The only way to do great work is to love what you do.

1. Your brand is not what you think of yourself but rather what other people think of you. 

Most people try and promote a brand that is inauthentic and that creates division in your firm and confusion in the marketplace. Understanding your brand is paramount to building and sustaining successful growth. The first step is to recognize who you are to other people. What your firm stands for and what its reputation is outside of the people who tell you what you want to hear. Once you embrace your authentic brand, you can create an evangelist for that brand by building an aspirational culture that is in harmony with who you really are. This is step 1 on your journey to true success. 

2. The first thing you need to recognize is that people follow leaders who they trust and respect. 

If you aren’t the best leader you need to find someone who is and let them lead your team. Your team is made up of people who all have their own specific skill sets but also their own specific needs. Finding commonalities can prove challenging which often means one leadership approach won’t work. Some people perform better when given the freedom to accomplish their tasks while others need constant attention and oversight. Likewise, the people leading them have their individual styles for peak performance… after all one size never fits all. Teams should be assembled with these traits in mind and when done properly it creates an incredibly productive and loyal group. 

3. Countless studies show that people who feel trusted and valued perform at much higher levels than those who don’t. 

Another way to limit a person’s ability to perform is to micromanage them. If you hire the right people you need to trust them and give them what they need to accomplish the tasks to which they are assigned. When people feel trusted they become empowered. This leads to courageous choices that will have a massive impact on your firm. When people are free to reach their potential and are not only encouraged but rewarded for their accomplishments, they feel valued and you create a positive competitiveness that sparks tremendous growth. The old saying, “If you want something done, give it to someone who is busy” should really be changed to, “If you want something done, give to a person who likes accomplishing things”. It is said that success is its own reward, therefore a great leader always celebrates their team’s success in every aspect of their performance. 

4. One of the biggest obstacles to a law firm’s growth is starting down a path and quitting before you’ve actually reached the destination. 

Fear sabotages people and their goals. The fear of failure is oftentimes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The time to second guess your decisions is while you’re making them and certainly before you put them into action. Once you decide to move in a direction you should be firmly committed and be prepared to weather the storms that are inevitably coming. It’s preparing for unforeseen challenges that need to be facilitated.

5. There is no better guide than experience. 

If you want to be a great trial lawyer, you have to learn from a great trial lawyer. If you want to grow your practice, you should learn from people who grew their practice. The key to understanding how to choose the right people to help you is first learning to understand yourself and where you are. It won’t help you to follow the lessons from others whose circumstances are different than yours. It’s imperative to find people who were actually where you are now in environments and jurisdictions that are similar to yours. Only then will your lessons have actual value.