DAVID FREEMAN

David Freeman, J.D.
THOUGHT LEADERSDHIP

Raising Business Development Energy in Your Lawyers

Most leaders have seen the bell curve – a handful of lawyers are great business developers, a large group in the middle have potential, and a few outliers will never get it.

Increasing the performance of that middle band can have significant revenue implications, so one management approach is to raise their level of engagement. The following are some suggestions for making that happen:

Techniques for tapping into more business development energy:

• Conduct a facilitated group planning session where your lawyers get to express their opinions of where the best new opportunities exist. Then have them identify the first 2-3 steps that must occur to pursue those opportunities.
• Meet one-on-one to:
• Learn where they have the greatest passion for growing their practice.
• Identify at least one obstacle that has been getting in their way (and together build a plan for eliminating that obstacle).
• Deconstruct their passion and obstacles into steps and have them set timelines for completing those steps.
• Hold the group, and individuals, accountable for timely implementation of their steps
• Turn on the internal PR machine, and heap public praise on those who are making progress and achieving success.