Legal News

How to Be Productive During the Holiday Season

By Brian Harris

By Neen James
Special to the Legal

This is the first part of a three-part series on making the most of the holidays.

The crazy holiday season ? why does it make our hearts beat faster knowing we have so much more "to do" and so little time to achieve it all? Why is it we both love and hate this time of year? We place high expectations on ourselves and others during the holiday season; however, there are ways to be more productive during this holiday season.

The holiday season is not the time to slow down your business development activities or stop networking because we still have budgets, goals and targets to achieve. How do you handle the "unproductive" attitude that holiday season brings? How can you juggle vacation schedules? Historically, the holiday season may have been a time for you to take it easy, do the minimum amount of activity while you focus on what you will achieve for next year -- not this year! Decide to make this your most productive holiday season ever, here are some strategies that will help you do that and continually grow your business and set up a productive 2011.

Make 2011 your best year yet. Book a two-hour appointment with yourself to begin planning for next year to include potential new clients, cases and support staff development activities. Determine what you need to achieve to make 2011 your best year yet. This business plan should not be collecting dust in your bottom desk drawer - it is a living document to be used as a guide for you and your team.

Review your marketing plan. Invest the time and resources in creating a customised plan for your book of business. If you are a one person attorney firm, ask colleagues and people you trust to brainstorm ideas with you. If you have a large firm, ask clients, staff and colleagues what marketing activities will be effective for your business.  If you created a marketing plan for this year, review your progress to date and determine what strategies will be effective again for 2011. 

Conduct focus groups. Invite a select number of key clients to your office and ask them about your firm, their expectations and experiences, and how you can better serve them. Collate the results and seek your team?s input on how to action them.

Conduct a six-month business review. Spend two hours reviewing your firm?s achievements for the past six months. Ask yourself the following 11 questions:
1. How would I rate the past six months? performance (1-10 with 10 being the highest)?
2. Did I achieve my financial targets/billable hours each month?
3. If not, why not?
4. If not, what do I need to do differently in the next six months to meet my annual plan?
5.  If I did meet these targets (congratulations to you), were they big enough?
6. Have I conducted staff reviews with my team? If not, why not? And when?
7. If so, have I rewarded my team adequately?
8. Do I need to invest more in my team or personal development?
9. Is my marketing plan on track? If not, why not?
10. If not, what activities do I need to conduct to implement more marketing strategies?
11. Have I done sufficient business development to grow my book of business or my connections? If not, why not?

Watch the blog for the next post in this series, about implementing strategies to accomplish your goals.

Neen James, MBA CSP, is the President/CEO of Neen James Communications, LLC. An international productivity expert and native born Aussie, Neen delivers engaging keynotes that have educated, and entertained audiences with real-world strategies that apply in all roles, whether at work or in life. Neen also provides one-on-one consulting and mentoring to women on a variety of business issues and topics. To find out more about Neen, visit her at www.neenjames.com/bio.

Full post as published by The Legal Intelligencer Blog on December 14, 2010 (boomark / email).