I’ve watched an amazing practice turn to mush here in one of the North Carolina markets we serve. It was a practice with the very best reputation. It was one of those practices that was always on the short list for the biggest cases. It was one of those firms that you couldn’t help but respect even if it had just run you over like a steamroller. The firm was amazing.

Either by deliberate calculation or accident, the firm had grown into one of the most respected practices in the state. I was always impressed.

This firm hired the best and brightest lawyers. The attorneys were always invited to speak at the continuing education programs. They had an amazing reputation at every country club, in all the bar associations, and among the leadership and elite of the city.

Then things changed. The firm dramatically shifted its marketing in a different direction. It went on television and radio. The firm revamped its website. The firm entirely changed how people perceived it in the market.

I’m not sure why the firm did it. Maybe business slowed a bit in the recession. Maybe some new lawyers gained influence. Maybe some persuasive marketers convinced the firm to shift directions.

Whatever the cause, the resulting marketing has been horrific. The firm has lost direction. It has changed its image dramatically. It won’t ever be able to go back. You can’t spend money on marketing and build the reputation for excellence the firm had before launching this most recent marketing campaign.

At one point, the firm was clearly about being the best and serving the clients with complex problems involving a great deal of money. Now, the firm is a TV and radio advertising mishmash focused on middle income volume cases. Suddenly, it’s just another law firm serving average, everyday clients. The big cases are going elsewhere. The firm isn’t on the short list anymore. It’s barely on the long list.

I hated to watch it happen. It’s painful to see such a well-deserved reputation tarnished by marketing. It wasn’t the marketing itself that hurt the firm’s reputation. It was the firm’s failure to do the marketing in a way that was consistent with a clear vision of the future.

How did it happen?

Let’s get back to my question in the headline: What’s your vision of the future?

I’ve asked that question of a fair number of family law practitioners lately, and I’m not getting many good answers.

“What do you want this business to look like in five years? Ten years? What should it look like right before you sell it or retire?”

Mostly, I’m getting a bunch of “Huh?” responses. At best, I’m getting “that’s a good question.”

Many of us visualize the future of our businesses in only very vague terms. We see them as bigger, with fewer financial troubles, and with more help getting the work done. We aren’t really sure what we want beyond those vague, shadowy ideas. We don’t have a concrete sense of where we’re going.

Of course, since we don’t know where we’re going, we have no idea how we’re going to get there.

My sense is that the firm I mentioned at the outset of this article didn’t have a good answer to the question. The firm just knew it wanted more business. It didn’t think about the impact of the new approach on its old business. It didn’t think about the impact the new marketing might have on its reputation.

That’s the consequence of failing to have a good answer to the vision question. If you don’t know where you’re going, it’s very tough to make good decisions about how to get there. You’ve got to spend time thinking about where you are and where you’re going. Doing that makes it easy to know what to do next.

If you don’t have a clear vision of the future, it’s easy to say “yes” to every salesperson offering a new website, TV commercial, or radio ad. If you haven’t taken the time to get really clear about what it’s all going to look like, you can’t possibly make good decisions.

What kind of firm to do you want to be? What do you want to accomplish? What do you want to provide for others? Where do you want to go? I could go on and on with the questions. It’s really not about the questions. It’s about the picture of your future firm that you have in your head. The clearer you get, the more obvious the answers become. You need answers because you’re making decisions every single day that affect the rest of your career.

Get clear. Take time and build your vision now so you’ll know what the heck to do as you move forward through your day.