Does this sound familiar? It’s something we hear often from the lawyers we work with:

I’m worried. I work long hours. My staff and my associates work long hours. We’ve got the latest [insert name of fancy new tech here], but my practice just isn’t delivering the results I expected. What other resources do I need?

The thing is, the most successful firms aren’t necessarily the ones with the most resources. They’re the firms that make the most of the resources they already have.

So this week’s tip is to make the most of what you’ve got. Use your existing resources more efficiently.

Most importantly, make sure you have the right people doing the right work the right way.

One of five biggest mistakes lawyers make in their practices is not staying focused on efficiency. 

Welcome to Gimbal’s Tip of the Week, where you get practical, actionable advice you can use right away to start building a more productive and profitable legal practice.

To spot the most inefficient systems or processes in your practice, ask yourself and your team:

• What feels harder or more complicated than it should?
• What takes longer than it should?

Improving these processes doesn’t always mean that you need more people, or a new piece of technology. Usually, the people working in your process will have some great ideas for simple things you can do differently to make the process smoother. Maybe they need a checklist to follow or a better template. Maybe they better training on the features of software you already have, rather than introducing something new.

The result will be improved productivity and profitability. 

Your action item this week is to ask your team members two key questions:

What seems harder or more complicated than it should?

What takes longer than it should?

Listen to their answers and their suggestions for what they would change, why and how. Then pick one and get to work. 

Communicating with your team is one of the best ways to encourage buy-in and collaboration for long-term results. Tackling one simple process at a time is also a great strategy that will help you and your team to improve efficiency over time without becoming overwhelmed.

Legal professionals who focus on improving efficiency are better able to build a practice that delivers the results they expect.

Want to learn more about how to improve processes? Take the Practice Accelerator Course. It’s an online course that teaches you, step-by-step, how to identify opportunities to improve and then actually make sustainable changes. By the end, you’ll have improved one process and you’ll have a toolkit of skills and resources you can use over and over again to build a stronger practice. Plus, it includes live coaching sessions!

Find out about the other mistakes lawyers make and how to overcome them in our newest

Gimbal Guide: 5 Mistakes That Are Hurting Your Practice and How to Overcome Them

Join us next week for more on building a profitable and productive law practice. Sign up so you never miss a Tip of the Week.