Zen & the Art of Legal Networking

Just getting it in under the wire – I wanted to take the opportunity to mark the occasion of Zen & the Art of Legal Networking’s 11th Anniversary. Eleven is a lot of years to be writing – I started this blog when I was only four years into my career with the ILN, when I was still finding my way in the legal industry, and it helped me to gain confidence, meet talented, smart people, and engage in thoughtful conversations around interesting topics that were and continue to shape our field. In that time, I’ve published 1,265 posts, a number of them guest posts from amazing contributors. We’ve looked at topics ranging from leadership, the future of the legal, networking, business development, relationship development and more to content marketing, social media (from its first baby steps to where it is now), and legal marketing. I look forward to seeing what the future brings, and hope to continue to bring you interesting content and topics for many years to come!

We may have had a mild winter (most of us) so far, but let’s be honest, 2020 has been a bit of a slog so far, am I right?

I haven’t talked to anyone who isn’t feeling like we don’t already need a do-over for this year. So much for a fresh decade! (Yes, I know, technically, the new decade starts in 2021, so we’ll revisit this again next year).

But there’s no time like the present to feel like we’re starting over. Who’s to say that today ISN’T the day we start again?

How can we do that? By creating some “WOW” in our relationship development, using these two tips.

This week’s rainmaking recommendation from trainer and coach, Jaimie Field, dovetails nicely with my second tip from this week’s post on “Fixing the Two Biggest Networking Blunders that Lawyers Make.”

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For almost 20 years as a Rainmaking Trainer and Coach, I have been saying the same thing:  It’s not about you.  It’s about them.  “Them” being the prospective, current and former clients.

None of us are perfect networkers/relationship builders.

Yes, it seems to come more easily to some than to others, but it’s not an exact science. For the most part, it’s an ever-adapting process that we’re constantly refining based on our current goals and our target’s needs.

But there are a couple of areas that we tend to go astray with building relationships, and that’s where we’re going to focus today.

Blunder One: Goal? What goal?

Does this sound familiar?

An event comes up that you’d like to attend, so you register to go. On that evening, you show up, meet a few people and share some conversation. You may even get some business cards, and hand out a few of your own. You return to work the following day, and you don’t hear anything from anyone that you met. You had a nice time, but that was it.

Continuing with the theme of International Networking Week is a post from rainmaking trainer and expert, Jaimie Field, who’s bringing you ten best networking practices for networking events.

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Apparently, according to my friend and colleague, Lindsay Griffiths, the Executive Director of the International Lawyers Network, it’s International Networking Week. I had no idea that there even was such a thing until last year.  It is to celebrate how networking helps business professionals grow their businesses. 

It’s February 4th, and that means it’s International Networking Week (I know you all had it on your calendars already!)

Apparently, January is a prime time for networking burn out, and that makes sense. It follows on a long season of holidays and entertaining, when we’re trying to fit in the last of our CLE requirements, meet up with family and friends, and rush to finish all of our end of the year work. So as we kick off February, who is really feeling fresh enough to network again in a way that’s going to effectively develop business for you and your firm?