I just had a fascinating and important conversation with a senior associate at a large law firm that I believe will resonate with many of you. I have been coaching her for six months. She has a clear direction for business development and, every time we talk about it she is excited. Yet, at today’s meeting, she began by expressing tremendous guilt and disappointment, “I haven’t done anything. I work hard with clients, go home and, the last thing I want to do when I’m at home is anything tied to work. I know I have to do this but I just can’t.”
“Let’s go back to basics,” I said, “Why do you need to do business development anyway?”
The conversation moved on to a discussion about security. To this lawyer (and I agree with her), developing business is a pathway to security: when you have a portable book of business many avenues about how you work, where you work, and with whom you work, are open to you. As we peeled the onion, (a graphic coaching metaphor), I challenged the attorney to think about whether she is truly not secure in her position or whether, at the center of the onion, she is “comfortable enough” and just telling herself that she is at risk of being let go some time in the future. Together, we constructed a continuum, with “very comfortable-no reason to be concerned about my future” at one end of the continuum and “could be let go any moment” at the other end. She realized, that for her (and this may be different for you) to be motivated to take action she needed to be at least one “click” toward the vulnerable end. Feeling at risk for job termination would be her ultimate driver. As long as she feels “safe” she will not be motivated make rain. To know where she fell on the scale, she had to ascertain if she was being dramatic about being at risk or in denial about being safe. “Are you comfortable enough?” I asked her. “If you are, then your motivation to do anything different will be low.”
The issues raised in this coaching session are really quite complex. For many of you, your answers will set the foundation for decisions surrounding moving forward with business development. Knowing your unique motivators, and being actively aware of your reasons for engaging in business development, will allow you to be work on rainmaking on those days when you just “don’t feel like it.”
Here is the assignment this senior associate gave to herself to prepare for our next meeting: determine what I believe to be my “absolute truth” about my assessment of my current professional vulnerability. And then, with this evaluation in mind, make a list of actions that I must (not could, not should, but must) do to form a secure professional foundation for myself. I may decide that no actions are needed because I realize that I deem myself “safe” from being let go. My goal for this assignment is to know that I have thoroughly thought about how business development fits into my career and formulated an action plan accordingly.
For those of us that went to professional school to become a (lawyer, doctor, psychologist, etc) the notion of business development did not come into play as we developed our identities. Now, with rainmaking an essential feature for advancement, power, independence and security for most firm lawyers, it is important that you add it to your list of professional priorities. As with the above attorney saying that she would do business development was easier than consistently acting. Connecting with YOUR purpose for bringing in new clients is essential. Contemplate, Clarify and Commit.