Leadership In Law Podcast

10 How to Become the Leader Your Team Needs You to Be

• Marilyn Jenkins • Season 1 • Episode 10

Share episode

Unlock the secrets to transformative leadership with our latest episode of the Leadership in Law podcast, featuring Dr. William Attaway. 

Ever wondered how your beliefs shape your leadership style? Dr. Attaway breaks down the core beliefs about yourself, others, and the world that serve as the foundation for all your decisions and actions. Learn how to align these beliefs to lead your team effectively, especially in today's diverse and remote work environments.

Discover the power of understanding team dynamics and individual strengths to foster a harmonious and high-performing workplace. Dr. Attaway offers valuable insights on placing team members in roles where they can truly shine, significantly reducing conflict and frustration. He also stresses the importance of leaders addressing conflicts directly and maintaining "calm control" while managing remote teams. Get practical advice on how to grow both personally and professionally as a leader, with actionable steps to achieve your ultimate goals.

Finally, we highlight the importance of celebrating wins to build a positive and motivated team culture. Dr. Attaway shares compelling personal stories that illustrate the transformative power of recognizing achievements, no matter how small. Learn how to foster a culture of recognition through consistent learning, growth-oriented environments, and coaching. Dr. Attaway's book, "Catalytic Leadership," provides additional resources to help you move from mediocrity to excellence, making a lasting impact on your team and organization. Don't miss this opportunity to elevate your leadership game!

Dr. William Attaway is a seasoned executive coach and leadership consultant renowned for his transformative approach to coaching agency owners and entrepreneurs. With nearly three decades of experience coaching leaders, Dr. Attaway has helped numerous clients achieve remarkable success. His method goes beyond traditional coaching, delving deep into personal development and business strategy to unlock individuals’ full potential.

https://catalyticleadership.net/
https://catalyticleadershipbook.com/


Get a FREE copy of "The Ultimate Online Marketing Checklist for Law Firms" at
https://lawmarketingzone.com/ultimate-checklist

Ready to level up your law firm marketing? Book a FREE Discovery Call with Marilyn Here: https://lawmarketingzone.com/bookacall

Leadership In Law Podcast with host, Marilyn Jenkins
Powered by Law Marketing Zone®
https://lawmarketingzone.com
A full-service Digital Marketing Agency helping clients increase leads, cases and Profit through digital marketing.

Subscribe on your favorite Podcast listening platform!
Like, Share, and Review us!

#leadershipinlawpodcast #leadershipinlaw
#marilynjenkins

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Leadership in Law podcast with host Marilyn Jenkins. Cut through the noise, get actionable insights and inspiring stories delivered straight to your ears your ultimate podcast for navigating the ever-changing world of law firm ownership. In each episode, we dive deep into the critical topics that matter most to you, from unlocking explosive growth to building a thriving team. We connect you with successful firm leaders and industry experts who share their proven strategies and hard-won wisdom. So, whether you're a seasoned leader or just starting your journey as a law firm owner, the Leadership in Law podcast is here to equip you with the knowledge and tools you need to build a successful and fulfilling legal practice.

Speaker 2:

Hi everyone and welcome to another episode of the Leadership in Law podcast. I'm your host, marilyn Jenkins. Please join me in welcoming my guest, dr William Attaway, to the show today. William is an executive coach specializing in mindset, leadership and productivity, who helps high-performance agency owners, entrepreneurs and business leaders conquer challenging situations and maximize potential with clear-minded focus, calm, control and confidence. Dr Attaway is dedicated to empowering transformation, offering personalized guidance and strategic insight to unlock your full potential. As a seasoned executive mindset and leadership coach, dr Attaway specializes in helping agency owners and entrepreneurs enhance their leadership skills, drive growth in their businesses and navigate the complex challenges of the industry. His unique coaching approach combines deep industry knowledge with a focus on personal development, empowering his clients to achieve remarkable success in their businesses and beyond. In his new book, he gleans from his own personal leadership experience, as well as the experience of hundreds of leaders he's coached, and he shares 12 key principles that can help leaders grow and add value to those they lead today, no matter where they are. I'm really excited to have you here, william, welcome.

Speaker 3:

Errol, it is such an honor to be here. I'm so glad to be on your show.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. I'm super excited. Tell me a bit about how you got started, and we want to talk a bit about mindset and leadership. I know that's totally in your wheelhouse.

Speaker 3:

Just a little bit. We can definitely dive in there. I started coaching leaders almost 30 years ago when I started leading my first teams and pouring into leaders, and I realized pretty quickly that when you impact a leader, you're not just impacting one person. The ripples from a leader go very far. You're impacting their family. You're impacting their family. If they have kids, you're impacting their kids, the next generation. You're impacting their team. You're impacting every client or customer they're ever going to serve. Just by helping that one leader and that's what I've been doing for almost 30 years is helping executives to the solopreneurs, helping C-suite types all the way to teams of people who are high performers, who want to grow and want to do what they do at a higher level. That's what I help them do.

Speaker 2:

Awesome Now thinking about leadership. So when I think about leadership, I go back to mindset first, and so I know that you've. You know we've worked together in a group setting as well as one-on-one in the past, and I really enjoy working with you and getting my mindset straight If you are a new leader or maybe even a seasoned leader but you need to get a bit more of a grasp on it. Where does your mindset fit into that and help you build your leadership role?

Speaker 3:

That's a great question. Your mindset is actually built of three things, three components it's what you believe about yourself, it's what you believe about other people and it's what you believe about the world, and those three things together are the ground from which everything grows in your life. Every thought, every feeling, every belief, every word you speak, every action you take all comes out of that ground, and so what I do with the people that I work with is help them to examine those three areas. What is it you're believing about yourself? Do you believe that you are worthy of success? Do you believe you've earned success, or is that a problem for you? Do you believe you're not worth it? Do you believe you're not worth it? Do you believe you're not a leader? Do you believe you're not the team leader that your team deserves or needs? That's a problem in that first bucket, and we're going to dive in there.

Speaker 3:

Maybe it's what you believe about other people. Do you believe that other people have capacity equal to or greater than yours capacity equal to or greater than yours? Do you believe other people have the ability to do what it is that your team needs them to do? Do you believe that other people are worth your time, your energy, your investment. If any of those are off, that's going to affect your mindset in an unhealthy way. And finally, what do you believe about the world? Do you believe everything is against you? Do you believe you're a victim that's going to mess you up? And so what I want to do is I want to tackle each one of those three and I want to evaluate and see hey, are you in a healthy spot? Are you coming at this from a healthy way? Because once you get that right, then everything else is going to be affected.

Speaker 2:

That does, that does. I see you need to get everything squared away so you are on a good field, so you can see your future ahead and then you can lead the people with you.

Speaker 3:

Yes, because no one will follow. Where you don't lead, that's the leader, like you're setting the pace. So if you're leading in an unhealthy way, from an unhealthy place, internally, guess what? That's where everybody's going to follow, because they're following you as a whole.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so all right, excellent, that's. I like that idea, because you need to know where you're going, and that's made a big difference in working with you for me to be able to lead my team. And that kind of comes back to my next question how do you lead a team of people that are so different from each other and from you? Now, I'm talking about specifically like remote teams, and I know, since COVID law firms do have, you know, obviously local, but a lot of them are working with remote teams as well how do you as, how would you lead in that type of situation and then be planning to grow? I know that's a multiple part question there to grow.

Speaker 3:

I know that's a multiple part question there. Yeah, I think first it has to start with understanding who you are and how you're wired. Whenever anybody steps into a leadership role for the first time, the natural way that we all tend to bend is that we will copy other leaders that we admire, people that we've worked for, people that we've admired far and learned from. You know that's typically the way it works. We tend to copy what we like. Now. That's great and that's normal at the beginning, but if you stay there, what happens over time is that you end up just becoming a bad copy of what could be a great leader somewhere else. You're not leading from who you are, you're not leading from an authentic place according to how you're wired. And so, understanding first, as the leader, how you are wired, what is it that you lead authentically from and to when you understand that? That's the first component.

Speaker 3:

The second component is understanding the wiring of your team members. Guess what? They're not just like you, and I can't imagine that any attorney who's listening is going to be shocked by that. Right, because there's probably some frustration points that they have with their team. Why don't they understand? Why don't they think like I do. Why can't they get this? Every leader has had those moments. Every leader's had those thoughts. It's because they're wired differently. It's because they're not you. And when you understand not just how you're wired, but how they are wired, what that does is it helps to right-size the expectations that you have of them and they have of you. When you clarify that and you understand each other's wiring, all of a sudden you begin to see where each other brings value instead of why aren't they like?

Speaker 2:

me like any of the numerous tests assessments out there. Whenever you're, if you're struggling with your team, are you? Would you suggest taking just a couple of simple assessments to see, so you get a grasp on where each person is and what their strengths and weaknesses are, based on their psychology?

Speaker 3:

You know, one of the best I've seen is the Working Genius Assessment by the Table Group. I've been using this assessment since it was in beta. I've used this with my clients. I use this with teams. I come into other teams and organizations and businesses to help them begin to understand how each other is wired and help them learn to communicate based on what they learn. And when I do those workshops, what I see is there's these light bulbs that just go off all over the room.

Speaker 3:

Oh, that's why when you're in this type of meeting, you just kind of zone out. Oh, that's why you bring this value when you're in this setting. Oh, we should never have you in a brainstorming meeting. That's not your zone of genius. Or we should have you in every brainstorming meeting because that's where you thrive. When you understand that about each other, you make sure the right people are around the right tables in the right rooms and you make sure that the wrong people aren't, that you free them up to do what they do best. That is so much value, and the work in genius, I think, is one that anybody can leverage to benefit their team.

Speaker 2:

That sounds like it also would eliminate any conflict as well. I mean just putting people where they have the most strength and it helps you lead better and the team grow faster as well.

Speaker 3:

It certainly helps a lot because, again, you understand and you right-size your expectations. And conflict, frustration, disappointment, discouragement all of these come out of missed expectations, I thought. But then you did. Well, how do we fix that? We change what we thought, we change our expectations, and when we do that, it's going to minimize all these other things. It's going to minimize the frustration, the disappointment, it's going to minimize conflict. Now you're still going to have conflict, and learning how to deal with it in a healthy way is part of good leadership.

Speaker 3:

Too often I see leaders particularly leaders who haven't dealt with this a lot approach conflict with the idea that, well, I'll deal with that later, I'm sure it'll just get better. I'm sure it'll just get better. You know, it's like we sweep it under the rug and we hope it will go away. It never does. A friend of mine says you know bad news and conflict is not like a fine line, it doesn't get better with age, like you've got to move toward it. Our job as leaders is to move toward the mess, and that is part of the healthy leadership of a team. And so if you've got a team around your business table and there's some conflict that you've been avoiding, let me just encourage you, step toward it. It's not going anywhere. It's only going to grow the longer you allow it to sit unaddressed.

Speaker 2:

True, and it can infect the rest of your team if it isn't handled. Depending on where it's coming from, it never ripens well either no, it doesn't.

Speaker 3:

No apathy. Apathy is like a disease. Conflict is like a disease.

Speaker 2:

It will spread if left unchecked so when we talk about that okay, so we're talking about our putting people in their in their respective positions, not unlike eos you find the right place, the, the right button, the right seat. So, as you as a leader, you've got your team, you know where everyone is and now you're ready to grow your team and go forth. How do you help leaders continue to grow and do well in their personal and their business life?

Speaker 3:

Part of it is understanding first truly where you are currently identifying that data point, and by that I mean I want you to use every color in the box, I want you to use every word you need to define where you are. Then I want you to use the same colors and paint a picture of where you want to be.

Speaker 3:

What does a win look like for you, like what is the goal and I don't just mean in your business, that's part of it to be. What does a win look like for you? What is the goal? And I don't just mean in your business, that's part of it, to be sure. But is that all? You are Just a business owner? Of course not.

Speaker 3:

You're a fully orbed human being. There's a whole lot of pieces of your life, and so you have to define what success and a win looks like for you, taking all of that into account. Otherwise you're going to paint a partial picture. It's hard to really move clearly and decisively toward a partial picture. I want you to paint a real, clear picture. Once we have those two points identified where you actually are and where you truly want to go then it's just a matter of building the bridge from here to there. I say that's the easy part, right, defining those two points. So often one or the other is more challenging. It's different for different people, but once you clearly define those, building the bridge, that's simply execution. That's strategy, tactics and execution, that's the hardest. Clarity, clear-minded focus of where you are and where you want to be, that's hard work. That can truly be the deeper work and I see a lot of leaders not doing that. They're busy, they're very busy, but are they busy doing the right things to get them where they want most?

Speaker 2:

I think finding where you want to go is a difficult it is is difficult as well. I mean, that's not a five-minute task to figure out. You know, finding and deciding where you are, you know, with your help, was great. But finding out where you want to go and I know in different people's times, the seasons of their life that will change but being realistic and taking some time to decide where do I want to go and then have someone to help you that's been there, that has a lot more wisdom to help you do that, that's been amazing for me. So I know it would be helpful for anyone that works with you. Now when we thank you for that, that was excellent.

Speaker 2:

Now, when you think about okay, now we know where we want to go and we've got our team behind us, and there's that conflict. Let's talk about your. You've coined the phrase calm control, working with again, I work with remote people. You know I've had to do some shakeup in my team and how would you, you know, use calm control to like move past daily chaos and not control your growth? How would you handle that?

Speaker 3:

you know, a lot of leaders approach their leadership like a firefighter. If they're just riding on the truck from fire to fire all day long and they're just reacting to what is happening outside of them, that is one way to lead. I would argue it's not the best way to lead, but it is one way that a lot of leaders I've talked to. This is their life. They are the firefighter. There's a better way and this is where calm control comes in. When you are leading from a proactive stance, you are pre-deciding a great many things in your world and in your leadership. So for me, I use a productivity system called GTD, since you're getting things done, and part of the GTD system is a weekly review. And for me, I do that on Sunday evenings and part of the weekly review is to look backward, think over the last seven days. What are the wins I can celebrate? What went right this week, seven days? What are the wins I can celebrate? What went right this week? What didn't go right this week? What are the misses from this week and how would I do it better next time if I had a? If I was in a similar situation again, what would I do differently to make it better, processing through my weeks. That way is super helpful because by processing that, learning the next time in a similar situation, I don't have to process through all of that in a split second. I've already done that. I've pre-decided what I'm going to do differently next time. Then I look forward, I look at the next seven days or 14 days and I say, okay, what's coming up? What do I need to prepare to bring the best version of myself into this meeting, into this session, into this environment? What do I need to prepare? And then I block time to do that. I pre-decide what I'm going to spend my time on Now. I don't do that down to 15-minute increments because that creates no margin, and margin is critical for a leader. Margin is where creativity lives, and creativity is how leaders solve problems and how we deal with unexpected conflicts and so many other things that are part of the leadership world. You have to have creativity, which means you have to have margin. So I don't schedule myself that tightly but I time block and I make sure I have time for what matters most, so that at the end of the week I have pre-decided Friday at five o'clock I want these two or three things to be done. That's going to make this a winning week.

Speaker 3:

I have pre-decided the time blocks I'm going to use to spend to work on those things. I have pre-decided what I'm going to the time I've set aside to prepare for a different meeting or a speaking engagement or whatever it is on my calendar. I've pre-decided how I'm going to spend my time. There is never, ever, an hour in my week, marilyn, and I wonder what should I be doing right now? I've pre-decided that. Do you know how much freedom that gives me? Because I'm not spending my time re-litigating decisions in my head what I should be well, I should be well, I should be well, I should be no, no, no.

Speaker 3:

I've already pre-decided that, based on the priorities that I've already set, based on where I want to go, alignment between what I do every day and where I want to go, that is a healthy way to approach this. When you're building a team, then that's part of this process, that's part of what you're doing. You're saying, hey, as a team, we are going to pre-decide as much as possible. During our times together, we're going to navigate things, we're going to be very clear about our goals and our priorities and if this is what you want to be a part of, and I want you to be a part of it. This is where we're going, and if you don't, you can self-select out. That's okay. But clarity is kindness, and I want every leader to be as clear as possible, because that is the kindest thing you can do for your team.

Speaker 2:

Agreed, Agreed, yeah, because I think if you let things go too far, then just don't. It comes back to expectations as well when you're time blocking. So one of my biggest problems is I tend to have interruptions and then, of course, you know it takes X amount of time to get back to whatever you're focusing on when you're doing your time blocking. Are you doing? I think it's the GTD system the red, yellow and green, so you're really getting your deep work into the green time of your day, and is that the way you suggest setting up the calendar?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, my green zone is when I'm most productive. That is when I bring the most creativity to what I do. So if I'm going to create content, for instance, or I'm going to write, or maybe for an attorney, it's he's really thinking deeply about strategy or diving deep and understanding precedent, so that you can build a very strong argument for what you're doing as you're. Yeah, you need the best version of you for that work. This is not something that you know, you can kind of make it in. Right, you want to bring the best version of you. Well, there is a time in your day where you bring the best version of yourself to what you're doing. There is a time of your day when you don't. You need to understand what those times are, and Kerry Newhoff writes about this in his book.

Speaker 3:

At your best, understand, identify your green zone. Put your most important work in your green zone, your yellow zone. Okay, yeah, you're okay, you can do stuff. There's stuff, specific things you want to put in your yellow zone, your red zone. It's just when you're not bringing the best version of you. This is when you are mentally tired. This is when you feel like, what can I do? That doesn't take a lot of brain power. That's red zone time, and so make very intentional choices around what you time block and what you plan for. Each of those zones Starts with identifying them. You have to understand what time of day do you bring the best version of you and then intentionally plan your work so that you're leveraging as much as possible your green zone for your greatest benefit.

Speaker 2:

Excellent. I do like that Cause I I do know that different like my creative team, you know they're really really. One of them is really really excited in the morning, the other one right after lunch. They just boom, and so it is interesting giving people those things, that having them block their time whenever they are in the green zone. Now, the one thing that I've instituted from you to our team meetings is our wins journal, and not only for work but for personal life, and my team is just loving that and we share at every team meeting at least one win on each side of the page. Tell us, tell our audience, a bit about the wins journal and what it's for and how you recommend and why you recommend keeping a wins journal as the leader and encouraging your team to do the same.

Speaker 3:

It begins with the principle that what you focus on is what you get more of right. I want more wins in my life. Well, how can I focus on the wins that I've already experienced? That takes intentional effort and it takes a rhythm. So the rhythm that I institute and this is what I teach and this is what I love that you've adopted is first, it starts with the leader. Every week in my weekly review, I start with the win. I'll identify the wins what went right this week, what can I celebrate and I'm going to capture those. I'm going to actually write them down in a wins journal and this is going to do two things. First, you are focusing first on what went right, not on what went wrong.

Speaker 3:

Everybody wants to start with what went wrong. That's not hard to do. Anybody can do that. That is not a superpower.

Speaker 3:

Okay, I want more wins, though, so I'm going to focus on what I want more of. I'm going to capture the win when I do that and I'm writing them down. This is teaching my brain. This is important. I'm starting with this first.

Speaker 3:

It also provides a knowledge base over time that I can pull from, because every business owner and I'm sure every one of your listeners has those moments when they wonder am I doing any good? Is this worth it? The knowledge base of the wins journal, then, is something you can pull out and you can say hey, I know that's how I feel in this moment and that's valid, but what does the data say? And I'm going to pull out my wins journal in those moments and I'm going to go back through and I'm going to read through some of the wins that I've written down from previous weeks, months or years. And you know what happens neurologically is it begins to change your brain chemistry because you begin to re-celebrate those wins oh yeah, I forgot about that. Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah and it completely gues your mood. This is what happens when you leverage this tool so often, and I see this in my own life as well as everybody I know.

Speaker 3:

We have no problem remembering where we sailed. We have no problem remembering our we failed. We have no problem remembering our misses. Sometimes we carry those memories for decades. We can recount our fails in minute detail, but if I say hey, tell me three wins Marilyn from 2009. Yeah, yeah, wait a minute, did I have any?

Speaker 2:

You're right, you can remember all the bad parts, yeah.

Speaker 3:

Right? Well, the wins journal gives you a data source that you are intentionally building week in, week out, week in, week out, and that's for the leader. And remember how you lead is how they're going to follow, that's how your team's going to, that's how they're going to go. So you start there with your rhythm, then you institute this with your team. Every meeting I've had with my team, we start with wins. Hey, what's going right? What can I celebrate with you? We have a channel in Slack called wins and anybody can drop anything in there anytime.

Speaker 3:

That's where I start with. I start that with our team meeting celebrating the wins that were in the wins show to hang. What can we celebrate? Hey, let's look here, this is some stuff that y'all shared boom, boom, boom, boom, boom and we're going to celebrate those things together. What would you add to that? Anything that's not in the channel that you would add, and but because I want to focus on what we want more. Now, the temptation when you do that is to say, oh well, this is not really big enough.

Speaker 2:

This doesn't really count.

Speaker 3:

That's the temptation right, and that's because you've got this little referee in your head right and I love how John Acuff talks about this the referee in your head who's saying oh, that doesn't count. Oh, that's not big enough. Oh, it doesn't matter. Okay, here's what I want you to do, the next action you need to take when you hear that little referee saying that I want you to fire that guy.

Speaker 3:

He doesn't belong in your head, right? You get to decide what's a win. A win is what you say it is. I don't care how big, how small. It's a win. Celebrate it because you want more of it. When you do this yourself personally, as a leader, as a business owner, and then you begin to bring this to your team and you begin to do it together, you are going to see the culture shift and all of a sudden, you're going to begin to recognize more wins that you were not seeing previously.

Speaker 2:

And I found that one of my team members has four children, I think, and she had this one period of time where a couple of them were sick. She comes to a team meeting and she's just I just can't think of a win. I just can't think of a win. The rest of the team jumped in and went you got up this morning and you were able to take care of your children so they're like feeding it. It's like it was a really, really amazing energy and she just kind of sit back and went. Yeah, yeah, you're right, I mean, but you know she was. She'd been so overburdened with everything she wasn't thinking of when that's.

Speaker 2:

And I think that's really helpful to have a wins journal and keep that. You know, have the whole team do it. I was surprised that they were my team. I went for the instance of let's have a win in our personal lives and they're doing it separately, so they're giving. When I asked for their wins, we get you know, business and personal, which is awesome, and we all celebrate each other. So it is a great team building exercise as well.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I'm glad you used that example from your team member. Actually, just last night I'm coaching my daughter's varsity volleyball team. Right now she's in high school, she's a senior and clearly they were really hard up for a coach and so I'm coaching and we were going around and one of the things I do with the team at the end of practice every practice is I make them go through this exercise. It may sound familiar to you. I say, hey, what do you think you did best today? What can we celebrate? What am I doing? I'm trying to teach them to focus on their wins, right, and we go around the circle and everyone I'm like I think I did pretty good, I did, I did well with this. This was on point today. This was good and it's good. It's the last one last night and she's like I don't know I don't feel like I don't know, I don't think I did anything today, I was like, and so then I turned to the rest of the team.

Speaker 2:

I said what did y'all see?

Speaker 3:

in her. Did y'all see any wins in her? And man, they were just popcorn and boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. All your server of all these passing. You were so great your pancake. Oh, it was great, right, because they could see what she couldn't see because she was in it.

Speaker 3:

This is the power of team, and I love that you did that with your team, right? I don't remember having it. Hey, what are y'all? Huh, yeah, boom, boom, boom, boom. Yes, that If you teach this to your team and this becomes a part of your culture, this is going to change not just how you interact with each other, but it's going to change how you serve the people that you serve. It's going to change your clients. It's going to change how your business operates.

Speaker 2:

It's going to affect your bottom line. I agree, I agree, I mean the whole thing. When you're on the phone with new people, it just gives a different feeling. You know you can tell when people are in a bad mood when you talk to them on the phone. So I absolutely agree. I love that and so thinking about, so we've gone through and talked about the main things I wanted to talk about. Thank you so much for that. How do we as, how do you as a leader, continue to learn and get better as you're leading a team and as you're growing in your own personal life? How would we do the same?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I believe you have to be intentional. This does not just happen. You're not going to wake up one day and think, oh wow, I've grown, oh wow, I'm a better leader, oh, but I've got all the leadership skills I need.

Speaker 1:

I don't know how that happened, but here I am. Nobody does that.

Speaker 3:

Okay, you've got to be intentional, and so for me, what this looks like, there's several components that are part of my plan. One is the books that I read, the inputs that I have, and you can see behind me. I like to read just a little bit. I'm constantly reading and learning because I want to grow. That means I have to block time to do that. I don't just have massive blocks of time with nothing to do where. I wonder what should I do? You know, I have nothing to do. It doesn't happen in my life, and so I have to block time. That's very intentionally focused to learn and to grow.

Speaker 1:

That's part of my daily rhythm.

Speaker 3:

Part of my annual rhythm is that I get into environments that are going to help me to grow. I get around people who are going to help me to think differently, whether it's conferences, workshops, whatever it is. I'm going to get into environments that are specifically focused. I'm not pouring out.

Speaker 3:

I'm being poured into Right. I choose those environments and I choose them very carefully every year. That's the second thing, and the third thing is that I have coaches in my life who help me see what I can't see, and they help me to grow in my own self-awareness so that I then have something I can share with other people.

Speaker 2:

I think the coaching part is incredibly important. I've had coaches for early in my life and then, of course, in business I've had coaches for the last five or six years and I just feel like it's it's instrumental to have someone who can see beyond. I know a smart man that once said you can't see the full picture If you're in the frame. You might. That's a quote and it makes a lot of sense. I mean it's. You know, we can only see our perspective and then, as much as we analyze, we still can't see the whole picture. So having a coach makes a massive difference and I think you've done. You've done, you've been instrumental in me being able to be where I am and be the leader I am, and I know that you could help anybody in the audience the same way. Thinking about that, what, how can people get in touch with you, or do you want to chat? Tell us a little bit about your book first, so your catalytic leadership book. Tell us a little bit about who that's best for and what that's about.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I wrote that book with the idea in mind of capturing common threads that I hear in the conversations that I have with leaders you know, over almost 30 years, as you might imagine. A lot of these conversations feel like there are common threads that run through them, and so the book is 12 principles that come from those conversations, from the sessions that I've had with leaders, coaching them, 12 things that I see pretty consistently in so many leaders that if you get this right, if you move toward this, this helps you to move from a place of mediocrity to a place of excellence. This helps you move from a place of simply okay, yeah, I'm getting stuff done Okay. To a place where you're truly making an impact, where you're becoming what I call a catalytic leader, leader that makes a difference. So the book captures 12 of those principles and this is helpful for anybody who wants to grow in leadership, but particularly in the business space.

Speaker 3:

If who wants to grow in leadership, but particularly in the business space, if you want to grow in leading your team and you want to grow in leading yourself which, by the way, you're the hardest person you will ever lead right. That's what this book is written for is to help you take some next steps. So many practical things that I've tried to build and build into the book to help you take a next step, because it's just more information. Nobody needs more information. What you need is information that you apply. That's where transformation comes from.

Speaker 2:

And where can we get that book? And I'll make sure that this is in the show notes as well.

Speaker 3:

I would love to offer a free copy to your listeners If they go to Catalytic Leadership book. If they're willing to pay the shipping, I will give them the book for free because I want to get this book into the hands of as many leaders as possible. My goal is to help you grow intentionally, so that you can then benefit other people around you. When you help a leader, you don't just help one person, and I want to help you. I want to help you get better and grow and I want that to be rippled out, touching your team, your family, every client you're ever going to serve. So you're willing to pay the shipping. I'll get the book right out to you. Catalytic Leadership.

Speaker 2:

I'll definitely make sure that's in the show notes and it's an excellent book. Now, just in case I know that our team listeners are going to want to connect with you and reach out to you, Where's the best place to reach you and connect with you?

Speaker 3:

You can go to catalyticleadershipnet. That's my home base, the website for everything that we do. You can find out more about the podcast that I host called Catalytic Leadership host called Catalytic Leadership. And on LinkedIn is where I'm most active in the social world. I host a webinar each month on different topics related to leadership, mindset and productivity, and so you can sign up, register for one of those webinars, and that's a way that I can pour into and invest in people wherever they are. That's a big piece of it is LinkedIn, so that's a great way to engage with people as well. The conversations I get to have with people on LinkedIn, either through the comments or through direct messages, are truly, truly, some of the best conversations that I have, so I would love to talk with you and help you navigate the challenges that you're having. Leaders so often need somebody to talk to.

Speaker 2:

They need a trusted thinking partner that's going to help them, not just as a sounding board, but help them process and think in ways they might not have thought and I can certainly tell the listeners and you've been amazing to work with and help me reach some, some levels that I've I've never seen before and and see the future that I want and it's so. If anybody needs a testimonial for working with Dr William, I'm in it.

Speaker 3:

Well, I'm humbled and grateful and, marilyn, you know this and I've said this before, but I love working with you because you take action, and that's the difference between somebody who is going to be successful and somebody who's just going to talk about it.

Speaker 2:

I love it. Well, william, thank you so much for being here today. This has been enlightening. I love the process, love it and I'm hoping everybody will get your book. I'll make sure that there's a link to your different links that you gave me in the show notes so people can reach out to you. But thank you, thank you so much for your time and energy today. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 3:

Well, thank you for having me Truly. It's been an honor to be here, marilyn.

Speaker 2:

Thanks for joining me today for this episode. As we wrap up, I'd love for you to do two things. First, subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an episode, and if you find value here, I'd love it if you would rate it and review it. That really does make a difference in helping other people to discover this podcast. Second, you can connect with me on LinkedIn to keep up with what I'm currently learning and thinking about. And if you're ready to take the next step with a digital strategist to help you grow your law firm, I'd be honored to help you. Just go to lawmarketingzonecom to book a call with me. Stay tuned for our next episode next week. Until then, as always, thanks for listening to Leadership in Law podcast and be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss the next episode.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Leadership in Law podcast. Remember you're not alone on this journey. There's a whole community of law firm owners out there facing similar challenges and striving for the same success. Head over to our website at lawmarketingzonecom. From there, connect with other listeners, access valuable resources and stay up to date on the latest episodes. Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Until next time, keep leading with vision and keep growing your firm.