Business Development Managing Self Monday Morning Practice

Monday Morning Practice – Harness the power of small steps

Written by Allison Wolf

This Monday Morning Practice is for those of you who have a business plan that sits unlooked at on your computer or in your drawer for weeks or month until you have time open up in your schedule.

Business development plans and strategy are great to have but useless when they get filed for “when I have time to get to it”.

Here’s what’s important: A lot of what sits in your plan can be actioned in five to fifteen minute segments of time that can be accommodated by the busiest of schedules.

You take one small step, then another small step, then another, leading up to a bigger push.

In five minutes you can:

  • Send an email to schedule a lunch date, or pass along an important news highlight, or to simply connect.
  • Quickly brainstorm some ideas for your next article or blog post.
  • Tweet or do a LinkedIn update.
  • Review your contact list and pull out the names of 3 people you want to get in touch with.
  • Flip through that important industry publication in order to stay current on your client’s business.
  • Email the librarian and ask her for weekly news alerts based on some key words, or review her weekly email to you with this information.

In fifteen minutes

  • You can jot down the outline for an article or presentation.
  • Start writing the presentation.
  • Begin drafting a newsletter, blog post, or other client alert.
  • Have a quick call to get back in touch with a client to learn how they are doing since your last piece of work for them.

If you follow my Monday Morning Practice column you will have read that our brains do well with interrupted pieces of work. It can be highly productive to write articles and prepare presentations in small bits of time.

The key idea here is that much of what appears in your business development plan can be advanced effectively with small increments of time.

Don’t wait until the big space of time opens up because by then you aren’t primed to use it.

Take care of all the little steps to set yourself up to make the most of the chunk of time when you need it.

Small step

Small step

Small step

Then the big push – delivering the presentation, attending the event, going out for the lunch.

What are the small steps you can take this week?

About the author

Allison Wolf

I am the founder of AWAL and one of the most senior coaches for lawyers in North America. I have helped countless clients over the past fifteen years, develop thriving legal practices and before that served as director of marketing for award-winning law firms. My specialty is uncovering the thinking traps and gaps holding clients back and helping them acquire the mindsets, skills, and habits for growing successful and rewarding legal careers. After a career in legal marketing and business development with law firms in Beijing, New York, and Vancouver, I was trained as a coach in 2004 at Royal Roads University and now coach clients from across North America. You can reach me at allison@shiftworks.ca or learn more about my coaching practice from the coaching section of the Attorney With A Life Website.

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