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A New Year by Design or by Default?

2008-01-11T18:49:40+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|

A bright and talented lawyer lamented: “Where did all the money go?” He was a charismatic guy and had attracted a few good cases. Because he was a skilled lawyer, he enjoyed some success. However, when profits began to dwindle, at first he didn’t notice. Then he didn’t know how to adjust his strategy, because he didn’t really have one.

In the business world, companies can’t get financing if they don’t have a business plan. That’s because bankers know that owners who run their businesses by the seat of the pants are more likely to fail. A business plan doesn’t guarantee success, but in the process of creating one, we establish goals. We consider ways to achieve those goals and how to address the obstacles to achieving them. We set a clear intention about how we want to spend our resources of time, money and talent. That clarity of intention helps us make better decisions when opportunities or obstacles arise. Sometimes during planning we have thought through the consequences of various options in advance. Other times we can ask ourselves, “Is this opportunity more likely to move me toward or away from my goal?”

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Coaching Case Study:
Work/Life Balance

2019-03-05T17:33:53+00:00By debralbruce|

This letter is just to thank you for your help over the last six months, and to express my appreciation for the guidance and support that you provide. I haven’t used a coach before, and I was really pretty skeptical of the whole process, but in just a few months I have learned first hand of the benefits that your experience combined with the accountability of a coaching relationship can bring.

I don’t yet feel like I have reached my full potential or maximized my business opportunities, but I do feel that I have identified the issues and created a structure for dealing with them. This in itself is a tremendous change for me, “ it is the difference between feeling that things will always be the same or feeling that I am in control of improving my own situation. The successful path that I feel I am currently on is largely due to two things that you helped me with: (1) learning to plan my work in a structured and repeatable way, and (2) taking all of my commitments seriously.

On both of these points, I have always been aware of my shortcomings, but I have never felt capable of making real improvement. I have read and attempted all of the time management techniques. I have attempted large systematic changes and small incremental improvements, but nothing has worked for me. When I called you, it was really something like an act of desperation.

What I have learned working with you is that the tricks and techniques can be useful, “ but only if the system (whatever it may be) is used consistently, every day, all the time. I have resisted this kind of work in the past, preferring to think of myself as more […]

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Coaching Case Study:
Moving a Practice from New Orleans to Austin, Post-Katrina

2019-03-05T17:11:20+00:00By debralbruce|

Debra:
I have been quite busy doing all the things that you got me geared up to do when we first talked back in mid-January. You offered me a free teleconference after reading my “missive,” as you called it. I had entitled that full-page email “Confused in Austin” and after re-reading it tonight, I see that I was truly confused.

As I stated in that “missive,” I have so many different interests, skills, and experiences, but have not known how to organize them into a coherent whole, especially since being uprooted in such a traumatic way with Katrina forcing my family and me out of New Orleans. Our “lives” flipped upside down on such short notice; my kids had experienced various adjustment issues in the year and a half since we have been here in Austin, and I had been functioning primarily in the coping/re-establishing equilibrium mode for over a year. That day — January 12, 2007 — I asked you to help me achieve some clarity and direction with my career development and that is exactly what you did during that hour and a half telephone session. Amazing!

First of all, you normalized my experience. When I expressed that I felt overwhelmed with trying to develop two careers at once in a new, highly competitive city like Austin, you validated my feelings totally: “You’re feeling that because what you are doing is, indeed, overwhelming.” Then you proceeded to help me see that, although the task might feel overwhelming, it certainly is not impossible. That realization was empowering and I was so high that day after talking with you that I knew — finally — that everything was going to work out exactly as it should, albeit with some hard work on my part for the next year or so. With a tentative plan in mind, I felt much more optimistic and, therefore, patient […]

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Client Testimonials

2019-03-05T16:39:01+00:00By debralbruce|

See what past and present clients have said about the benefits Debra’s coaching has had on their practice:

Throughout all my coaching lessons, Debra provided a framework by which I was accountable for my own actions and progress. She also provided me with a safe haven when needed, but tough love on those occasions when progress was stymied by my own perceived limitations. All of the recommended resources and training offered by Debra proved to be valuable sources that I continue to use and share with others. The perspectives and life experiences that she openly shared have provided me with a great deal of insight that gives me food for thought on a daily basis.

Executive, U.S. Government Agency
Houston, TX

You gave me some suggestions as to how to “gracefully” handle a few specific situations that I had consciously been avoiding (and therefore not moving forward on marketing). I really appreciated that. It was also nice to have someone to bounce ideas off — you added some suggestions that caused me to revise my original plan and I thought they were good suggestions.

I appreciated working with you. Keep up the good work.

C. K.
Environmental Lawyer
St. Louis, MO

Having an independent assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of my current client development efforts was invaluable. Secondly, having periodic, regularly scheduled appointments to discuss my progress motivated me to keep marketing a high priority regardless of how busy I was and made me more consistent in my marketing effort. Finally, Debra’s encouragement and affirmation that I was doing the right things in my marketing effort gave me confidence that my efforts will have long term positive […]

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Get Remembered

2007-06-10T07:36:39+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|

Years ago at an early morning meeting Jimmy Brill, a veteran estate planning lawyer and the founder of Solos Supporting Solos, asked each of 30 lawyers to introduce themselves and their practices. I didn’t know any of them, and they all faded into a blur, except for one tall gentleman in a straw hat and seersucker suit. He said, “I’m a proctologist in the courtroom.” He got some chuckles and my attention.

I often ask the attorneys I coach on business development to analyze their client list to determine how they obtained their previous clients. Most of them report that the majority of their new clients come as referrals. If your business depends on referrals, your success depends on the likelihood that others will remember you when someone has a problem you can solve.

A couple of months after that morning meeting, I asked someone in the group, “What’s the name of that guy who’s the proctologist in the courtroom?” “Ted Hirtz,” he responded immediately. Ted’s introduction stood out and triggered the memory of enough people for me to locate him again.

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Questions May Be the Answer for Performance Problems

2007-05-15T12:24:37+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|

Do you have an employee who just doesn’t seem to be performing up to snuff? Is there a way to rehabilitate that employee? Or do you have to choose between termination and tolerating inferior performance? Employee turnover is time consuming, disruptive, costly and often bad for office morale (including yours). Before jumping to the conclusion that the employee just isn’t working out, it’s worth making sure that the problem does not lie elsewhere. If you don’t eliminate that possibility, you may be doomed to experience the same song, second verse with the next employee.

Managers often think that employees don’t do what they are supposed to do because they don’t want to, don’t care or are incompetent. That would lead to the conclusion that the manager must terminate the employee or settle for poor performance. However, in his bestseller Why Employees Don’t Do What They’re Supposed to Do and What to Do About It, Ferdinand Fournies points out that managers sometimes unwittingly create situations that cause the poor performance they complain about. What if getting better performance from your employee were as simple as changing your own behavior […]

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A Year by Design, or by Default?

2019-02-10T23:15:55+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|

A bright and talented lawyer lamented: “Where did all the money go?” He was a charismatic guy and had attracted a few good cases. Because he was a skilled lawyer, he enjoyed some success. However, when profits began to dwindle, at first he didn’t notice. Then he didn’t know how to adjust his strategy, because he didn’t really have one.

In the business world, companies can’t get financing if they don’t have a business plan. That’s because bankers know that owners who run their businesses by the seat of the pants are more likely to fail. A business plan doesn’t guarantee success, but in the process of creating one, we establish goals. We consider ways to achieve those goals and how to address the obstacles to achieving them. We set a clear intention about how we want to spend our resources of time, money and talent. That clarity of intention helps us make better decisions when opportunities or obstacles arise. Sometimes during planning we have thought through the consequences of various options in advance. Other times we can ask ourselves, “Is this opportunity more likely to move me toward or away from my goal?”

[…]

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Are You Getting in Your Own Way at the Office?

2007-01-28T13:25:23+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|

Have you ever considered what role you may play in the effective functioning of your office staff? I have worked with lawyers who were unhappy with the performance of their administrative assistants, and who wondered what to do to correct the situation. I have worked with dedicated firm administrators and support staff who were stressing to the breaking point from working with difficult attorneys. Even as a lawyer myself, I learned that at […]

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Work/Life Balance: Are You Tottering on the Brink?

2006-12-07T10:04:19+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|

As a coach to lawyers, this is the time of year when I really hear the life balance questions. All year lawyers struggle to maintain work/life balance, but the challenges become more acute during the holidays. At the same time that family and friends clamor for our attention, year-end deadlines for budgetary, tax or financial reporting purposes cause our clients to pressure us with non-negotiable demands.

Here are tips to implement all year long to help achieve balance between work and your personal life, but especially during the holidays.

1. Put your own oxygen mask on first. This is the most important tip, and the one you’ll be most tempted to skip. The flight attendants tell you this for a good reason. You can’t help others or meet their demands if you deplete your own reserves. What replenishes your energy? What relieves stress for you? Spending a few minutes with nature nurtures the soul, even if you merely water the plants in your office. Create space for 15 minutes of quiet at the start of your day, and protect it. It sounds counter-intuitive and maybe impossible, but my clients are surprised at how problems roll off their backs, instead of developing into time-sucking crises, when they start the day with quiet time.

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What Does Marketing Have to Do with Practicing Law?

2006-06-12T11:15:40+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|

The answer: Everything, if you are a small firm practitioner. How can you practice law without clients? Without marketing, how do you get clients? Most law schools don’t even mention the concept of marketing, much less teach aspiring lawyers how to sell their services. Selling and marketing, in fact, are dirty words among lawyers, being considered cousins of the unethical practice of soliciting.

The reality is, however, that you are probably engaging in marketing every week. The question is, how effective are you at it? Every time you respond to the question, “What do you do?” you are marketing. Every time you meet or greet someone who already knows what you do for a living, you are marketing. What are you advertising about yourself when you are not even talking about your business? Are you communicating by your demeanor and conversation that you are competent and knowledgeable, yet compassionate and trustworthy enough for someone to safely reveal a significant and troubling problem to you? Or do others feel inferior, judged and unimportant in your presence? Which professional would you choose to handle your important concerns?

Instead of marketing unconsciously, get on the road to becoming an effective marketer by following these three tips:

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