It turns out that "emotional intelligence" is as important — or even more important — to long-term business success as intellectual capacity. Learning how to identify your blind spots and adjust your thinking and behavior accordingly is one of those "soft" skills that often makes or breaks the complex work of growing your business. You may have even started your own firm precisely because you were turned off by the emotionally unintelligent culture rampant in so many firms.
As "the boss," you're modeling, whether you're aware of it or not, how your colleagues and staff should be taking care of themselves. You're communicating values and attitudes at all times, so the more aware you can be of how you're treating yourself on and off the job, the better.
By cultivating your overall well being, you'll be able to help your staff and your clients do the same. You'll be much more valuable to both of them. (And, happily, your family and friends will benefit, as well.)
AREAS OF FOCUS
- Overcome Inner Obstacles
- Foster a Balanced Life
- Attend to Physical and Emotional Wellness
- Expand Your Vision of What Is Possible
Overcome Inner Obstacles
Sometimes you’re your own worst enemy. The way you talk to yourself: that inner glass ceiling, that complicated superiority/inferiority thing, the excuses, the berating. Whatever the predominant message of your inner critic, it’s been around a while and isn’t going away by itself. What’s more, your limiting perspectives are affecting the success of your firm as well as everyone around you. How to deal with it? How can we help?
As you take on building your firm as a successful business, applying the Eight SuccessTrack Fundamentals where needed, you’ll experience rapid improvements in your firm. At the same time, we’ll help you identify your inner obstacles − specifically where things get stuck for you and cause problems in your business and practice building.
As you start to bust through those obstacles − by pinpointing the thoughts and feelings that keep you from acting in more masterful ways to serve your business, staff, and clients, and by being challenged to behave in new ways − you’ll reap substantial rewards. You’ll become a more aware and empowered decision maker. You’ll begin choosing these new behaviors on your own, as you increasingly experience the positive outcomes you’re creating.
Foster a Balanced Life
You’re not going to go to your grave saying “I wish I’d worked more and spent longer hours at the office.” No way. But your law practice easily can eat up most of your energy and time. Do you feel as if exhaustion, stress, burnout, or regret has become one of your firm’s invisible partners? Do you have trouble leaving the office at a reasonable hour or setting boundaries between work and personal activities? Do you yearn for more time for the activities you love that reside outside the law practice?
A balanced life requires focusing your vision and attention on the total picture of the life you want − not just in terms of the success of your law firm. Get started now to ensure that your “wheel of life” includes all the spokes that nourish and jazz you. Family? Friendship? Community activities? Creative and athletic endeavors? Relaxation? Contemplation? Religious or spiritual practices? Vacation? Travel? Yes, we will help you become a strong entrepreneur whose law firm is thriving − but not at the expense of a balanced and satisfying life. We want you to be able to say at the end of the day: I worked hard, but I also played, relaxed, and made time for the most important people and endeavors of my life.
Attend to Physical and Emotional Wellness
Not making it to the gym or park? Not paying attention to your diet? Sleeping soundly for seven hours? Vitamins? Sure. Weeks go by. You say you’re fine and can hack it until things ease up, but then they don’t, and you know you’re not feeling your best. When you think about it, it hurts, so you try not to think about it. What about your emotional state? Have you taken your feelings “temperature” lately? Stressed out? Hyper? Unhappy? Depressed? Anxious? Angry? Suffering from excessive mood swings? Uneasiness?
The forecast is under-performance: inability to focus, bad temperament, headaches, backaches, and any number of symptoms that compromise the work you do, the atmosphere you create, and the impression your firm makes on clients and potential clients.
Work with us to bring a more fit, toned, relaxed, happy, and effective you to work each day and to make that change count. We’ll show you how to find time for wellness and to chart its contribution to your bottom line. Your model will inspire others in your firm to join you in creating a culture of self-care and wellness. More and better quality work with pleasure gets done in the process.
Expand Your Vision of What Is Possible
Many people have a very hard time imagining being wonderfully successful in their personal and professional lives. It's not that they can't conjure images of what success looks like for other people. They think of the vacations and lifestyles that greater financial security and more leisure time afford the blessed few. But when they think of themselves in that way, their imagination shifts into neutral.
Changing what you believe is truly possible for yourself and your firm is challenging to be sure. You received a JD after all, not an MBA in business turnarounds. It takes courage to envision owning a significantly more profitable entity, and even more courage to put in place concrete steps to achieve that vision. Nothing is more thrilling in our work than when our clients embrace and begin actualizing a significantly expanded vision of their personal and professional success.
