Many days, I spend my time dealing with one upset after another. It might be an upset client or, equally likely, an upset employee.

There’s always some problem, and we’re fighting fires from start to finish.

This client doesn’t like her lawyer. This lawyer can’t get along with that paralegal. This lawyer thinks that lawyer fails to understand reality, and on and on and on.

I spend much of my time focused on the problems because those are the issues brought to my attention by the people involved.

I don’t have time to focus on the stuff that’s going well.

I don’t spend time talking to the happy clients. I don’t spend time talking to the lawyers closing file after file and generating great client satisfaction scores on our surveys. I don’t talk to the people who show up and do their jobs without complaint.

That’s not good, and I’ve got to change it.

I need to spend much, much more time talking with the people who are doing exactly what we’ve asked them to do and doing it well.

I end up talking to the person who wants to complain about something rather than the person who just set the new monthly record for closing files.

I end up talking to the person who’s considering leaving rather than the person nailing it with perfect “10s” on our client satisfaction surveys.

I end up talking to the person who’s failing to earn a sufficient income and complaining about why we don’t pay her enough rather than the person who produces the highest return on investment in the firm.

I need to focus on the happy people, the productive people, and the people who are making our clients happy. More time with them will be good for them and good for me. Where is your time going? Who are you talking to?