Professional Development: Holding the Whistle Doesn't Make You a Coach

Coaching is the act of helping others to continuously improve their performance. It is not a collection of managerial tasks associated with a desired end result.

Law firm leaders sometimes are not born or made. They just seemingly appear out of thin air. A young associate with promise becomes a hard-working member of the team. He or she ascends to partner and creates a large book of business, mostly on his or her own. Such associates become known for both their rainmaking prowess and skills as brilliant legal practitioners. They are asked to serve on key committees and are known as rising stars. Then, one day, the managing partner needs someone to be in charge, and asks someone to step forward. The rising star does not notice that everyone else took one step backwards.

This new chair of a practice group, office or client team is now responsible for both the delivery of services and building a growing and profitable business. That requires him or her to simultaneously become a leader, a manager and a coach. Leadership inspires confidence. Management guides results. However, coaching develops people.

When someone is put in charge, that person is expected to produce new business, increased revenue and higher profits. Many leaders fall into the trap of thinking that by managing the results, they are concurrently coaching their people on how to develop and sustain business. Thus, they assume a command and control approach that emphasizes the inspecting and auditing aspects of management without the guidance of true coaching.

With regard to coaching fellow lawyers in business development, success is dependent upon the proper approach and attitude to creating better performers. Coaching is particularly hard for rising stars that must now rely on the efforts of others instead of the yoke they used to proudly wear on their own backs.

Leaders who think they are coaching, but are really only managing, fall into one of the following six false coach personas.

False Coaching Personas

One. The Preacher. This leader gets up in front of the group and proclaims its direction. He states the expected results, and says he is fully confident that everyone in the room will carry their own weight. He expects that the power of his words will inspire effort that the shared end goal is the motivation for success.

Two. The Drill Sergeant. This leader doesn't believe anyone will work as hard as needed unless he is constantly pushing them to find more business. Her inspiration comes from telling people to try harder and to put in more hours.

Three. The Reminiscer. This type of leader talks about how she used to generate new business, and expects everyone to become a clone of her former self when she was rising through the ranks. She believes that if everyone would just do the things that worked in the past, new business will appear in the future.

Four. The Back Seat Driver. This leader never fully lets go of any big business opportunity, and directs other lawyers on each step they should take. He is frequently the “super salesman” who does not trust that business can be closed without him being directly involved.

Five. The Monday Morning Quarterback. These leaders spend most of their time critiquing business-development efforts after they have occurred. They point out what people should have done or what they would have done in a similar situation.

Six. The Bean Counter. This leader spends all of her time tracking metrics such as number of appointments, RFPs produced or hours spent on business development. She champions a manufacturing approach to business development: More input produces more output.

Many law firms can instantly envision leaders that fit these personas. Most are just managing the end product (financial success) while not managing the process (business development). The product is a culmination of the day-to-day efforts of the lawyers under their responsibility.

In fact, the word “coach” should not be viewed as a noun. It is a verb. A successful coach continuously improves the individual players on the team. If that is handled properly, the results will be natural manifestations of their efforts.

What Makes a True Coach?

Most leaders/managers spend the majority of their time inspecting and auditing. Inspecting involves monitoring activity and approaches, while auditing is reviewing performance after the fact. This is the beginning and end of the business development process. The middle is coaching.

Business development is a not a natural skill for most lawyers, or something in which they have received formal training. Most of the time, it is a very expensive game of trial and error. Firms spend countless hours and dollars on unproductive activities and approaches by their lawyers, and no one coaches them in a thoughtful way on how to best meet their personal goals. Thus, there is a great need for business development coaching by their leader. They may be asked by the firm to manage the department, but to do so, they must coach their people how to succeed on their own.

Business Development Coaching Areas

A leader must acknowledge that training may occur as a group, but coaching occurs on a one-on-one basis with each lawyer. A coach must master and improve their skills in the following key areas:

Teaching Fundamentals. Whether they are writing an article, giving a speech, making a presentation or closing a deal, there are basic skills that must be repeatedly practiced. When trying to generate new sources of business, failure can be measured in the thousands, or even millions, of dollars. This is not the time for people to experiment. They need sales training, marketing and writing proficiency, and they need to become more skilled at it every time they do it. This can be perceived as repetitive and mind-numbing, but it is the only true way to master any skill. Ask your lawyers if they were better after their 50th time in court in front of a judge versus their first, and they will quickly see your point.

Situational Planning. Since every business development has such high opportunity costs, careful planning must be part of the process. Like a well-handled legal case, a carefully mapped approach to each opportunity is essential. Contingencies must be addressed and multiple alternative approaches must be explored. Only after this will the best methodology be discovered. A shared, tested framework used frequently in account and opportunity planning, will lead to the best possible outcomes. It does not matter what method is used, but it should not be based on each individual situation, since this makes it hard to coach for improvement over time.

Simulation. This is another term for rehearsal. Coaches should make time to let lawyers practice their pitches or approaches on them, and then make adjustments. It is better to learn what doesn't work while still within the walls of the firm than it is in the client's office. Also, lawyers should be put in situations they have not thought of during their preparation, since things rarely go as planned. A coach should ask a lawyer questions such as what she would do if a different decision-maker was involved, or if a new competitor unexpectedly emerged. Think of this as flight simulator training for a pilot: How would you handle a wind shear or losing an engine? If a good answer is not readily available, go back to situational planning and try again.

Reflection. This is where the coach serves as a type of “therapist” to question the lawyer after an opportunity. This is not the time to give advice. It is a time for reflection for the lawyer. A reflective coaching style, championed by Lotus Coaching and Training, is especially effective for organizations such as law firms without a true hierarchical structure. The coach has to spend her time performing an After Action Report about what was supposed to happen, what actually did happen, why it occurred and what can be improved next time. The answers to all of these questions should come from the lawyer and not the coach. The coach can guide the discussion, but the improvement will come from the business developer devising his own solution to apply for next time.

Such questions might include:

• Why didn't they choose us?
• Why do you think that is?
• Is there something that we, or you, could have done to better prepare?
• What do we need to work on for next time?

Continuous Improvement. Each lawyer who is coached will have different strengths and weaknesses. A manager may need to show department improvement, but a coach needs each member of the department to improve or the burden will always be on the coach. The business developing lawyer should be getting better and should need his coach less in similar situations in the future. If they are not achieving the results you expect, it is not their fault. It is the coach's responsibility to improve their chances of developing new business. You should not have to be involved in every opportunity to be confident of a positive outcome. If you do, that is a sign of coaching failure.

Properly CoachingIndividuals Will Manage the Department's Results

Once coaching is a practice used by the leader, he or she can utilize the Corrective Continuum below to put all of the pieces together. The leader must assess what business development efforts are not working and stop performing tasks that are draining time, money and attention away from achieving success. They must then stretch their people by practicing fundamentals, planning and placing lawyers in uncomfortable simulations. Through reflection, they learn what works and repeat it. Finally, they must integrate all of the individual strengths and talents to work as a fine-tuned system.

However, the coach's work is never truly done. Each new business development opportunity will present a new obstacle or highlight a weakness that may not have been previously known. However, a great coach will once again make her team better and ready for a more rigorous challenge in the future.

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As Vice President of Performance Development at LexisNexis, Darryl Cross is responsible for sales training and performance enhancement for a 1,500-person national sales force in the legal, corporate, government and academic sectors. He may be reached at 630-945-0752 or via e-mail at [email protected].

Coaching is the act of helping others to continuously improve their performance. It is not a collection of managerial tasks associated with a desired end result.

Law firm leaders sometimes are not born or made. They just seemingly appear out of thin air. A young associate with promise becomes a hard-working member of the team. He or she ascends to partner and creates a large book of business, mostly on his or her own. Such associates become known for both their rainmaking prowess and skills as brilliant legal practitioners. They are asked to serve on key committees and are known as rising stars. Then, one day, the managing partner needs someone to be in charge, and asks someone to step forward. The rising star does not notice that everyone else took one step backwards.

This new chair of a practice group, office or client team is now responsible for both the delivery of services and building a growing and profitable business. That requires him or her to simultaneously become a leader, a manager and a coach. Leadership inspires confidence. Management guides results. However, coaching develops people.

When someone is put in charge, that person is expected to produce new business, increased revenue and higher profits. Many leaders fall into the trap of thinking that by managing the results, they are concurrently coaching their people on how to develop and sustain business. Thus, they assume a command and control approach that emphasizes the inspecting and auditing aspects of management without the guidance of true coaching.

With regard to coaching fellow lawyers in business development, success is dependent upon the proper approach and attitude to creating better performers. Coaching is particularly hard for rising stars that must now rely on the efforts of others instead of the yoke they used to proudly wear on their own backs.

Leaders who think they are coaching, but are really only managing, fall into one of the following six false coach personas.

False Coaching Personas

One. The Preacher. This leader gets up in front of the group and proclaims its direction. He states the expected results, and says he is fully confident that everyone in the room will carry their own weight. He expects that the power of his words will inspire effort that the shared end goal is the motivation for success.

Two. The Drill Sergeant. This leader doesn't believe anyone will work as hard as needed unless he is constantly pushing them to find more business. Her inspiration comes from telling people to try harder and to put in more hours.

Three. The Reminiscer. This type of leader talks about how she used to generate new business, and expects everyone to become a clone of her former self when she was rising through the ranks. She believes that if everyone would just do the things that worked in the past, new business will appear in the future.

Four. The Back Seat Driver. This leader never fully lets go of any big business opportunity, and directs other lawyers on each step they should take. He is frequently the “super salesman” who does not trust that business can be closed without him being directly involved.

Five. The Monday Morning Quarterback. These leaders spend most of their time critiquing business-development efforts after they have occurred. They point out what people should have done or what they would have done in a similar situation.

Six. The Bean Counter. This leader spends all of her time tracking metrics such as number of appointments, RFPs produced or hours spent on business development. She champions a manufacturing approach to business development: More input produces more output.

Many law firms can instantly envision leaders that fit these personas. Most are just managing the end product (financial success) while not managing the process (business development). The product is a culmination of the day-to-day efforts of the lawyers under their responsibility.

In fact, the word “coach” should not be viewed as a noun. It is a verb. A successful coach continuously improves the individual players on the team. If that is handled properly, the results will be natural manifestations of their efforts.

What Makes a True Coach?

Most leaders/managers spend the majority of their time inspecting and auditing. Inspecting involves monitoring activity and approaches, while auditing is reviewing performance after the fact. This is the beginning and end of the business development process. The middle is coaching.

Business development is a not a natural skill for most lawyers, or something in which they have received formal training. Most of the time, it is a very expensive game of trial and error. Firms spend countless hours and dollars on unproductive activities and approaches by their lawyers, and no one coaches them in a thoughtful way on how to best meet their personal goals. Thus, there is a great need for business development coaching by their leader. They may be asked by the firm to manage the department, but to do so, they must coach their people how to succeed on their own.

Business Development Coaching Areas

A leader must acknowledge that training may occur as a group, but coaching occurs on a one-on-one basis with each lawyer. A coach must master and improve their skills in the following key areas:

Teaching Fundamentals. Whether they are writing an article, giving a speech, making a presentation or closing a deal, there are basic skills that must be repeatedly practiced. When trying to generate new sources of business, failure can be measured in the thousands, or even millions, of dollars. This is not the time for people to experiment. They need sales training, marketing and writing proficiency, and they need to become more skilled at it every time they do it. This can be perceived as repetitive and mind-numbing, but it is the only true way to master any skill. Ask your lawyers if they were better after their 50th time in court in front of a judge versus their first, and they will quickly see your point.

Situational Planning. Since every business development has such high opportunity costs, careful planning must be part of the process. Like a well-handled legal case, a carefully mapped approach to each opportunity is essential. Contingencies must be addressed and multiple alternative approaches must be explored. Only after this will the best methodology be discovered. A shared, tested framework used frequently in account and opportunity planning, will lead to the best possible outcomes. It does not matter what method is used, but it should not be based on each individual situation, since this makes it hard to coach for improvement over time.

Simulation. This is another term for rehearsal. Coaches should make time to let lawyers practice their pitches or approaches on them, and then make adjustments. It is better to learn what doesn't work while still within the walls of the firm than it is in the client's office. Also, lawyers should be put in situations they have not thought of during their preparation, since things rarely go as planned. A coach should ask a lawyer questions such as what she would do if a different decision-maker was involved, or if a new competitor unexpectedly emerged. Think of this as flight simulator training for a pilot: How would you handle a wind shear or losing an engine? If a good answer is not readily available, go back to situational planning and try again.

Reflection. This is where the coach serves as a type of “therapist” to question the lawyer after an opportunity. This is not the time to give advice. It is a time for reflection for the lawyer. A reflective coaching style, championed by Lotus Coaching and Training, is especially effective for organizations such as law firms without a true hierarchical structure. The coach has to spend her time performing an After Action Report about what was supposed to happen, what actually did happen, why it occurred and what can be improved next time. The answers to all of these questions should come from the lawyer and not the coach. The coach can guide the discussion, but the improvement will come from the business developer devising his own solution to apply for next time.

Such questions might include:

• Why didn't they choose us?
• Why do you think that is?
• Is there something that we, or you, could have done to better prepare?
• What do we need to work on for next time?

Continuous Improvement. Each lawyer who is coached will have different strengths and weaknesses. A manager may need to show department improvement, but a coach needs each member of the department to improve or the burden will always be on the coach. The business developing lawyer should be getting better and should need his coach less in similar situations in the future. If they are not achieving the results you expect, it is not their fault. It is the coach's responsibility to improve their chances of developing new business. You should not have to be involved in every opportunity to be confident of a positive outcome. If you do, that is a sign of coaching failure.

Properly CoachingIndividuals Will Manage the Department's Results

Once coaching is a practice used by the leader, he or she can utilize the Corrective Continuum below to put all of the pieces together. The leader must assess what business development efforts are not working and stop performing tasks that are draining time, money and attention away from achieving success. They must then stretch their people by practicing fundamentals, planning and placing lawyers in uncomfortable simulations. Through reflection, they learn what works and repeat it. Finally, they must integrate all of the individual strengths and talents to work as a fine-tuned system.

However, the coach's work is never truly done. Each new business development opportunity will present a new obstacle or highlight a weakness that may not have been previously known. However, a great coach will once again make her team better and ready for a more rigorous challenge in the future.

[IMGCAP(1)]

As Vice President of Performance Development at LexisNexis, Darryl Cross is responsible for sales training and performance enhancement for a 1,500-person national sales force in the legal, corporate, government and academic sectors. He may be reached at 630-945-0752 or via e-mail at [email protected].