BusinessLawGuy's Blog

Winners know this. What do I mean?  Being able to adjust on the fly is important.  In my world it can mean abandoning the entire oral argument you spent hours preparing because of a question or statement by the judge.  Or a position taken by my opposing counsel or a client question.  The ability to shift gears on the fly allows you to be focused on the prize, whatever it may be.

Many times the change or adjustment does not need to be a split second decision.  What if you plan a new business initiative, spend hundreds of hours on it and then learn something has changed or you missed a piece of information that makes it more challenging to succeed?  Change is needed. Is it to scrap everything in the face of adversity?  Is it to rethink and tweak your plan?  Of course the true answer is that it depends on the situation.  But once you acknowledge change is needed you have taken the first step.

And this matters in your professional life.  Don’t become stagnant.  To be on the top of your game you have to know when to adjust.  Stay up to date on what you need to know to do what you do.  Information is power.  Information lets you know when you have to change or adjust.

Life is both a gift and a challenge in which we all can do a better job of doing our best for our customers and clients, as well as ourselves.  So pay attention!  And look for when you have to make adjustments and be open to change.

What do people remember?  Think of a favorite song.  What about it makes you listen?  Probably a distinctive element like a catchy riff or lyric.  It sticks in your head.

Making your case to a judge or jury, a pitch to a potential client or that short time you have when making your elevator speech is the same except the distinctive riff is an easy to remember sentence or phrase that sums up what you want people to remember.  Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Depends on the situation and the audience, but you can always come up with one.

Some are easier to come up with than others.  What if what you are trying to convey is more complex?  You can still do it.  Break down the concepts or message like you have to spoon feed them to a two year old.  That’s right!  Simplifying the important parts of your message helps you educate your audience.  Even if your conversation, presentation or even oral argument are longer, you tie it together by starting and finishing with your catch-phrase or one sentence summary you want remembered.

One way too come up with the sentence or catch-phrase is to really think about the message you want to convey, your audience, how much time you have.  If you do, odds are you will get your message across.  The simpler the better, which is easier for your audience remember.  And that’s the point.

Its mid-January 2014.  Hopefully you have had a good start to your year.  And maybe, if you made any, you are sticking to your resolutions.  Either way, you should now resolve to do at least one thing new or different.  The cliché “If things stay the same, they stay the same” exists because it is true.

For example, starting this blog was one of the ‘different’ things I did last year.  And there are many reasons why I have enjoyed doing it and continue to do it.  That doesn’t mean if you try something new or different you have to keep doing it.  If it isn’t enjoyable or doesn’t move you towards one of your goals for the year, stop (Yes, you should have goals, and write them down; This is a topic for another post…).  Then think of something else and set it in motion.

It is better if you come up with the ideas for something new or different because odds are it will be something you are interested in doing.  But, for instance, no matter your business or profession, we all benefit from meeting new people or exposure.  Does this mean joining a group, attending events, marketing activities or advertising?  Depends on you, your profession, business or company.  Or it may mean a combination of some of these ideas, and others.

It is easier to do nothing.  It saves you time and allows you to stay with what you know and like.  But in most cases it causes you to become stagnant and not progress how you would like to.  So if staying exactly the same works for you, you can do nothing.  Otherwise, start out 2014 right by trying some new and different things in your professional life.  And this works in your personal life too.

If you do try something new or different and have success or not, I am interested to hear about it and your experience.  If you are looking for ideas and want to bounce around ideas about new or different things you can try, please feel free to email or call me.

Your effort at what you do for a living is everything.* You may be smarter, but you can be outworked by someone with less intelligence.

When you were young (and sometimes, to your detriment, when you were older…) your mother told you how smart you are. For many, by the time they become teenagers, it changes to “You’re smart and if you would just apply yourself you would get better grades.” Odds are your parents weren’t going to kick you out for not trying your hardest, but your boss might.

Or, instead, you won’t progress in your career.  For every person who progresses based on nepotism or something similar, there 99.9 times out of 100 who progress is based on the effort they put in and the results that effort achieves.

And don’t get me wrong, effort alone is not enough. Work isn’t youth sports where trophies are given for participating, not just winning (don’t get me started on this…).  Companies don’t hand out participation ribbons or trophies because you showed up at the office and went through the motions. Effort needs to lead to results.

But you don’t have a chance at good results if you don’t start with effort.

*Thanks to my wife who put this though into my head this morning during a conversation. If you need a fantastic recruiter to help you find talented employees or your dream job you should check out: http://www.govig.com/refresh/templates/staff_profile.php?staff_id=16. This is a shameless plug for someone who puts in the effort and achieves results!

Recently, I called a client to set up a block of time to prepare for a mediation. The client didn’t understand why we needed to meet and thought you just go in and see if the dispute can be settled or not. This common misconception regarding mediation speaks to an important topic: preparation.

I had to explain to the client that the two most important times in a lawsuit are mediation and trial. Mediation is the last time a party has any control over the outcome of a lawsuit because you have no real control when it is in the hands of the judge or jury. Why wouldn’t you prepare for such an important event??

It begs the question as to why you wouldn’t prepare for any important event or conversation, such as a mediation, a year end meeting with a supervisor regarding performance, salary or bonus issues, a job interview, an important conversation with a child, co-worker, spouse, etc. For real.

In all situations know the message you want to communicate and you stand a better chance of making sure you and your position(s) are understood. This will enhance your position and put you in a better place to achieve any goals or desired results. It also will bolster your reputation and what others who deal with you think about you. And reputation is everything.

So prepare, prepare, prepare, and see where it gets you, because, as Benjamin Franklin smartly said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

It is a Friday heading toward the holiday season. It is a time of year when phrases such as “goodwill to all men” are used. But we know what is happening in the world around us and that in the fast moving world we live in not everyone treats people well.

Here is a link to a video (thanks to Kasten Spethmann of www.sophisticatedrebel.com!) that shows we can sometimes learn lessons, or at least be reminded, by teens and pre-teens that everyone should be treated well and deserves to feel special:

https://www.upworthy.com/watch-an-entire-team-of-teenage-football-players-do-something-very-unexpected?c=upw1

Please think about this as you make you way to and through your weekend. What can you do to make someone else’s day?

Of course this relates to the business topics I usually write about, but I know all of you can figure out how this applies in your business and professional lives without me explaining it.

Most employers and employees are familiar with restrictive covenants. I am referring to confidentiality/trade secret provisions, non-compete provisions and non-solicitation provisions (if you don’t know what one or more of these provisions is used for and want to know, feel free to contact me). These type of provisions come up in contexts other than employment, such as when a business is sold, but the main place you probably will have encountered one is as an employee, employer or independent contractor.

For employers, it is important to have the agreements  and contracts you use with employees and otherwise reviewed by an attorney annually to make sure changes in the law don’t require revisions or render some or all of a contract unenforceable. For employees, independent contractors, sellers or buyers it always is a good idea to have an attorney review these type of provisions or agreements at the time they are being negotiated. Or now, because the law change may affect enforceability of contracts to which you are a party too.

Based on an October 2013 Arizona Court of Appeals decision it makes sense for any person or business who is a party to a contract or agreement containing these type of provisions to have them reviewed by an attorney because the law has changed for now. How it may affect you depends on the specific provisions you have agreed to, no matter whether you are an employer, employee, independent contractor, seller, buyer, etc. I strongly suggest you make this part of your year-end planning heading into 2014 because of the change in the law. And make it part of the annual legal “check-up” you should be doing to protect yourself.

Let me know if you have any questions on this topic or want to schedule a time to review restrictive covenants in documents you use or are a party to.

My kids know a saying I have: “If your mouth is open your ears are closed.” Of course what I mean is that if you are interrupting a speaker or just waiting to get something out odds are you are not really listening to what the other person is saying. And this is a problem because professionally and personally communication is everything. You want and need to be understood, but you also need to understand the speaker.

Listening is more than simply “not speaking”. Give others your undivided attention. Set aside your own judgments and preconceived notions. Listen with focus.  Most importantly, listen to understand.  This is more than just not speaking – although that is a good start. It is about having effective verbal communications with those around you.

Many of us are much more comfortable talking than listening. Many of us are thinking about how we are going to respond while the other person is still talking. But how can you effectively listen when you are thinking about anything other than what the other person is saying.

And what I just said ignores an important topic for another day: non-verbal communication.  According to published statistics, as much as 70% of meaning is conveyed by non-verbal cues such as facial expressions, body language and the tone and cadence of the speaker….

So your challenge for the week it to open your ears, shut your mouth, and see if it makes a difference in your conversations.