(This is an update to a March 2018 article originally published on Forbes.com.) The role of leadership in any enterprise is fraught with a number of legitimately urgent distractions — especially in a volatile marketplace. A single projection missed, one team assignment blown, a silver bullet misfired can wind up costing precious resources. In short order, leadership can find itself caught up in the management of commotion. The challenge is that commotion is a constant. Responding…

When things don’t change, there is typically one reason. Change is simply not a priority. Wherever there is a lot of talk, but very little action…when progress is painfully slow (without regard to how essential we say it is) it is almost always due to one thing. The prescribed movement isn’t important enough to command the necessary attention and resources. And the venue doesn’t matter. From inside your firm, to global seats of power…from personal…

If your firm is puzzling over conversations like inclusion, mental health in the work place, succession, stability or any aspect of how to grow, take it as a warning sign: critical areas of your organization may not be aligned. Not that these topics can’t be plenty challenging. Indeed, any one calls for the best a leader or leadership team can bring to the table. But if you’re having trouble finding a framework for addressing your…

For every firm wrestling with direction, under performance, growth, market position, diversity and inclusion, compensation systems, how to address succession planning…and the list goes on…there is good news The shortest distance between today’s challenges and meaningful progress could be as close as organizational alignment. The downside is that institutional alignment is often the last thing anyone focuses on. When the day-in-day-out realities of running a firm already demand more time than is available, “soft” discussions…

Does your firm regularly wrestle with measuring return when it comes to business development efforts? If so, you’re far from alone. At least one reason is that for many firms, the pursuit of new business is not aligned with any overall, longer-than-this-year strategic plan — one that is guided by a set of core principles, and establishes the basis for strategic growth. There are exceptions, of course; but for the most part, law firms grow…

If your firm is like most, the pursuit of lateral partners is a critical piece of your growth plan, and you invest in it disproportionately. But unless yours is an exception, the effort under-delivers. Consider data highlighted in a January article from ALM, authored by Nicholas Bruch, Michael A. Ellenhorn and Howard Rosenberg. In the past 5 years (2014-2018) there were almost 9,000 lateral moves made within Am Law 200 firms. (This doesn’t count firms…

Leverage is an often used buzz word when business conversations focus on productivity, growth and profitability. Oxford Dictionaries define it as the exertion of force by means of a lever. In practical and slightly less mechanical terms — it is the use of resources at your disposal to change the equation that shapes the your status quo. Leverage is one of the concepts at the heart of the conversation when professional service firms focus on…