6 books to improve the success of your law firm

Category: Blog, Practice Management 1st December 2022

Do you want to improve employee engagement across your law firm? Increase productivity, profitability, and client satisfaction at the same time too?

During the four episodes of our Build Better Habits webinar series, we asked 12 experts across the legal sector for their best practices, practical tips, and ideas on how modern law firms can improve long-term success.

Throughout the episodes our panellists recommended a variety of books. They can help law firm leaders implement effective business habits, create a supportive workplace culture, and increase productivity.

Legal expert’s book recommendations for modern law firm leaders

1. Time To Think: Listening To Ignite The Human Mind – Nancy Kline

The book explores the 10 behaviours that form a system called Thinking Environment, a model of human interaction that dramatically improves the way people think and work. Recommended in our Empower Employee episode, this book can help teams improve the quality of people’s attention for each other.

2. Emotional Intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ – Daniel Goleman

Goleman argues that our view of human intelligence is far too narrow. It’s not our IQ, but our emotional intelligence that plays a major role in thought, decision-making, and individual success. The book explores the components that make up emotional intelligence which Joanna Gaudoin discussed in episode four of the series.

3. Getting On: Making work work – Joanna Gaudoin

Joanna, a panellist in our Build Better Habits series, is author of Getting On. In the book she clearly lays out how you can master those non-technical skills that may be holding you back. The book will help readers to successfully navigate professional life, progress, and have greater career satisfaction.

4. Chief Joy Officer: How great leaders elevate human energy and eliminate fear – Richard Sheridan

Recommended by Tim Kidd, CEO of the ILFM, this book offers an approachable and down-to-earth philosophy and practice that will help leaders bring a renewed sense of purpose to their work building others. Sheridan offers advise on self-understanding, how to judge your performance, and how to encourage different thinking in your organisation.

5. Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything – BJ Fogg

Created by world-renowned behaviour scientist, Dr BJ Fogg, the book is based on 20 years of research and his personal experiences coaching over 60,000 people. Recommended by David Ricketts in the Digital-First episode of the series, this book share insights and simple steps you can take to improve your life. It discusses how you can create lasting change that leads to personal transformation in work, health, relationships, and beyond.

6. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way To Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones – James Clear

The Atomic Habits book was the inspiration to create the Build Better Habits Webinar series after I read the book at the start of the year. It got me thinking about the profound impact simple and small changes could make to a law firm’s success. Clear provides a comprehensive and practical guide on how to create good habits, break bad ones, and get one percent better every day. The idea that people, businesses, and law firms struggle to change their habits because they have the wrong system in place sparked the idea for outlining the four fundamental habits and mindsets all modern law firm should adopt for long-term success.

Build effective business habits in your law firm

You can now watch all episodes of the Build Better Habits series on-demand. Each episode deep dives into the four fundamental habits: Think Digital-First, Be Client-Focused, Implement Continuous Improvement, and Empower Employees. The practical advice shared will help you maximise the value received from your legal software investment, exceed client expectations, stay competitive long-term, and retain and hire top talent. Watch now.