I spent part of last weekend proofing the manuscript for The E-Myth Attorney book. I can’t even tell you how excited I am to finally see it at this stage. The book should be available on Amazon in the June timeframe… the few steps are being looked after now, like final proofing, quotes endorsing the book are being collected, press releases to major publications… all the little steps that will wrap up this year-long project that Robert and Sandy took on with the original author of the E-Myth, Michael Gerber.
What a book.
It’s hitting the nail on the head again and reminds me of some of the basics we talk about here at the Academy. It’s good to be reminded! If you haven’t read the E-Myth by Michael Gerber, it will literally take you only a weekend, if that, to read it. If you’ve read it – read it again before this book comes out. I’m noticing that this book ISN’T the “E-Myth” adapted for attorneys… it really picks up where that book left off.
I am only about a third of the way through it, but one section that jumps out at me is this:
“Earlier in this chapter, I alerted you to the inevitable conflict between the attorney-as-employee and the attorney-as-owner. It’s a battle between the part of you working in the practice and the part of you working on the practice. Between the part of you working for income and the part of you working for equity.
Here’s how to resolve the conflict:
- Be honest with yourself about whether you’re filling employee shoes or owner shoes.
- As your practice’s key employee, determine the most effective way to do the job you’re doing, and then document that job.
- Once you’ve documented the job, create a strategy for replacing yourself with someone else (another attorney, or, even better, a paralegal) who will then use your documented system exactly as you do.
- Have your new employees manage the newly delegated system. Improve the system by quantifying its effectiveness over time.
- Repeat this process throughout your practice wherever you catch yourself acting as employee rather than owner.
- Learn to distinguish between ownership work and employee-ship work every step of the way.”
Whether you’re an attorney or not, I have found that a major challenge for many people is that they think they need to do it all. Sometimes they just can’t delegate, sometimes they believe that nobody else can do it as well as they can, sometimes they don’t have a vision that sets the stage to have the staff to delegate to, sometimes their ego starts whispering in their ear telling them that they need to be recognized for doing the technical part or some other part of the job. Maybe this rings a bell or two for you?
Putting a practice together that has an attorney playing the role of counselor and CEO is a productive balance to strive for—and it rarely happens by accident.
Jennifer Price
Director, Member Services
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
(800) 846-1555
www.aaepa.com
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