Executive Coaching Firm – Law Practice Management Advisor, Leadership Training Programs, Attorneys

LeadershipCoach is an executive coaching consultancy that works with senior lawyers, practice group leaders, and other “high potential” individuals. Stephen P. Gallagher is an Organizational Development professional that provides the legal profession with a broad range of coaching services directed at facilitating positive change.

The goal of coaching is not in fixing what is broken, but in discovering new talents and new ways to use old talents that leads to far greater effectiveness. Coaching is partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. The profession of executive coaching is built on the concept of human potential at work. Executive coaching is both person-centered and system-centered. Successful coaching achieves positive change for both the individual and the law firm.

In times of major organizational change, executive coaching can provide the necessary impetus for building and motivating teams. The primary reason law firms are exploring uses of executive coaching is to improve business results. This means increasing profits, reducing costs, or achieving both within a defined time frame.

As more and more baby-boomers reach traditional retirement age, law firms are facing new challenges in dealing with this potential massive exodus of skilled talent. Coaching can be used to help senior lawyers formulate flexible retirement plans while working with law firm leadership to help design and implement short- and long-range strategies.

We are facing a shortage, not a surplus of talented lawyers, so law firms must begin to phase out “retirement” as we know it. As a replacement, law firms need to explore how a staged reduction in work hours and responsibilities ahead of full retirement might work.

I have worked with literally hundreds of senior lawyers in developing Exit or Retirement Plans to help them tackle fresh assignments designed to offer variety and challenge and to stimulate new skills development. Coaching can also help law firms develop new approaches to retirement -- gaining renewed purpose in their lives.

Gallagher conducts law firm retreats that incorporates follow-up coaching to help leaders at all levels of the organization understand that they are responsible for the work environment they create, and that the work environment has a significant impact on whether people will choose to be responsible and accountable. Since professionals must first voluntarily approve and accept new accountabilities, they must agree to be managed. Coaching offers a supporting context in which modern responsibility-based strategy and culture can flourish.

Research shows direct links between leadership training and a positive return on investment (ROI). Outstanding leaders produce significantly stronger financial results than less-skilled peers do – and executive coaching can help develop senior attorneys into skilled leaders.