Crushing the 175-Day Challenge with Josh Dorcey
Imagine the possibilities if you could enjoy a three-month break every year. Picture yourself exploring new destinations, spending quality time with loved ones, and indulging in hobbies and passions. The key to making this dream a reality lies in assembling a competent team to support you. When you have the right people in place, what once seemed impossible becomes entirely possible. The essential ingredient is trust. By entrusting your team with the responsibility to run your practice smoothly, you can take an extended break, recharge, and return with renewed energy and focus.
In the latest episode of Great Practice, Great Life®, Josh Dorcey, founder and managing partner of Dorcey Law Firm, shares his secret to more time off with Steve. Despite starting his practice during a recession, over the last 15 years, Josh managed to grow it from a solo operation to a firm with 12 attorneys and 42 staff members. One of the keys to his success is his willingness to take time off and trust his team to keep the business running smoothly. Josh firmly believes that positive constraints and trust are crucial to creating a productive and thriving workplace culture. By providing his team with the same courtesy of taking time off, he fosters mutual respect and trust that enables his firm to continue to grow and prosper.
Josh also shared:
- He doesn’t use a traditional workweek. Instead, he operates Wednesday to Wednesday, allowing him to work in both weeks and create revenue.
- Using positive constraints means putting your time off in your schedule. Start small with a two-day weekend if you haven’t done this before. Each time you go on vacation, make it just a little bit bigger than the last time to eventually get to the amount of time you want to be away.
- Josh’s team always has access to him if needed, but they have instructions not to contact him unless there are extreme circumstances. Instead, he sets aside blocks of time for them to get in touch with him while he’s out of the office to address any non-urgent concerns.
- He wants to be a mentor and coach to his staff. Josh worked for a brilliant attorney early in his career who demoralized his team. He decided when he founded his practice that he didn’t want to be like that and instead strives to encourage and motivate his team and create a different culture.
If you want to learn more about the 175-day challenge, check out https://atticusadvantage.com/episode028.
Steve Riley
Certified Practice Advisor & Attorney
Steve Riley has coached attorneys for more than 20 years. His one-on-one coaching focuses on a limited number of top producing attorneys committed to taking their practices to new levels of excellence, profit, and personal success. He also presents at group coaching workshops around the country for individual law firms, state bar associations, and other legal organizations.