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

By Chuck Bingaman - chuck@chuckbingaman.com

#7 June, 2003

Leadership    America lost an important role model and leader last week with the death of Larry Doby.  Doby, in case you don’t remember, was the first African American to play big league baseball in the American League back in the summer of 1947.  Similar to Jackie Robinson who had broken the “whites only” barrier a few months earlier in the National League, Doby faced bitter hostility from most of his teammates and players on opposing teams and suffered the indignities of Jim Crow laws and traditions for much of his career.  Can you imagine a workplace where only a few of your “colleagues” speak to you?  Where competitors use physical intimidation with impunity?  Where you cannot eat or travel with your colleagues simply because of the color of your skin?  Larry Doby responded to those daunting conditions by performing with excellence year after year.  After his baseball retirement, Doby was voted into baseball’s Hall of Fame.  

The really impressive part, to me though, was the manner in which he dealt with his situation during and after his career.   Doby was generous in his praise of those few that had welcomed him to baseball, who were teammates in every sense.  He would never name names of those who would not shake his hand, who did all they could to make his life miserable and to make him quit. 

According to Harvey Araton in the New York Times, the plaque at Larry Doby Field in Patterson, New Jersey, Doby’s home, ends with these words summarizing Doby’s view of life:  I cannot change yesterday.  I can only make the most of today.  And I look with hope toward tomorrow. 

While few of us deal with the depth and intensity of malice that the young Larry Doby faced, we do deal with difficult people and situations from time to time.  Leaders choose how they’ll deal with adversity.  The adults recognize that they cannot change yesterday, that they can only make the most of today, and that they can choose to view tomorrow with hope.  When they do that, they maintain their own mental health and show the way to others.

Management    Have you taken a group of non-management level employees to lunch recently?  It can be one of the most valuable periods in your work, a time when you can learn exactly what’s going on, at least from the point of view of people who are critical to the success of your CLE enterprise.  I’ve always picked a spot where the group would feel comfortable and whose menu they’d appreciate.  I’ve also had a bit of an agenda, a few things to report to the group, usually small successes, to kick things off and to set a positive tone.  But the main agenda has always been to seek a discussion of business areas where we needed ideas and to listen to people talk.  I guarantee that your employees will appreciate your ear and that you’ll get some useful ideas and a feel for problems that you didn’t have before.  You don’t have to be—and you’re not—the only person in your organization with ideas!  Do lunch at least monthly.  And tap into a great source of ideas, suggestions, and intelligence.    Similarly, you’ll never regret making something of your colleagues’ birthdays and anniversaries within your CLE organization.  Few people get the recognition they deserve or feel they deserve.  As a leader in your organization, your voice is much louder than you may realize.  In one organization I was involved in, we did a monthly eat-in lunch and celebrated, in a low-key way, everyone who had had a birthday or anniversary in the past month.  It might be even better to plan ahead and celebrate those with important dates coming up in the next month.  That makes you the first to recognize them and alerts everyone to upcoming important dates.

Resources & Strategies    Check out www.WDFM.com.  It’s Larry Chase’s Web Digest for Marketers, and it’s got loads of good ideas, commentary and teaching for all of us.  Chase publishes a weekly digest of marketing oriented ‘Web sites that you can subscribe to for FREE.  The main site also carries several dozen of his columns on modern marketing and advertising that are all terrific.  As a bonus, he’ll send you his Top Ten Tips for Starting Your Email Newsletter.   Need even more new marketing/selling ideas?  Would you like 1,000 or more right now?  Get 1001 Ways to Market Your Services (Even If You Hate to Sell) by Rick Crandall, PH.D. (NTC/Contemporary Publishing Group, Inc, Chicago, 1998)  All sorts of clever ideas you can use.  Invaluable and less than $20!   We’re taking a new approach to getting up in the morning in our house inspired by Jorge Cruise and his book 8 Minutes in the Morning: A Simple Way to Start Your Day That Burns Fat and Sheds Pounds (Rodale Press, 2001).  Cruise offers a multi-faceted, very positive exercise program that doesn’t require expensive machines or large time blocks but does offer a positive way to start the day, some sensible dietary suggestions, and maybe even some weight loss.Finally, you’ll want to bookmark www.replicawrestlingbelts.com.  Talk about finding that unique accessory!   Finally, finally, launch www.fireworks.com.  In case of rain or in case you cannot be in your favorite city on the 4th, see the Fun Zone!

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