Reprinted from C I N C I N N A T I  B A R  A S S O C I A T I O N    J U N E 2 0 0 1

Finding Your Field Of Dreams ...

Considering a Coach  to Help Your Practice

by Marilyn P. Westerfield, Esq.

C B A  REPORT

At the age of 41,Carol G. would be considered by most people to be successful. Happily married with three children, a beautiful home on the coast of Maine, a lucrative legal practice with a great partner, Carol has a life many would envy. So what ’s the problem? Carol says she feels so overwhelmed in trying to keep everyone happy and everything in her life moving along that she ’s not enjoying her life anymore. She feels anxious and sometimes depressed. She feels she needs to somehow get control of her life but she doesn't ’t know where to start. Carol feels guilty not being as available to her kids as she would like to be, and she feels guilty telling her clients she can ’t get something done as quickly as they ask for it. But things may be looking up for Carol. She just hired a coach.

Coaching is a new resource available to attorneys who want to have an edge. Whether you want to attract more clients, learn to say "no " and set reasonable limits on your limited clutter off of your desk and out of your life, have more time to pursue the things that really interest you, or add more meaning in your law practice, a coach can help you do it.

If you haven ’t heard of coaching, you may be in the minority. Coaching has exploded onto the business scene in recent years. Linda Hill of Harvard Business School says that "Coaching is becoming something of a heavy industry." Chicago Business Online reported in December 2000,that an estimated "20 percent of American small businesses are using [coaches ],up from 4 percent just four years ago." And it isn't ’t just small businesses. Time Magazine reported that Eastman Kodak, IBM, Dow Chemical, Marriott International and Glaxo Wellcome all use coaching to help their managers adapt to a constantly changing business environment. Business coaches help clients to improve interpersonal and communication skills, create a vision for their work, see the big picture and act as a sounding board for ideas, goals and frustrations. A number of large corporations are even including coaching as part of their executive recruitment packages.

Personal or life coaching is also a growing trend. The International Coach Federation (ICF), the regulating body which sets the standards for coaches who want to be certified, has an online coach referral service and estimates that the service get about 2,600 hits a month from people or companies searching for a coach. Articles about coaching or written by coaches are appearing regularly in the popular press, including The New York Times, USA Today, Men ’s Health, Real Simple, Time Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Essence and many others.

So what does that have to do with the practice of law? Coaching can be an extremely useful tool for lawyers, whether the objective is purely a business one or one that is more personal. The applications for coaching in the legal arena can vary tremendously. In one instance, a law firm may hire one or more coaches to assist its attorneys in finding new ways of attracting business. An individual practitioner might hire a coach to help him or her find a way to balance the demands of a busy practice with trying to have a life outside of law.

Although people often compare coaching with older models of personal and professional development such as mentoring and consulting, coaching is really something quite different from both. Unlike mentoring, the coach has no personal agenda for the client he or she is coaching. The coach ’s basic objective is helping the client design a life that is in line with the client ’s true values, goals and dreams. Unlike consulting, the coach is not an "expert " who will tell the client what to do. Coaching views the client as the expert in determining what are the most important things to the client and then supports the client in staying true to what he or she really wants. And unlike therapy, coaching is not concerned with resolving past issues. The coaching model is forward looking and action oriented. The objectives are to identify what the client wants, determine the steps needed to get there, and act on it.

Louise M. has been a lawyer since 1974 and practices law in Cleveland. She hired a coach last year because she felt "stuck " in her career and wanted to create another model for the way she practiced law. Louise wanted to find a way to work collaboratively with other attorneys in the community without the atmosphere being so confrontational. One of the first things Louise and her coach worked on was identifying her core values. Values are the activities, interests and sources of fulfillment that an individual is naturally drawn to or inclined to spend time doing. It ’s a value if you would still do it even if you didn't ’t have to. It ’s something else if it ’s a means to an end. Once her core values were clearly identified and written down, Louise and her coach were able to examine whether the decisions Louise made in her personal and professional life were in alignment with those values. They also worked on making certain that Louise honored the time she set aside for the things she identified as truly important to her. Additionally, they worked together on creating a vision for Louise ’s law practice. This included identifying the types of clients Louise enjoyed working with and those that she didn't..This exercise made it easier for Louise to choose not to take certain cases, even if it meant turning away business. She realized that taking on work that she really disliked didn't benefit her in the end. Now her focus is on attracting the clients she wants to work with, not just taking whatever comes through the door. Louise states that coaching has changed the way she works with her clients. She used to try to control her client and the case. Now she says she gives power back to her clients and works more collaboratively with them as they decide together which approach works best for that client.

Coaching is not a "one size fits all " proposition. Coaches hail from every type of professional background, including business, psychology, sales, medicine and technology. Most coaches participate in some type of training program for coaches. There are many types of training programs, although not all are accredited by the ICF, which also enforces the standards for the practice of coaching.

One of the oldest and probably best known programs is the one offered by Coach U, a virtual coaching college that offers more than 50 teleclasses via conference call to students located all over the world. Completing an accredited program is necessary to become certified by the ICF. The practice of coaching is not regulated by law at this time and so, consequently, anyone can call himself or herself a coach. It ’s important to verify the qualifications of the coach you ’re considering. Because of their diverse backgrounds, many coaches have a particular niche in which they practice. Examples include coaches who specialize in ADD, newly divorced, practice building, health and .fitness, small business development, e-business, spiritual growth, teen-agers —you name it.

If you prefer someone who understands the pressures attorneys face, coaches are available who specialize in coaching lawyers. What ’s more, you can also .find coaches who are themselves lawyers as well as coaches. While it ’s not essential to have a coach who is intimately acquainted with a particular .field, some professionals clearly prefer it.

J. Kim Wright, an Oregon-based coach who practiced family law in North Carolina, states that most busy lawyers don ’t have time to reflect on their lives and how they ’re working. A coach lets them reflect. Wright believes that creating a vision statement and identifying core values are essential for attorneys because doing so allows them to make decisions with less internal conflict by checking decisions against their values and what they ultimately want for their lives. Wright notes that many lawyers are deeply unsettled with the way law is currently practiced. Many lawyers want to find a way to work cooperatively with other lawyers to solve conflicts.

According to Wright, "the adversarial system is rooted in fear and separateness. It calls for us to focus on our differences and polarize." Many lawyers are looking for a new model for law practice but feel like they are alone in this struggle.

Dolly Garlo, a nurse-attorney who has been coaching since 1997,agrees that many lawyers want to be strong advocates but don ’t enjoy confrontation or aggressive tactics. Garlo finds in her work that most lawyers want to be lawyers — they just don ’t want to be consumed by it. One of the most important things Garlo teaches her clients is how to say no and how to schedule their time more efficiently. Many lawyers over-promise, especially on deadlines. Instead of offering to have something done "by the end of the day " or "first thing in the morning," Garlo encourages attorneys to find out when something realistically needs to be completed. By under-promising ("I could get that to you by Friday morning. Will that work for you?") and over delivering (turning it in by mid-day Thursday if it ’s done), there ’s less pressure and the attorney feels ahead of the game instead of always running behind.

Some lawyers who choose to work with a coach are doing so for purely business reasons. Maria Talamini is a Los Angeles-based coach who works with law firms and individual lawyers on practice development. She has an MBA and a business/human resources background. Eventually, Talamini got into the area of training those she calls "reluctant sellers "— people who have to sell but don ’t want to. It became evident to her that one group that needed to sell its services, but traditionally had no model to do this, was attorneys. From her encounters with dozens of lawyers, Talamini notes that many lawyers hate "selling " and feel that it is demeaning and unprofessional to have to do it, although they acknowledge that in today ’s competitive market, it must be done.

Talamini says that the hardest thing about coaching lawyers is getting to the source of what they really want. Conversations with clients may start with "I want to grow my practice " and eventually progress to "I don ’t know if I even want to be a lawyer anymore." Getting past the façade of "successful lawyer " to the person inside is difficult.

Robert H., a business and real estate lawyer from California, first contacted a coach because he felt that his practice "wasn't going anywhere " and he wanted help building his practice. Over time, Robert and his coach have worked on various issues, including caseload management, better billing practices, clearer client communications, ending client relationships that weren’t working and personal/life issues such as freeing up time for family and outside interests. Robert says that, with a coach, he has been able to set realistic, achievable goals for his practice and compare how the things he ’s doing match the vision he created. He says that he is clearer about the types of clients he wants to attract and how to build on these relationships. According to Robert, "Anyone who wants to maximize the use of his or her time, feel more fulfilled and efficient doing the job of lawyering, and have more personal/family time " would benefit from coaching.

Talamini generally coaches her clients in person and often in groups; however, the most common model for the coaching relationship is one to one, over the phone. The client calls the coach at an agreed upon time and they talk together for 30 minutes to an hour, usually once a week. For busy attorneys and other professionals, this makes coaching easy and convenient. The coach and client don ’t even have to live in the same part of the country and may, in fact, never meet.

There are several aspects of coaching that make it particularly effective. One is the accountability. Once you identify what you want for your practice or your life, a coach keeps you on track with your vision. Coaching also gives you someone else ’s perspective —someone whom you trust — which allows you to see many more possibilities than you might see otherwise. A coach is a sounding board, not just to listen to what ’s not working, but to help you find solutions, identify the steps you need to take to get there, and then give you that push you need to make it happen.

People that society tends to view as "successful " often have no one to really talk to about their insecurities, unrealized dreams and guilt over not really wanting what they ’ve been fortunate enough to get in life. But what good is a corner office, making a lot of money or sitting on the boards of numerous organizations if it doesn't  really make you happy or if you really aren't having fun?

Coaching isn't  for everyone. Some individuals believe that people should be able to manage their lives on their own. Maybe, but Kristi Yamaguchi knows how to skate and she has a coach. If you feel stuck, think your life is good but could be better, or just want to shake things up a little or a lot, a coach might be just the thing you need.

Marilyn P. Westerfield is a nurse-attorney and a coach, specializing in coaching attorneys and other professionals. Originally from Cincinnati, this former CBA member now lives in Yarmouth, Maine. For more information about coaching, please contact her at (207) 846-6818 or mwesterf@maine.rr.com.