Renew & Learn

Laura and I have been running a series of finance and strategic planning tips over the last while. This is the capstone tip in the series.

Henri Frederic Amiel once said: “So as long as a person is capable of self-renewal, they are a living being.”

In order to keep being strategic and focused, you need to keep your skill set current and sharp.  Take time to not only stay current on your area of the law but also in the skills necessary for the effective running of your practice.

You are not only a professional in your legal work, you are running a professional service organization and that task is equally important with doing great work.  Regularly gain exposure to new thinking in management and look creatively for new ways to lever your time, knowledge, staff and technology. Remember that new developments in other areas can be brought into the legal field and applied for great success; in order to do that you need to do an ‘environmental scan’ every so often to see what is out there that you can bring back to your practice. Go to a conference that is only tangentially related to your area of practice and see what fresh ways of thinking it can produce for you.

Take vacations that allow you to relax and leave the stress of the office behind.  Come back to the office refreshed and reinvigorated. At all times, don’t fail to have fun and celebrate successes in public while consoling losses privately.