When you consistently produce thought leadership, you strengthen the mental muscles that will make you a better attorney and communicator.
Writing more thought leadership can make you a better attorney.
You know how doing one thing on a regular basis can help you become better at related things?
For example, regularly running on the treadmill at the gym makes it a breeze when you take long walks in a new city, jog to cross a street when the traffic light is yellow, or run up a few flights of stairs at a hotel when the elevator is slow.
Thought leadership is just like regularly running on the treadmill, but for your legal mind. Thought leadership is how you work out your mental legal muscles when you’re not working on billable matters.
Writing thought leadership clarifies your thinking about the topics you’re covering
Generally speaking, writing thought leadership forces clarity of thought. When you sit down to write a thought leadership article, you’ve got to think clearly to write clearly.
For example, writing thought leadership helps you gather your thoughts on the implications of legal developments, such as court decisions, regulatory agency actions, or new legislation.
Writing thought leadership is also great for helping you gather your thoughts regarding best practices for handling certain legal matters or misconceptions regarding legal or business issues, both of which can be the basis for thought leadership articles that stand out from the crowd.
And, writing thought leadership is beneficial for synthesizing thoughts you might have about the future, such as trends regarding, and predictions for, the areas of law you practice and the industries you serve.
But writing thought leadership regularly is also beneficial for structuring your thoughts. That is, how you think about thinking.
When you think critically for the purposes of developing thought leadership articles and other content, you can improve your legal reasoning and communication skills.
Here are seven specific ways consistently producing thought leadership can make you a better attorney.
It forces you to develop fully formed thoughts
Half-baked ideas can’t stay half-baked when they’re the subject of a thought leadership article. The process of writing about ideas forces you to develop your thoughts about them, meaning half-baked ideas come out of the mental oven well-done.
When you write about a topic for a thought leadership article, you’ll work through ambiguity, flesh out your thinking, and (hopefully) arrive at a coherent conclusion. This skill directly transfers to client work, where clear thinking yields better legal advice.
You get better at expressing your views clearly
On a related note, as you write more thought leadership, you learn to concisely convey what you have to say without losing nuance. You can structure arguments logically and lead readers to conclusions in the course of your 500, 700, or 1,200-word document.
You become easier to understand by the people reading your thought leadership, and easier to understand in life—whether in client meetings, conversations with opposing counsel, or discussions with your spouse and children. Additionally, you’ll be seen as more intelligent by the people you’re expressing your views to, because clear communication about a topic is a sign that you have a firm grasp of it.
It improves your issue spotting
When you’re regularly writing thought leadership about the areas of law you practice or the industries you serve, you get better at seeing things other attorneys don’t and connecting dots they likely miss because you’re always on the lookout for new topics and angles to cover.
Whether it’s identifying risks, spotting trends, anticipating consequences, or connecting world events to clients’ legal and business issues, consistent thought leadership production sharpens your issue-spotting abilities, which is a core component of the work attorneys do for clients.
You get better at synthesizing information
When you’re doing the thinking necessary to consistently produce thought leadership, you’ll further develop your ability to synthesize information from various sources. That’s because in order to consistently produce thought leadership, you have to consistently synthesize information regarding the work you do for clients, legal issues affecting their industries, business issues affecting their industries, overall business and economic trends, geopolitical events, etc.
These additional “reps” you get working out your ability to synthesize information complement the synthesis you do for your clients in the course of your billable work—and strengthen your ability to do so.
It sharpens your ability to exercise judgment when giving legal advice
When you consistently write thought leadership, you’ll sharpen your ability to advise clients on what to do when faced with a legal or business issue. That’s because every thought leadership article you write should explain how the subject matter you’re covering could impact your target audience and what they should do about it.
Clients pay for your advice, not for you to weigh options without giving them clear guidance on which one is best. Consistently producing thought leadership that explains the relevance to your target audiences of what you’re discussing will improve your ability to exercise your judgment when advising your clients on the best course of action to take when navigating legal or business issues.
You get better at recognizing patterns
When you’re consistently monitoring legal developments, industry news, and other items of interest to your clients for the purposes of producing thought leadership about them, you’ll inevitably see patterns emerge, which could be fodder for future thought leadership content. For example, noticing that a number of different industry regulators or large corporations have taken similar actions over a period of time.
As you see more of these patterns in the course of your thought leadership efforts, you’ll get better at recognizing them, which will help you provide better legal counsel to your clients. Not only because the patterns you write about in your thought leadership could help them avoid legal or business issues, but also because you’ll improve your ability to recognize patterns in the day-to-day work you do for them.
It creates a feedback loop that improves your thinking
Finally, when you consistently produce thought leadership, you consistently send your thoughts out into the world. When you do, people will react. Clients, referral sources, colleagues, and people from across the internet may give you feedback.
That feedback could be good, bad, or ugly. It could be in the form of questions about the substance of your thought leadership, comments claiming you were unclear at certain points, or suggestions that you were dead wrong about the topic you covered.
Regardless of the kind of feedback you receive and the credibility of the person providing the feedback, this feedback loop is going to help you become a better attorney. It will help you strengthen your critical thinking and writing by pointing out flaws in your reasoning or instances where you could have communicated your thoughts more clearly.
Thought leadership is an ongoing mental workout
The more thought leadership that you produce, the better an attorney you may become. That’s because your consistent production of thought leadership gives your critical thinking and writing skills a workout, strengthening the same skills you use when you advise clients on their legal and business issues.
Thinking about bringing on an outside writer to help your law firm strategize and create compelling thought-leadership marketing and business development content? Click here to schedule a 30-minute Content Strategy Audit to learn if collaborating with an outside writer is the right move for you and your firm.