CLE Leadership & Management
Ideas, Resources, and Techniques for CLE Professionals
A periodic e-newsletter

By Chuck Bingaman - chuck@chuckbingaman.com

#6 May, 2003

“I think it is the function of a leader to create an atmosphere in which individuals want to give their best. If I see that is not being produced, I’ll ask if there’s any way in which I can be helpful in bringing from them, or having them produce for us, the kinds of results I believe they are capable of.” This approach “identifies me as being on the side of the best that is within them. It might enable them to see something they might not have seen, in terms of their capacity to reach a higher level. But it also stops them—if in the final analysis I have misjudged their abilities—from saying they could have developed the necessary skill, or they could have reached the goal, had they been presented with the challenge in a less confrontational, or less threatening way.”

James DePreist, Music Director of the Oregon Symphony, as quoted in Leading People by Robert H. Rosen with Paul B. Brown (Viking Penguin, 1996)

Leadership    The biological model offers an important and accurate way of viewing our CLE organizations and our needed leadership roles in them.  In the biological model, the organization exists, grows, has health-related ups and downs, needs tending and, over time, atrophies.  Leaders must watch for inevitable signs of atrophy.  We as leaders have to have the energy and courage to pull ourselves away from the day-to-day challenges, see the atrophy happening and take the needed steps to restore and renew our organizations’ health.  Those efforts may mean pushing for new strategic planning, new enterprise goals, new software, and even new staff members.    I was recently engaged to evaluate advertising brochures from a long-standing and well-known CLE provider that I had considered a highly effective marketing organization.  I was surprised, however, on close inspection, to find the most fundamental shortcomings in their brochures.  It was not that this organization had never known about good CLE advertising; it was just that, over time, atrophy had set in in that part of their organization.  It happens everywhere.  Do you see signs of atrophy in parts of your organization?

Management    Now is the time many CLE organizations are planning their budgets for the next fiscal year.  In this tight economy, budgets are more important and more difficult to create than they have been for years.  Clearly revenues must be estimated as accurately as possible, and expenses must be kept under tight control.  Yet, all CLE organizations should also be thinking more broadly about their futures than simply replicating their pasts.  Past successes may not be achievable again, and some aspects of the recent past may not be worth replication!  In some corners of the new budget, even in difficult times, every organization needs to think about spending for growing its programs, extending its marketing reach, upgrading its systems and developing its people.  Think about budgeting for a governing board retreat to update or create a new strategic plan, for a series of marketing tests or other activities to get a better bead on what your customers want in 2003-2004, or for a visit or two to other comparable CLE organizations to see first-hand how they are doing things.  Maybe even the engagement of an outside consultant to put some fresh eyes on parts of your operation that need them.  Now is probably not the time for ambitious experiments and far-out projects.  Neither is it the time to turn away from seeking new ways to grow and develop.    Could you use a way to spark useful discussions among your staff concerning the “big picture” and the nitty-gritty business issues as well?  What if you gathered your top people or, depending on the size of your staff, all of your people each day for a few days to open all the mail around a large table?  It could generate valuable communication about your advertising, orders, income, expenses, suppliers, complaints, etc. based on the “real world.”

Resources & Strategies    A business book group I am in is studying Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini (Quill: William Morrow, 1984), and I strongly recommend it to you as well.  For those of us who need to sell products and services, to persuade clients, and to influence others—sounds like CLE administrators, right?—this is really valuable reading!  Cialdini lays out hundreds of examples we can all relate to showing how we and our customers really are influenced by classic strategies and tactics, most of which we can and should use daily in our work and non-work lives.  Don’t miss it!    Ward Bower of Altman Weil Inc. just brought to my attention a new book titled Lawyers’ Professional Development: The Legal Employer’s Comprehensive Guide by Ida Abbott that was published by the National Association for Law Placement last December.  Ms. Abbott covers everything related to in-house training for lawyers including budgeting, designing, implementing and evaluating comprehensive in-house programs.  For more information or to order the book ($145 or $95 for NALP members), contact NALP director of publications Jane Smith at 202-835-1001 or email her at jsmith@nalp.org    Do you know about www.howstuffworks.com?  It’s a huge site that’s aptly named.  It covers computerstuff, autostuff, electronicsstuff, sciencestuff, homestuff, entertainmentstuff, moneystuff, travelstuff and peoplestuff.  Pretty useful!  I learned how my new water softener worked and “how laughter works”!  Check it out!

Following an award-winning 20 years as Executive Director of Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education, Chuck now consults full-time on business opportunities and management challenges with CLE organizations, legal publishers, and law firms.  Chuck also teaches a course on law practice marketing and writes a monthly marketing column for lawyers.  You can contact him at chuck@chuckbingaman.com, at 603-756-9268, or at P.O. Box 390, Walpole, NH 03068