Coaching For Coaches: One-On-One Attention Combats Training Program Decay Rate

Most practicing attorneys are realizing that the “if-you-build-it, they-will-come” approach to business development is not enough in today's competitive marketplace. For those who must learn by experience, this reality is often punctuated by a delay in making partner due to the lack of a “book of business” or mid-career partnership pressure on rainmaking.

Despite this reality, attorneys continue to struggle with bridging the gap between the skills and behaviors learned in law school and applied in practice, and those skills and behaviors needed to develop new business. This is where the law firm marketers come in.

An early line of defense in addressing this gap can be the engagement of a trainer or motivational speaker for intensive sessions, often at an annual retreat. This individual generates enthusiasm, raises awareness and teaches some client development skills. Being good students, the attorneys quickly realize the value of what they are hearing, and leave the session eager to apply their new knowledge.

The Decay Factor

However, within 1 month, most attorneys have forgotten nearly everything they learned. Studies show that the 1-month “decay rate” for knowledge gained in an isolated training program ranges from 67% to 91%. Obviously, this is not a good return on the investment.

This decay is attributed to the difference between how individuals acquire knowledge and how they make enduring behavioral changes; or the transformation of knowledge into understanding and sustained action. Without reinforcement, attorneys quickly slip into old behaviors once they return to their established work situations.

This is where individual coaching ' helping attorneys apply their new knowledge in real situations over an extended period of time ' can make a difference. Research shows that 6 months is the shortest amount of time needed for an attorney to form new, more productive business-development behaviors.

Coaching Attorneys

So how does a marketer go about coaching an attorney?

Critical to coaching success is the ability to identify a particular lawyer's innate talents and work with him or her to systematically strengthen these talents to help win new business.

When it comes to business development in the legal industry, many attorneys (and the marketers with whom they work) feel they don't have the right personality “type” to be top rainmakers. They feel that they do not match the stereotypical outgoing and social rainmaker who is equally comfortable speaking before a crowd or “working” a room full of strangers.

However, there is no one personality type that predicts a successful law-firm business developer. There are many differences among normal, healthy people. The secret to success is to determine the attorney's own type and then work on the business development activities that take advantage of his or her unique strengths.

Personality Type

One tool for assisting both marketers and attorneys in evaluating business development strengths and styles is personality type theory. This is based on an individual's innate tendencies to use his or her mind in many different ways. These tendencies, over time, turn into patterns of behavior that can either advance – or hinder ' careers.

In determining an attorney's personality type, marketers might request that he or she take one or more of the many personality and/or behavioral assessments designed for this purpose. Among these is the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).

In the business development setting, the information provided by an MBTI assessment allows both the attorney and the marketer to better understand the attorney and his or her strengths in interacting with others and the world.

In addition, an understanding of the MBTI can help marketers and attorneys “read” the personality types of clients and prospects ' how they may prefer to receive and process information and make decisions. This knowledge helps in structuring communications for the best result.

The questionnaire-based MBTI measures the ways people naturally prefer to direct and get energy (extraversion or introversion), take in information (sensing or intuiting), make decisions (thinking or feeling) and organize their external world (judging or perceiving). There are no “right” or “wrong” results; each of the 16 types identifies normal and valuable human behaviors.

The results describe the characteristics of each type and corresponding strengths, areas for development and impact in dealings with other people – including how to use differences constructively in a team setting. A successful business developer can be any “type.”

Personal Interests Assessment

Another useful tool is the Personal Interests, Attitudes and Values Assessment (PIAV). This instrument measures the relative prominence of six basic categories of beliefs and values ' theoretical, utilitarian (economic), aesthetic, social, individualistic (political) and traditional (regulatory). An individual's beliefs and values determine why he or she behaves in a certain way. Each value is ranked as strong, situational or indifferent.

To measure behavior, professional coaches often use a tool called DISC, which explores behavioral issues across four primary dimensions: Dominance (how one responds to problems and challenges); Influence (how one influences others to his or her point of view); Steadiness (how one responds to the pace of the environment); and Compliance (how one responds to rules and regulations).

The DISC results deal with how a person behaves ' how he or she solves problems, interacts with other people, the preferred pace and how he or she responds to rules and procedures. The DISC is known as the “observable language.”

In law firm business development, there is no “one size fits all.” By leveraging the results of these assessment tools, a marketer can coach an attorney through creation and execution of a customized plan for business development that builds on the strengths of his or her unique personality type.

Determining Return

Finally, as a coach, marketers are wise to build into the business development plan measures for effectively determining return on the attorney's business development investment. This can be evaluated financially, by the number of “touch points” between the attorney and prospective clients, by the number of marketing activities completed successfully, or by other metrics that will resonate with both the professional and the firm.

A marketer's success as a coach is easily measured by the success of those he or she is coaching.

Most practicing attorneys are realizing that the “if-you-build-it, they-will-come” approach to business development is not enough in today's competitive marketplace. For those who must learn by experience, this reality is often punctuated by a delay in making partner due to the lack of a “book of business” or mid-career partnership pressure on rainmaking.

Despite this reality, attorneys continue to struggle with bridging the gap between the skills and behaviors learned in law school and applied in practice, and those skills and behaviors needed to develop new business. This is where the law firm marketers come in.

An early line of defense in addressing this gap can be the engagement of a trainer or motivational speaker for intensive sessions, often at an annual retreat. This individual generates enthusiasm, raises awareness and teaches some client development skills. Being good students, the attorneys quickly realize the value of what they are hearing, and leave the session eager to apply their new knowledge.

The Decay Factor

However, within 1 month, most attorneys have forgotten nearly everything they learned. Studies show that the 1-month “decay rate” for knowledge gained in an isolated training program ranges from 67% to 91%. Obviously, this is not a good return on the investment.

This decay is attributed to the difference between how individuals acquire knowledge and how they make enduring behavioral changes; or the transformation of knowledge into understanding and sustained action. Without reinforcement, attorneys quickly slip into old behaviors once they return to their established work situations.

This is where individual coaching ' helping attorneys apply their new knowledge in real situations over an extended period of time ' can make a difference. Research shows that 6 months is the shortest amount of time needed for an attorney to form new, more productive business-development behaviors.

Coaching Attorneys

So how does a marketer go about coaching an attorney?

Critical to coaching success is the ability to identify a particular lawyer's innate talents and work with him or her to systematically strengthen these talents to help win new business.

When it comes to business development in the legal industry, many attorneys (and the marketers with whom they work) feel they don't have the right personality “type” to be top rainmakers. They feel that they do not match the stereotypical outgoing and social rainmaker who is equally comfortable speaking before a crowd or “working” a room full of strangers.

However, there is no one personality type that predicts a successful law-firm business developer. There are many differences among normal, healthy people. The secret to success is to determine the attorney's own type and then work on the business development activities that take advantage of his or her unique strengths.

Personality Type

One tool for assisting both marketers and attorneys in evaluating business development strengths and styles is personality type theory. This is based on an individual's innate tendencies to use his or her mind in many different ways. These tendencies, over time, turn into patterns of behavior that can either advance – or hinder ' careers.

In determining an attorney's personality type, marketers might request that he or she take one or more of the many personality and/or behavioral assessments designed for this purpose. Among these is the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).

In the business development setting, the information provided by an MBTI assessment allows both the attorney and the marketer to better understand the attorney and his or her strengths in interacting with others and the world.

In addition, an understanding of the MBTI can help marketers and attorneys “read” the personality types of clients and prospects ' how they may prefer to receive and process information and make decisions. This knowledge helps in structuring communications for the best result.

The questionnaire-based MBTI measures the ways people naturally prefer to direct and get energy (extraversion or introversion), take in information (sensing or intuiting), make decisions (thinking or feeling) and organize their external world (judging or perceiving). There are no “right” or “wrong” results; each of the 16 types identifies normal and valuable human behaviors.

The results describe the characteristics of each type and corresponding strengths, areas for development and impact in dealings with other people – including how to use differences constructively in a team setting. A successful business developer can be any “type.”

Personal Interests Assessment

Another useful tool is the Personal Interests, Attitudes and Values Assessment (PIAV). This instrument measures the relative prominence of six basic categories of beliefs and values ' theoretical, utilitarian (economic), aesthetic, social, individualistic (political) and traditional (regulatory). An individual's beliefs and values determine why he or she behaves in a certain way. Each value is ranked as strong, situational or indifferent.

To measure behavior, professional coaches often use a tool called DISC, which explores behavioral issues across four primary dimensions: Dominance (how one responds to problems and challenges); Influence (how one influences others to his or her point of view); Steadiness (how one responds to the pace of the environment); and Compliance (how one responds to rules and regulations).

The DISC results deal with how a person behaves ' how he or she solves problems, interacts with other people, the preferred pace and how he or she responds to rules and procedures. The DISC is known as the “observable language.”

In law firm business development, there is no “one size fits all.” By leveraging the results of these assessment tools, a marketer can coach an attorney through creation and execution of a customized plan for business development that builds on the strengths of his or her unique personality type.

Determining Return

Finally, as a coach, marketers are wise to build into the business development plan measures for effectively determining return on the attorney's business development investment. This can be evaluated financially, by the number of “touch points” between the attorney and prospective clients, by the number of marketing activities completed successfully, or by other metrics that will resonate with both the professional and the firm.

A marketer's success as a coach is easily measured by the success of those he or she is coaching.