Confidence

Leading Through Upheaval: How Coaching Helped a Law Firm CEO Find His Ground

Leading Through Upheaval: How Coaching Helped a Law Firm CEO Find His Ground

Leadership isn’t tested when things are easy. It’s tested in the storm.

A founder and managing partner of a multi-million-dollar plaintiffs’ firm recently found himself navigating one of the most turbulent seasons of his career. In the span of days, he made the difficult decision to let go of multiple team members, including his highest grossing attorney. He wrestled with ethical obligations that led to the filing of bar complaints. He shouldered client communications during an unexpected transition and was suddenly pulled back into the day-to-day legal work he had long since delegated.

It was a lot. And yet, he didn’t just survive the chaos—he led through it. Coaching helped him do that.

Case Study: Getting Unstuck

One of the conditions I see repeatedly in the beginning of many of my coaching engagements is, what I call “stuckness.” This condition has a host of symptoms: failure to take advantage of the right opportunities when they reveal themselves; grasping at shiny objects which, in fact, do not move my client or their business forward in a meaningful way; shying away from their worth as an advocate and human being, just to name a few. Many believe being stuck is the failure to take action. This isn’t so. Stuckness is both the failure to engage in necessary action and engaging in the incorrect actions for achieving your goals.