Turning Game Plans Into Reality: Professional coaches can help small law firms meet businessgoalsAuthor(s): JILL SCHACHNER CHANENSource: ABA Journal, Vol. 83, No. 8 (AUGUST 1997), p. 84Published by: American Bar AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27839976 .

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SOLO NETWORK

Turning Game Plans Into Reality Professional coaches can help small law firms meet business goals BY JILL SCHACHNER CHANEN

James Miller had grown his real estate law firm in West Palm Beach, Fla., to five lawyers in five years, but he still could not shed the feeling that the com petition was nipping at his heels.

He had heard the statistics about law yers saturating Flori da's market and knew he had to do some

thing to stay ahead. Building Miller & As sociates through a re

liable referral network seemed like the obvi ous avenue to security,

but, Miller confesses, he didn't know how to do it.

"Firms tradition ally have rainmakers," he says. "I had done some of that, but it

was more catch as

catch can. I was stum

bling into clients. I wanted to find out if there was a system or

methodology that would help me move onto another level."

So two years ago Miller hired a professional coach who helped him learn techniques to build his client roster without intruding on his per sonal life and work time.

Now, instead of fretting behind his desk, Miller is delegating to his associates and generating work for his firm by combining business de velopment with hobbies such as scu ba diving and trap shooting. The re sults, he says, have been well worth the investments of money and time.

Professional coaching has been a staple of corporate America for nearly a decade. Only recently have lawyers begun to see its value for themselves, says Mark Powers, the founder of MPC Legal Marketing Systems in Orlando.

"We find that most attorneys are not good with basic [business] habits and skills, and do not have a

Jill Schachner Chanen, a law yer, is a frequent contributor to the ABA Journal.

mission statement for their person al and professional lives," says Pow ers, who is Miller's coach.

Coaching helps lawyers define and achieve goals by refining their basic life and business skills through

Goaltend?nq: James Miller with his coach, Mark Powers.

regular coach-client meetings over an extended period of time.

Powers says solo and small-firm lawyers can benefit the most from coaching because they feel changes

A Coach of Your Own More than 2,000 professional

coaches work in the United States, and their fates, experience and procedures vary widely. While some deal exclusively with lawyers, others work with a variety of occupations.

Most coaches require clients to commit to working together for anywhere from five to 18 months, typically on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. Some coaches conduct these sessions over the telephone; others insist on working in person and travel to their clients.

Costs can be steep. Prospec tive clients should anticipate paying $1,500 to $4,000 a year for the services of a coach, says Teri-E. Beli of Success Unlimited Network.

?Jill Schachner Chanen

in a practice directly and have the power to make needed adjustments.

"For anyone in small practice settings, where do they go for guid ance?" asks Laura Whitworth, a founder of the Coaches' Training

Institute in San Rafael, Calif. "When you just stop and

think [about your practice], you think about all the good things. But you also have an internal saboteur?the self-doubter, the criticizer?which can impact your decisions. When you have to start talking out loud to someone ... who is listening ... in a particular way, you start thinking about what you could do differently."

Finding Focus Coaches are different from

consultants or therapists. Instead of giving advice or exploring a per son's past, they make clients focus on the process rather than the out come, says Teri-E. Belf, founder of Success Unlimited Network in Reston, Va.

For example, when a client of Whitworth's says he wants to work fewer hours, she makes him define his goal. "I say, what does

working less look like to you? Does it mean working only 30 hours over five days or does it mean working only three days a week? Then I ask what they can let go to cut back."

Whitworth says coaching works ?unlike quick-fix seminars?be cause it involves a long-term rela tionship where the client is con stantly prodded by the coach. If her client takes on a new matter that re quires him to boost his weekly hours to 70, she questions the decision. The process makes the lawyer scru tinize his decision and stay focused on achieving long-term goals.

Miller, who worked with a law firm consultant at his prior firm, says coaches, unlike consultants, take a holistic approach to helping their clients. "Numbers are impor tant, but that is not it. Lifestyles and professional satisfaction also are important. I think coaches help you strike that balance a lot better."

After all, finding balance among skills, personalities and strategies is what any coach does, in basketball, football?or law.

84 ABA JOURNAL / AUGUST 1997 abajaom salyer

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