hour!
I hate billing by the hour. I’m also not very good at it -- never have been. I find it very difficult to keep track of my day in six-minute increments. As a solo attorney, I have the flexibility to change the way I bill my clients, and I am resolving to do just that.
Now I know that New Year’s Resolutions are often forgotten before the snow melts, and how many times have we all promised ourselves to improve our personal and professional lives? Well this year for me is going to be different. With God (and the five or six people who will read this) as my witness, I resolve to do the following this year to make my law practice fun again:
I resolve to move all of my practice away from the billable hour -- no exceptions. I do not want to keep another timesheet as long as I live.
I resolve to think more and work less. I will take one day off each week to reflect on improving my practice and to recharge my batteries.
I resolve to write more and speak more. I will seek out writing and speaking engangements instead of waiting for them to come to me.
I resolve to make my clients my best sales people. I will offer my clients a completely different legal service experience than they are accustomed to. I will ask them about what they want their lawyer to be, and incorporate their ideas into my practice model. In short, I will astound them.
From this day forward, I will be working with my clients and staff to overhaul the way I practice law. In my blog, I will be sharing my ideas and keeping a log of my progress. Join me as I make practicing law fun again.