(Photo: Shutterstock)

Most lawyers, regardless of their experience level, should be more focused on business development. At most firms, having a book of business (or at least demonstrating a strong ability to develop one) is a prerequisite to making partner. When you originate client work, it increases your compensation. You enhance your ability to move laterally. Most important, having clients allows you to have greater autonomy over your career and personal life, because you're not as reliant on others for work.

True, getting your own clients creates a whole new set of pressures and responsibilities. When you own the client relationship, you own the ultimate responsibility to produce great work and provide great client service in order to maintain the relationship. When something goes wrong, you own the responsibility to fix it.

But in a choice between the alternatives of having, or not having, a book of business, having clients offers more options and provides more benefits.

For an experienced lawyer, there are few good reasons, other than a conscious decision to pursue a path that doesn't require business development, to not engage in more business development. As a young lawyer, however, it's easier to justify inaction. There's still a cultural residue at many firms that you just need to "keep your head down and do good work" and it will all work out in the end.

Yes, young lawyers can hide behind that old trope, especially in good times like these, by keeping their noses to the billable hour grindstone. But sooner or later, all private-practice lawyers have to confront the self-constructed noble obstacle—the belief that their only value lies in doing work for clients, not generating work from clients—that blocks their path to long-term success.

A new year is upon us. Will 2020 be the year you start getting serious about marketing and business development? Isn't it time to be more purposeful and intentional about building your network and establishing yourself as an authority? Nothing is stopping you other than a limiting belief that it's someone else's job to bring in business. The good news is that you don't have to be perfect. You just need to get started.

Calculated Risks

Most lawyers are meticulous, detail-oriented and analytic. Their Type-A perfectionism serves them well in the practice of law, but it is often a hindrance when it comes to business development.

While the consequences of being imperfect in your legal work product can be harsh, "imperfectionism" is something you have to embrace in order to market and build your practice. You must take risks, go out on limbs, and proceed ahead without perfect knowledge of the outcome. When you're practicing law, your job is to de-risk situations for your client. When you're building a practice, you must act entrepreneurially and take calculated risks on behalf of yourself.

That's not to say that planning is not important. It's critical to determine your direction before you start taking action. In an ideal world, lawyers setting out to build a practice would get ready (cast a vision), aim (set a goal and craft a plan), and fire (take action). In the real world, too many lawyers spend so much time aiming that they never fire at the target. They plan endlessly and never take action.

Successful people across domains have a clear idea of what they want in mind before they start taking action, but their tolerance for excessive planning is low. They have a bias toward action. They use the feedback they receive—good or bad—from the actions they take to review and refine what they'll do next. They view their plan as dynamic, subject to change based on the results of their actions, rather than set in stone. If you believe your plan must be perfect before you can take action, you never will.

When the Wright brothers set out to build a plane, they faced stiff competition and seemingly insurmountable odds. Among their competitors was Samuel Pierpont Langley, who was well-connected with leaders in business and government. He was awarded a $50,000 grant from the War Department. He assembled a talented team that had access to technology and resources. The Wright brothers, on the other hand, were working with a ragtag team out of a small bicycle shop in North Carolina.

The Wright brothers ultimately won the race to build a working plane because they emphasized action over planning. Unlike their competitors, who would spend enormous amounts of time and sums of money planning test flights, the Wright brothers tested frequently. After a failed flight, they would go back to their workshop, make tweaks and test the plane again. Their competitors worked mostly in their heads. The Wright brothers took action and eventually took to the skies. Instead of endlessly aiming, they fired over and over, adjusting their approach along the way.

The Wright brothers succeeded because they applied lessons learned from taking action. Their well-financed, well-connected competitors failed because they tried to eliminate risk by creating a more perfect plan.

Best-selling author and renowned business strategist Jim Collins urges businesses to prioritize action over perpetual planning. In his book "Good by Choice," Collins explains that businesses (like people) have limited time and resources to work with. He asks readers to conjure up a picture of themselves at sea, with a hostile vessel bearing down on their ship. There is a limited amount of ammunition and gunpowder available to fight off the attackers. A direct hit from a big cannonball is required to fend off the threat. But if panic sets in and a big cannonball is fired right away, it's likely to miss. There has been no way to dial-in the correct aim. Most important, all the gunpowder is gone.

If a smaller bullet is fired first, it is still likely to miss. But there is plenty of gunpowder to fire another one. Then another. With each successive shot the aim improves until finally it's right on target. Through the experience of firing bullets, and dialing-in the aim, the remaining gunpowder can be used to fire off a big cannonball that hits its mark.

As you set out to market your practice and develop business, don't get caught up in endless cycles of planning. Conversely, when you do take action, don't go all-in on an approach without doing some experimenting first. Take small actions, even imperfect ones, and assess the results. You'll learn from your successes, and, yes, your failures, and be able to refine your plan for the next set of actions you take. If you're the type of person who can't stop "aiming," in 2020 try a "Ready, fire, aim!" approach instead.

Jay Harrington is an executive coach and trainer for lawyers and law firms and is the author of the new book, "The Essential Associate: Step Up, Stand Out, and Rise to the Top as a Young Lawyer." He is the owner of Harrington Communications and is associated with Simier Partners. Contact him at [email protected].