From How to Who: The Question That Transformed My Practice
How shifting from "How can I do this?" to "Who can do this?" creates the mental space needed to build a thriving business.
I used to believe being a good lawyer meant doing everything myself: I thought only I could do things right.
This approach stole my evenings, sacrificed weekends and limited my practice to what I - and my exhaustion - could handle.
My mindset shifted after I read Gino Wickman's "Traction" and began adapting his Entrepreneurial Operating System principles to my practice.
Creating the Mental Space for Transformation
As I built processes and identified responsibilities for others, something unexpected happened.
Systems don’t just transform my efficiency - they create the mental space that strategic thinking requires.
Dan Sullivan’s "Who Not How" further crystallized this insight.
Most business leaders ask "How can I do this?" and limit themselves to current capabilities.
To unlock their true potential, Dan teaches the importance of asking instead: "Who can do this?"
This question works because it acknowledges reality:
you can't be excellent at everything, and
trying to be excellent at everything prevents you from being exceptional at anything.
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How This Transforms The Legal Profession
Here's why this shift in questions matters for legal professionals:
Energy Protection. Handle routine tasks yourself, and you're not doing high-value legal strategy work.
Time Economics. Spending 30 hours building a website to save $3,000 costs you $6,000 in billable time.
Expert Results. A social media professional achieves in weeks what takes you months of mediocre results.
Expanded Capabilities. Contract lawyers specializing in tax or real estate grow your practice without years of study.
Strategic Breakthroughs. Business advisors unlock solutions you'd never discover alone.
The “Who, Not How” framework has simplified many decisions I need to make in my legal practice. In my experience, starting is as simple as:
identifying your Zone of Genius - the processes, tasks and workflows that require your personal attention and energizes you,
then asking "Who can do this ?" for everything else:
Here are some examples of how this works in practice:
Technology decisions? Find someone who's solved this for lawyers with similar practices to yours.
Marketing challenges? Connect with professionals who can deliver the results you need within your budget.
Process improvements? Work with consultants who specialize in legal workflows.
Too often, lawyers and the legal profession think that success is the result of lawyers who do everything alone.
As my experience described above shows, success may be the result of knowing what you do well and who can do those other tasks.
The question that may change everything:
What would your practice or career look like if you only did what you do best?