LawDawg21

As a lawyer, you are responsible for influencing people regardless of what practice area you are in. As a litigator, you want to influence judges, jurors, opposing counsel, and others. As a business attorney, you want to influence investors, parties involved in transactions, banks and other financial institutions, and of course other lawyers. As an in-house attorney, you are responsible for influencing people when it comes to making decisions regarding moving forward on a deal and in what fashion.

As a lawyer or leader of a law firm, you are always thinking about ways you can measure and continuously improve your results. That’s true whether you're looking at ways to improve litigation results, negotiate deals, close transactions or lead your team. When it comes time for straight talk to candidly look at what you set out to do, what actually happened, why it happened and what you plan to do next time to produce a better result, there’s nothing that produces measurable results like the After Action Review (“AAR”). 

As a lawyer or leader of a law firm, you are always thinking about ways you can measure and continuously improve your results. That’s true whether you're looking at ways to improve litigation results, negotiate deals, close transactions or lead your team. When it comes time for straight talk to candidly look at what you set out to do, what actually happened, why it happened and what you plan to do next time to produce a better result, there’s nothing that produces measurable results like the After Action Review (“AAR”). 

Values-driven organizations are the most successful organizations on the planet. Period. This sounds like a bold claim, right? It is a bold claim, and it is true and… we can prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt.

One of the greatest lessons Peter Drucker taught Marshall Goldsmith and then Marshall taught me is this: “We spend a lot of time helping leaders learn what to do. We do not spend enough time teaching leaders what to stop. Half of the leaders I have met don’t need to learn what to do. They need to learn what to stop.”

The key to “lawyering differently” is to first “see differently.” If you don’t want to burn out or top out, then you must get out. What I mean by “get out” probably isn’t what you’re thinking—though many of your successful predecessors have done just that.

The qualities that made you successful can actually hold you back. In your own entrepreneurial life, have you achieved a certain level of success, then hit a plateau?  Do you spend most of your time putting out fires or sitting in meetings? Does your head hurt?  If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’ve likely hit what I call the “crystal ceiling.”