On Burning Bridges And The Long View

This morning our receptionist quit, leaving without bothering to do so in person.  In fact, she quit by email a few hours after her normal start time.  the only way we knew  was that one of our paralegals told us about it when we came into the office this morning.

Leaving a job isn’t a problem.  In fact, it’s expected.  Most people don’t retire from the same company that hired them right out of school.  We move.  We grow.

No, what struck us as odd was the fact that this young woman took the short view and burned a bridge.  She won’t get a recommendation from us (again, not because she quit but because she handled it by simply not showing up) and won’t get any help from us in moving to the next level of her career.

We wish her well, but won’t play a part in her future.

And it struck me how often we do this in our professional lives.

We often meet with prospective clients who don’t fit our business model.  Maybe they’ve got a problem we can’t solve, perhaps it’s just a bad fit.  Whatever the reasons, you can’t please all the people all of the time.

What you do in the time between deciding not to work with someone and letting them know is critical to the long-term success of your practice.

Most lawyers will, on deciding that there is no way to work together, will merely stand up and usher the person out the door.  And in doing so, they lose a valuable source of future business.

Remember that the impression you make is critical to your success.  When you rush the prospective client out the door, what are you telling them?  Are you showing them that every person is important, that every opportunity to connect is valuable to you as a lawyer and as a person?

Or are you conveying the message that they’re of no use to you if they aren’t going to pay you money for services?

Consider this: when you treat someone with respect and grace, when you give them your time and your ear, you have an opportunity to educate and create a positive impression.  You increase your social capital, the amount of trust that person – that stranger – has in you and your law office.

That person will go out into the world, and he or she will come across someone who needs a lawyer.  Do you want your name used as the go-to person for the job, or do you want someone to recommend vehemently against using you because you were abrupt?

The next time you have a consultation that isn’t going anywhere, don’t think of it as a waste of time.  It’s a chance to create word-of-mouth, to educate a stranger and make one more referral point.

Photo of the Dry Creek Bridge In Yakima County on fire in 2009 courtesy of WSDOT.