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Crazy Impact of Leadership
In Crazy Impact of Leadership, Dr. Allan Colman helps project managers discover the 6 skills of exceptional leadership. With these skills, leaders will be equipped to face challenges common to professionals in leadership roles. Dr. Colman uses insightful case studies in this video course to motivate leaders to make a crazy impact.
Through his work as a chief executive and as an advisor to managing partners, Dr. Colman identified these 6 skills areas to make an impact:
Leaders Listen
Leaders Make Decisions
Leaders Communicate Decisions
Leaders Hold People Accountable for Results
Leaders Take Risks
Leaders Leave a Legacy
Project Managers shouldn’t settle for simply making an impact, but become a leader who makes a *crazy impact*.
Does Your Firm Have an “Enduring Competitive Advantage”?
This often overlooked strategy needs to be recognized by all professionals. It requires energy, resources and time. But it is the key to long term, productive revenue development.
* Whenever and wherever you are with a client or customer, the brand discussion must be the same.
* Does your group assess client satisfaction on a regular basis?
* Are your professionals being trained to utilize a common approach to the core of your services and the differentiation with competitors?
* Do you require a simple strategic plan for each approach?
* Is there a review of the stage of growth with each relationship?
The answers to these and related questions will make a major contribution to your long term revenue growth.
Why Do Senior Partners Resist an Exit Strategy?
From Thomson Reuters Legal Solutions Blog, August 20, 2015
When asked what major problems they face, we often hear Managing Partners say “senior attorneys. They want to hold on to their clients and not share origination or management credits.” The potential loss of revenue is significant. Failure to deal with this is a common million dollar blind spot for the typical law firm.
Often, these near-retirement lawyers are producing less and taking more.
“Enduring Competitive Advantage” – What Does It Take?
What are the criteria you use to build a lasting or “enduring competitive advantage”? How closely do you track competitors and the market place? Do you pre-test strategies?
Strategy requires clarity, focus and execution. Tools to build that enduring competitive advantage can include a strategic plan, follow up system, mastering lead generating, building a business model, etc.
SENIOR PARTNER EXIT STRATEGY – Will They Cooperate?
Most law firms find it uncomfortable to tackle the task of planning and documenting an exit strategy for senior partners. The basic action is simple – determine what that partner should:
• Do more of;
• Do less of;
• Start doing;
• Stop doing?
And with each question, who should they be doing it with in order to insure client continuation?
Assuming the senior partner is cooperating and has been part of the firm’s culture of building future leaders, look toward continuing an “enduring competitive advantage.”
Is there a next level of growth that can be included in the client continuation plan? Are there changes or trade-offs needed to transition the client and their engagements? If there a risk the client might cancel the relationship, what immediate actions should be undertaken?
In the past, one of our clients was working hard to receive a judicial appointment from that state’s governor. In a brainstorming session to determine the best way to plan for his departure, I felt there was a great risk to the partner’s clients hearing about this effort through word of mouth.
A contact strategy was quickly established. Both the senior partner and the primary attorney working on each engagement were present on the calls or meetings held. A surprising side benefit resulted when numerous clients not only wanted to stay with the firm, but volunteered to contact the governor and push the nomination.
This certainly demonstrates the importance of constantly reinforcing client relationships. It equally applies to the other firm attorneys working with each client and their own need to build counterpart relationships. Their primary contacts are that client’s future gatekeepers. They too should be building that enduring competitive advantage.
As assertive and engaging as the transitioning efforts are, we find one critical area is often neglected – referral sources. Experienced lawyers often develop a range of referral sources who have led them to new relationships and new clients. In turn, the attorney has served as a referral source for them. Make sure these are identified and nurtured in the client continuation plan.
To make this all work, our recommendation is a simple OPSP, One Page Strategic Plan for each client including: focus; key objective; initiative timing, key progress indicators; and scheduled reporting to firm management. One protagonist must be charged with making this happen. A member of the firm’s executive committee should be best equipped to insure the success of client continuation.
Dr. Allan Colman has been named a Top 10 Speaker by ISN Works. His featured keynote is “GOT LEADERSHIP – Transform Your Leaders and Transform Your Business Growth.” Dr. Colman uses humor, case studies and powerful insights designed to transform your teams and open up many new business opportunities.
He utilizes 6 skills which are crucially linked to exceptional leadership, accelerating revenue growth and increasing effectiveness. The key to transforming sustainable revenue growth to productive revenue is centered in a firm’s leaders who are willing to address critical impact areas.
Colman may be reached at www.allancolman.com and ISN at 800-987-7771.
About Made For Success Publishing
(http://www.madeforsuccesspublishing.com) works with motivated authors worldwide to produce successful book-launch campaigns. By combining proven book-marketing strategies with enhanced retail promotion, Made for Success Publishing works with self-published authors on the launch of physical books, ebooks and audio books.
About the Author:
(http://www.allancolman.com)
Dr. Allan Colman, CEO of The Closers Group, is a consultant, speaker and author. He is an expert in business growth and leadership and a foremost authority on exceptional leadership. His three recent books, Crazy Impact, Own the Zone, and Lead Like A Boss are all published by Made for Success Publishing and are utilized in his seminars and workshops.
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HOME > BLOG > PRACTICE MANAGEMENT > REVENUE GROWTH AND FIRM LEADERSHIP – WHAT’S MISSING?
REVENUE GROWTH AND FIRM LEADERSHIP – WHAT’S MISSING?
August 6, 2015
How often have you heard from senior lawyers, “I’ve got lots of low hanging fruit”? Statistics over the past 8 years indicate this sounds like they are talking a good-game but are not getting out face-to-face in order to pick that crop. If, in fact, these claims are actually pursued, only 3% of the prospects are ready to buy, and the rest are either no longer interested, have retained someone else, or have moved on to other problems. That’s right, just 3% are ready to engage you, according to a study by Business Breakthroughs.
Further, every firm has a number of tools that they are not using or using ineffectively, to grow revenue. The more you look at your own firm and its business development strategies, the more you are going to find:
Underperforming assets;
Overlooked opportunities;
Hidden assets;
Under valued relationships.
And to further reinforce this challenge, 89.3% of ceo’s confirmed the need for their outside firms to build better relationships (Study by brandfog.com).
What are needed are clarity, focus and execution, starting with firm leadership. Firms need to start using tools which place more emphasis on “critical impact areas.” These will lead to clear 90 Day Strategic Implementation Maps which identify action details, timing, resources needed and leadership assignments. These lead to:
More revenue;
More clients;
More open doors.
Building a sustainable revenue path is the key to rapidly growing ROI. Those who can have the most influence in turning this into productive revenue are the firm’s leaders. Just as “marketing” has evolved into “business development,” business development must now evolve into “business generation and creation!”
Refining the roles and requirements of firm leadership need to focus on the complete picture:
1. Underutilized assets;
2. Development of suppressed skills sets of each professional;
3. Hidden opportunities, both current and future;
4. Under valued relationships;
5. Timely associations with clients and contacts.
Revealing and implementing these five avenues to your firm’s leadership are keys to achievement, growth and success. The major problem we see on an ongoing basis is the absence of holding people accountable for results. Once Strategic Implementation Maps are approved by firm management, the most potential for success is if firm leaders help others overcome obstacles and challenges.
In summary, what are needed to accelerate revenue growth in your firm are clarity, focus and execution. Take a hard look at what can be refined in order to identify those “critical improvement areas.” Place your leaders in charge of implementing each and watch the revenue grow.
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Allan Colman
CEO, Closers Group
Allan Colman, CEO of the Closers Group, is a business development executive keynote speaker and marketing advisor/coach. He has spent more than 2 decades helping law firms and professional services firms generate more revenue. His clients call him Mentor and TORMENTOR!
Think of it this way: if every “leader” in your firm generated only a 5% increase in their new business, with virtually no extra overhead costs needed, what a powerful impact that would have on ROI. But most firms today employ either a collegiate or consensus form of leadership. While there are often Managing Partners who take strong stands on certain issues, the biggest problem we see consistently is the absence of holding people accountable for results.
Yet it has the most potential for success if firm leaders (managing partners, executive committee, practice group leaders, partners-in-charge) are reminded of their commitments, helping them overcome obstacles and challenges, and not letting them skip “next steps.”
Take a hard look at what can be refined in order to identify “critical improvement areas.” Organize them into an IMPLEMENTATION MAP, focusing on accountability for activities that have the greatest impact and value. It is not necessary to revamp your entire organization. Just shake up the system a bit to make it clear what the expectations, time lines and results are for the business generation task assigned.
Place your leaders in charge of implementing each task, set specific timing, hold them accountable and watch the revenue grow, more doors opening, and the firm’s reputation cower the competition.