During my career I have worked with over 1000 associates. I have encouraged them to quit thinking like an associate and to start thinking like the CEO of their career.

How do associates think? At the risk of over generalizing, I find many associates think about getting their hours. They do not think about their long-term career or the steps to take to attract clients.

I know getting hours is important, but there is far more to becoming successful than just getting your hours. The first step any associate can take is to define what he or she wants to accomplish, or become, and then create a plan to get there. As you may know, I started down the path coaching lawyers when I discovered none of my firm’s 200+ associates had a plan.