legal sanity

As the holidays and New Year approach, many of us find ourselves considering where we are in our personal and professional lives. We take stock of our steps forward and back and try to envision our path for the upcoming year. In this article (pdf) from the premiere issue of Worthwhile magazine, Passion Catalyst Curt Rosengren offers us some great tips for reorienting our career compass towards more meaningful and fulfilling work. According to Rosengren, the process builds around (1) identifying our Passion Core - who we are and what "lights [our] fire at a core level;" and (2) making career choices based on that. The remainder of the piece addresses how to measure the fit between our current job and our Passion Core. If the fit is off, it might be time to move on and Rosengren guides us on identifying career options, mapping out an action plan and navigating obstacles in our way. Career transition is also the subject of this insightful post from Chris Bailey at the Alchemy of Soulful Work. In it, Chris discusses how "[t]oday's career reality makes it both easier to make the leap to another profession and harder at the same time."

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I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving festivities. In addition to family, health and wellbeing; I'm very grateful for the people, experiences and ventures (including this blog) that have helped me create a multi-faceted business that honors and furthers my larger life interests and goals. Looking back at my law student self, I see how much my perception of lawyer life and the business of law has changed over time. In that same spirit, this article (written with satiric flare) and this informative one offer us some interesting takes on navigating the crossroads of law school and the real-world legal profession.

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My friend, lawyer and mediator David Abeshouse, has a great article on civility and negotiations in the current run of GPSolo Magazine. David opens with the apt observation that the "degree to which one employs ordinary civility in negotiations often has a marked effect on the bottom-line result. It also can make life more pleasant, even in fundamentally adversarial situations." He goes on to note that the all-too-common tactic of venting with booming voice and expletives typically works against lawyers trying to negotiate favorable outcomes for their clients. It also negatively impacts our credibility. David ends by pointing out that opting for civility in our daily dealings can be infectious - when we treat fellow practitioners and business associates with common courtesy, they're more likely to respond in kind to us and others. In proper goose-gander form, the same edition of GPSolo offers this article providing tips for dealing with "the civility-challenged attorney or judge." It makes some solid points and includes handy references to Web and other resources available to help us decipher and report unethical conduct.

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In growing my training and development business, I've spent a lot of time cultivating my presentation skills through books and programs on communication, listening and learning. I've sampled a variety of approaches to distill my personal presentation brand - the mode of presentation that reflects how I best convey my message and how my target audience best consumes it. It's been a great education process. And it's one that I think many lawyers would benefit from regardless of their public speaking aspirations simply because: (1) most of us rely on communication and interpersonal skills to connect with clients and build our book of business; and (2) in developing our presentation style, we gain a deeper sense of our personal and professional ideals and goals. If you want to learn more about honing presentation skills, there's some solid guidance given by blog here, here and here. You can also take a look at public speaking tips and tutorials offered by organizations like this one.

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A few months back, I cobbled this post featuring rainmaking tips from several sources. The connection conversation continues with this new article compelling lawyers to cultivate a "network of endless referrals" by asking prospects "feel-good questions." This kind of questioning places the focus squarely on the prospective client instead of on ourselves and our "awesome services." The piece ends with a list of "feel-good" inquiries that includes the following:

How did you get started in your particular line of business?
What do you enjoy most about what you do?
What significant changes have you seen take place in your profession through the years?
What one sentence would you like people to use in describing the way you do business?
How can I know if someone I'm speaking to would be a good prospect for you?

I agree that a dialogue grounded in these kinds of questions can foster some great business opportunities. But, this approach presumes that the questioner is also a highly skilled listener. I've discussed listening as a key lawyering skill before. A similar refrain is sounded in this post on listening v. talking from Lisa Haneberg's great blog, Management Craft. For more rainmaking inspiration, you can check out the article roundup in this posting at The Job Blog. My posts here and here discuss the practical and insightful approach to business relationship building espoused by author, consultant and educator Keith Ferrazzi.You'll find a selection of his recent articles on networking and related topics here.

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I've recently come across several articles about legacy planning; a topic related to my discussion of ethical wills here and here. According to this post from the ThirdAge Blog, legacy plans can include practical guides like "a master list of what and where everything is and who to contact." They can also inform our estate's executor of our "last wishes concerning organ donations and funeral celebrations" and how we "want smaller personal articles distributed and to whom and the stories behind them." Legacy plans can pass along our personal and family stories, conveyed in writing and/or through photos. Finally, the plans can contain our "personal legacy statement." Akin to an ethical will, this statement is a vehicle for sharing who and what we value most in our lives and why. I think this type of planning would nicely augment the trust and estate services lawyers traditionally offer. By educating ourselves and our clients about legacy planning, we acknowledge the importance of expressing personal tales and heart-felt wishes and thoughts to loved ones while we still have the chance. If you'd like to learn more about the legacy planning process, you can take a look at this book. There are also online resources here and here. The latter Web site includes links to help locate professional personal historians near you.

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As I've shared before, I help people optimize their skills, success and satisfaction in the law through my individual and group coaching practice. It's an aspect of my work that I find incredibly rewarding. My coaching clients come to me for different reasons, but the greatest common denominator is a desire to claim, or re-claim, their power to build a meaningful and lucrative career that meshes with their real life interests and goals. Here's a new article from the ABA's Law Practice Management Section discussing how the legal profession "has been reaping the benefits of" executive coaching. Recognizing that law schools don't sufficiently equip today's practitioners for multi-tasking as "supervisors, rainmakers, and team and project leaders, as well as citizens of their firms and advisors to their clients," the piece lists some of the chief reasons why lawyers engage coaching. These include a desire to: "Build interpersonal and communication skills; Create a personal client development plan and learn skills to implement the plan successfully; Clarify long-term career goals and execute steps to achieve those goals; and Find ways to create more balance between work and the rest of life and increase enjoyment in the practice of law." The article concludes with an "action plan" for anyone interested in using a coach. The plan contains a couple of good resources for learning more about the coaching process.

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A recent entry from Dan Pink's blog alerted me to a great companion piece to my recent post about meditation and lawyering. The Council of the District of Columbia has recognized this week (November 6-13) as the District of Columbia Meditate DC Week. According to the official Web site, as part of the week's events "churches, synagogues, meditation and yoga centers around the metropolitan area will be sponsoring lectures, workshops, and open houses to explore the benefits of contemplative practices." This Washington Post article provides a nice overview of Meditate DC's offerings and happens to open with one DC lawyer's remarks that meditation has "improved her conflict resolution skills." That same lawyer, Susan Green, has organized a workshop for Saturday, November 12, 2005 at which a "panel of legal experts will discuss how meditation can help lawyers and mediators by boosting their 'mindfulness' -- the inner capacity of being fully aware of the present moment." You can learn more about that workshop here (pdf).

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From passion catalyst Curt Rosengren comes this post offering a quick checklist (adapted from this ThirdAge article) for assessing whether we're successful in our chosen work. Among the checklist's contents are these provocative inquiries:

"Are you enjoying what you do?
Are your connections with friends, colleagues and family strengthened by your success?
Are you proud of your accomplishments thus far?
In the process of achieving your goals, are you developing the qualities of kindness, self-respect, courage, compassion, patience, love and hope?
Do you feel more in control of yourself and your life?"

In another post, Curt provides helpful companion tools for examining career success: goal mapping templates (pdf). These templates allow us to explore our business goals through a free flowing stream of consciousness. After completing the exercises, we'll have written guides for achieving key goals that we equate with professional and personal success and satisfaction.

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No, this isn't the lead in to a lawyer joke. I previously discussed the benefits of meditating in this post and this one. Two meditation articles I wrote for the Solo Newsletter are now online here and here. They include a basic overview of the practice, simple meditation instructions and this invitation to quell your inner self-doubter: "The beauty of meditation is its accessibility. Anyone can meditate. You don't need to renounce your worldly ways, or even dramatically change your daily routine to reap the many physical and mental benefits of meditation. Best of all, you simply can't do it wrong." Meditation's rise as a mainstream relaxation technique is nicely depicted in this piece profiling companies that encourage and facilitate their employees' meditation practices.

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Posting has been sparse around here of late. I've spent a wonderful four days holding down the fort while my wife's enjoyed an out-of-town yoga retreat. In my spare moments, I came across this Fast Company article profiling some of the "favorite mistakes" made by the design team at OXO International, the award-winning makers of household items like these. The piece relates to the practice of law in many ways. We all can get lulled into a place of complacency where we quickly excuse our business mistakes without reflecting on them or seizing the opportunity they offer for positive change and growth. This perspective on mistake as a business aid is nicely captured in these words from OXO's president, Alex Lee (as quoted in the article): "Our wrong assumptions lead to the best learning."

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