Grit The One Trait That Lawyers Need To Break Through

Developing the Next Generation of Rainmakers Grit: The One Trait that Lawyers Need to Break Through A couple of weeks ago, I spoke with a lawyer I coached a few years ago. When I asked how it was going, he proudly mentioned he had never been more busy and had never generated more PR. It was flowing from his very successful blog. He was energized and I sensed he felt he was on a roll. Client development is easy, exciting and exhilarating when you are getting results. I was fortunate to experience it. After two years with no results, each year thereafter, I generated more business than I had the year before. My client development results were linear. I was always energized. Many lawyers I coach have worked really hard on client development and have not seen immediate results. I experienced it the first two years as well. That is incredibly challenging and makes it hard to stick with it. Just hearing me say to keep making the efforts and over time business will come is is hardly enough to keep up the momentum. I have experienced this kind of motivation issue recovering from my total hip replacement surgery. As you likely know, my hip was totally replaced on December 13. My recovery has not been linear. Each day is not necessarily better than the last. I can’t measure my progress and stay motivated. Yet, it was incredibly important for me to religiously do the therapy exercises even when I could not measure progress. What does it take when you are not getting immediate results and you can’t measure your progress? In one word it takes “grit.” Ok, that is a nice word, but what does it mean to you? I recently read a Fast Company article:  Grit: The Top Predictor Of Success. In the article the writers say: Research defining grit as perseverance and passion for long-term goals found that as a trait, grit had better predictability for success than IQ. Read the article to get the building blocks of grit. If you have time and are interested, you might also find valuable the Wired article:  Which Traits Predict Success? (The Importance of Grit). I practiced law for 37 years developing a national construction law practice representing some of the top highway and transportation construction contractors in the US.