Thursday, November 19th, 2009
Here in Vancouver this week the Canadian Bar Association’s Women Lawyers Forum held another successful event. Linda Robertson, President of the Women Lawyers Forum, kindly offered the following summary of the event:
“The Women Lawyers Forum held their Second Annual Awards Lunch on November 17th and it was as successful and inspiring as last year’s event. There were 175 in attendance at the Sutton Place Hotel and the feeling in the room was one of warmth and enthusiasm.
Two outstanding women lawyers were recognized – Kathryn Berge, QC received the Award of Excellence and Brenda Edwards received the first Debra Van Ginkel, QC Mentoring Award. Both women received standing ovations when they went up to accept their awards. The speeches by the nominators and the recipients highlighted how far women lawyers have come over the past decade and the power of mentoring. Brenda ended her speech by saying that when asked how she finds the time to mentor so many women, she said that “mentoring feeds my soul.”
The guest speaker was Carole Taylor who has recently joined BLG as a Senior Business Advisor. She spoke about her personal journey from a teenager working in broadcasting to Minister of Finance and all the stops along the way. She encouraged women to take the broad path in their careers not being afraid of accepting positions for which they may not feel entirely ready and to look at all the opportunities in the community and elsewhere that bring a diversity of experience. Too often we focus just on the next step along the promotional road and not what we can learn outside our jobs.
It was an inspiring event because of the outstanding women present at the podium and their openness is telling us about their personal career paths and how it lead to their success.”
As a coach I am often asked about what make the “best investments” of non-billable time. As Carole Taylor underlined in her presentation – it is valuable to take the broad path. The broad path means to look for opportunities to learn new things and broaden your horizons. It is important to stretch a little beyond your immediate knowledge base and skill set.
My thanks to Linda Robertson for sharing some of the highlights of the The Women Lawyers Forum Second Annual Awards Lunch with us.
Posted in Leadership, Mentorship, Women lawyers | Permalink | No Comments »
Monday, November 16th, 2009
Law firms are deserts of positive feedback. At so many of our law firms no news is good news and critical feedback is the only kind going around.
As a lawyer coach I am a woman with a mission: To help make our law firms better places to work. One of the most powerful tools for accomplishing this is something called positive acknowledgement.
Positive acknowledgement is about giving the gift our attention by recognizing when someone has done something well. Positive acknowledgement works when you notice someone’s strengths or what they have accomplished and you tell them that you have noticed and why it’s important.
Whether you are a coach, partner, associate, administrator, or librarian, all of us in law firms have the opportunity to set off a simple but powerful shift in our law firm cultures with this one simple action.
Here’s my request for you — start bringing rain to the desert. Make the determination to offer at least one piece of positive acknowledgement to someone you work with once a week. (To those of you who are already good at this my congratulations and please keep it up!) Read more
Posted in Appreciation, Leadership | Permalink | No Comments »Monday, July 20th, 2009
My July article for the Canadian Legal Blog Slaw.ca was all about work-life balance or more exactly the myth of balance.
The word balance is misleading. It seems to indicate a quantity goal, with a focus on the amount of time being spent on either side of the work-life equation. The exact amount of optimal home time and work time will vary from person-to-person and day-to-day. I like to think that it is not so much a question of quantity but rather the overall quality of our entire life that is important.
What is the quality of our work life? What is the quality of our personal life? When both activities are fulfilling we have an abundance of energy. When one or both are draining we run into health issues and performance challenges.
Instead of work-life balance can we just talk about work-life enjoyment?
For those of you exploring questions of work-life balance and enjoyment there’s now a CBA resource dedicated to it. Thanks to Connie Crosby’s post in Slaw.ca for alerting me to this resource. It’s packed with great articles, links and other resources.
Ultimately, work-life balance is a personal matter. Getting the work-life equation right is a key component of developing a productive, fulfilling and yes, successful life. It’s not about being a slacker. It’s about being a high achiever by creating the life you want to lead.
Posted in Leadership, work-life balance | Permalink | No Comments »Monday, June 15th, 2009
As a lawyer coach I am all about helping clients develop the habits that contribute to personal and professional success, so I was very excited when an advance copy of Paula Black’s “The Little Black Book: Lawyer’s Guide to Creating a Marketing Habit in 21 Days” arrived in my mail box in May. Paula has done it again! Anyone familiar with the books in her Little Black Book Series knows that she has a gift for providing solid, act-on-it-now resources for lawyers. Her latest book is perhaps the greatest: A day-to-day guide to getting and sticking with your own marketing habit. Designed to help lawyers integrate marketing into their daily lives, this book is quick, easy and inspirational.
Paula invited me to take part in her special book launch promotion. For the next 48 hours Paula Black will be offering an impressive opportunity to anyone who purchases “The Little Black Book: A Lawyer’s Guide To Creating A Marketing Habit in 21 Days.” Readers who purchase the book will receive “The Smart Lawyer’s Toolkit,” a compilation of advice from more than 30 of the most sought-after experts in the legal arena (including myself!). Click here for details.
I’m buying a second copy of the book today so that I can get access to all those great bonus resources!
Posted in Leadership | Permalink | No Comments »Wednesday, March 25th, 2009
As we move deeper into 2009 one thing I know for sure is that many lawyers, law firm staff members and clients are facing deep uncertainty. So many of us feel we have lost control; that larger forces are at work. At this time more then ever it is important to come to grips with what we can influence and impact.
We all have a leadership role to play in our organizations. When we catch ourselves complaining about the system, about how decisions are made and how things are done it is a good time to come to grips with our own responsibility for making a positive contribution.
Some people might say: “I’m not the boss; I have no power to change anything”. Certainly at times we all feel that way but this is rarely the whole truth. I had the opportunity to interview leadership effectiveness trainer Robert Gilfoyle to ask him for his thoughts on leadership. He opened with the statement: “Leadership is an action not a position. “ Leadership is not about the role we hold in an organization; rather it is about the action we choose to take.
For more of my interview with Robert Gilfoyle please see the full article on slaw.ca.
Posted in Leadership | Permalink | 1 Comment »Sunday, February 22nd, 2009
What are the qualities of successful law firms whether large or small? One is that they have leaders who know and capitalise on their fields of strength and recognize the territory beyond.
President Obama knows this well. It was one of the strategies he used early on in his political career. When President Obama first became United States Senator from Illinois in 2005 he courted Washington veteran Pete Rouse to be his Chief of Staff. In an interview with the CBC’s Passionate Eye Rouse recalled Obama telling him:
I know what I am good at. I know what I am not good at. I can give a good speech but I don’t know anything about what it takes to get established in the Senate.
This is the quality we see in the most successful law firms. These firms recruit the best administrative advisors and then give them the power to lead their departments and advise the firm on strategy, process and management.
In this Sunday’s Globe and Mail, columnist Wallace Immen interviewed Syndey Finkelstein, Professor of Leadership, and one of the authors of Think Again: Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions and How to Keep it From Happening to You. Finklestein commented:
It is important that leaders have sounding boards – people who do not have the same pre-judgement and who will push back and challenge and not be afraid of pointing out contradictory facts.
This is where some law firms go wrong. They invest considerable amounts of money, time and effort into recruiting the top marketing, financial, human resources and administrative directors and then the firm leadership proceeds to ignore the advice of these hand-picked professionals. It’s a standing joke in the legal profession that for administrative professionals to get a point across to their law firms they must hire expensive consultants to carry the message.
My advice to law firm leaders: Take a page from President Obama’s book. Understand that intelligence operates in fields. Recognize your strengths and learn your weaknesses. Surround yourself with the best advisors and listen and reflect on what they have to tell you.
Posted in Leadership | Permalink | 1 Comment »
