Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S., affecting 40 million adults in the United States age 18 and older. Anxiety disorders are highly treatable, yet only 36.9% of those suffering receive treatment. Anxiety disorders can develop from a complex set of risk factors, including genetics, brain chemistry, personality, and life events.
While it is true that anxiety disorders can cause a host of health risks and should be treated in consultation with a medical professional, the emotion of anxiety is universal can be harnessed and used to lawyers’ advantage. In partnership with Schroer, we are working to help lawyers understand how anxiety can be harnessed and used as a business development superpower.
Step 1: Have a Realistic Understanding of Anxiety
First, it is essential to understand that not all stress is created equal, and stress isn’t the same as anxiety. Stress is a response to an external challenge or event, whereas anxiety is a mental and physical reaction to stress that continues after the stressor (or external event) ends. Anxiety is on a continuum, and everyone experiences some level of anxiety from time to time. It is essentially that internal alarm in our brain signaling that something might be dangerous either physically or psychologically or could potentially cause harm.
Although some stress can be helpful, high stress levels or prolonged periods of stress impact cognitive functioning, affecting our perception of control over stress. Anxiety isn’t just an emotion; it can cause physical manifestations and impede mental processes.
Certain aspects of the legal profession might also fuel anxiety. For instance, a lawyer might feel perfectionism or pessimism, excessive worry, or an overdeveloped sense of control. Lawyers are often trained to see problems everywhere, and sometimes anxiety can exacerbate these traits so that a person might see problems when they don’t exist or have trouble anticipating the future.
Step 2: How Anxiety Can Become a Business Development Superpower
Knowing that anxiety exists, lawyers can then seek to better understand the source of their anxiety and ways to use it as a business development superpower. For many lawyers, business development can be a source of anxiety. There are various reasons sales can make lawyers feel uncomfortable with sales and business development. For one, most lawyers didn’t choose the profession because they wanted to be salespeople or rainmakers; they wanted to practice law. Additionally, several myths and stereotypes about the sales process make people – including lawyers – uncomfortable or fearful.
You don’t need to view anxiety as an obstacle; instead, you can harness anxiety for good. For one, you can use anxiety to focus on the details of your work. Second, you can view anxiety as a motivator to promote energy. And third, you can use anxiety to sharpen their intuition and enable them to listen to their “gut instincts”.
Additionally, you can change your perspective and use anxiety as a business development superpower with a few mindset shifts.
MINDSET SHIFT #1: Sales doesn’t need to be inherently self-interested.
Sales is an act of service when these factors are present:
- You genuinely desire to build authentic relationships.
- You suspend self-interest and solve the problems that should be solved.
- You create discipline and consistency in your relationship building efforts.
MINDSET SHIFT #2: There is more than one way to be a “seller.”
Many lawyers have an impression of the typical rainmaker, and if their personality and strengths don’t align with that image, they presume that they aren’t “good” at sales. Many lawyers relegate themselves to being service partners or leave the profession altogether because they fear they can’t meet their perceptions of a rainmaker.
Rather than one type, there are six ways to be a successful rainmaker, including:
- Activator: Attracting and Generating Interest. These lawyers enjoy new introductions and finding the IN to transition to business development. They are externally motivated by variety and new “treasure” potential.
- Advocate: Elevating the Client Experience to Expand Opportunities: These lawyers enjoy nurturing existing client service opportunities, doing an increased volume of the same work, being a first-call problem-solver, and developing relationships that generate referrals.
- Alliance Builder: Building Allies and Centers of Influence. These lawyers enjoy building ally networks and generating new business referrals through centers of influence and other trusted advisors.
- Educator: Building Credentials through Expertise. These lawyers enjoy turning subject matter expertise into thought leadership and thrive on becoming “known for” critical financial, situational, and technical needs. They may be externally motivated as an influencer and/or internally motivated as a collaborator.
- Integrator: Designing Enterprise Solutions. These lawyers sell the power of “we” and enjoy having multiple solutions and connections at the ready. They actively seek opportunities to be a connector and collaborator with subject matter experts, circles of influence, and other trusted advisors.
- Inventor: Forecasting and Solving for Change. These lawyers enjoy finding patterns and potential solutions, developing new “products” and processes for continuous improvement, and anticipating potential future-focused needs.
Step 3: Further Harness the Power of Anxiety as a Superpower
Once a lawyer understands their business development role, they can convert feelings of anxiety into a motivator. They can lean into their business development role and use their anxiety as a superpower. Often, this mindset shift – understanding that there are several ways to succeed at business development – can help lawyers manage their anxiety with a more accurate point of view. They can convert an unhelpful and often debilitating fear into an impactful motivator. Lawyers can then move through the anxiety, using it as a tool to understand how business development components – such as the four Cs of buying triggers (concern, curiosity, confidence, and connection) and the G3 framework (guard, grow, get) – can be incorporated into their specific rainmaker role.
Successful business developers don’t fit one personality; business development is about aligning basic mechanics into the lawyer’s specific business development role (i.e., the six roles mentioned above). Fundamental business development mechanics and behaviors include:
- Prospecting with discipline
- Helping people as individuals
- Demonstrating humility and seeking advice
- Listening and speaking in proportion through discovery questions
- Preparing as a sign of honor
- Staying in touch on purpose and with purpose
- Connecting networks
- Measuring performance
Anxiety doesn’t have to control lawyers or cause debilitating fear of business development and sales. With a greater understanding of how anxiety impacts the mind and body and an awareness of business development processes, lawyers can control their anxiety – and harness its power for good. Awareness of anxiety’s role can help lawyers manage their responses to it and provide increased choice in and control over their actions, enabling them to use anxiety as a motivating business development superpower.
Depending on the lawyer’s business development role, these actions may look different, but they are all impactful and vital. Once a lawyer acknowledges the source of their anxiety and fear surrounding business development and understands the realities of business development roles, they can use their anxiety to propel these positive behaviors rather than responding with unhealthy behaviors, such as rumination, withdrawal, or frustration.
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