wake up calls for lawyers and law firms
For some time now, I’ve been reading Pamela Slim’s terrific blog, Escape from Cubicle Nation. Two of her newer posts sound candid wake up calls for all of us considering the cause and effect of the rampant disengagement and attrition plaguing lawyers and law firms today. Her words are powerful and, judging from the response they’ve garnered in cyber space – including a big nod from blogger-of-note, Guy Kawasaki - resonate with many people contemplating their lives in and outside corporate America.
In her first post, Slim crafts a letter to the corporate leaders of the world. From her perch as a “newly minted rebel,” she address the drastic steps they’d have to take to help their “brightest, most creative, hard-working and passionate employees” resist her call to throw off “the yoke of lethargy, oppression and resentment” and start their own business. Among the nuggets of wisdom Slim offers are these: (1) “If you help your employees grow and develop in their career even if they plan to leave the company, you will create an extremely loyal workforce;” and (2) “Imagine what their life is like. Who is waiting at home for them? What kind of dreams do they have? What makes them really happy?”
In a later post, Slim writes a companion letter to the employees of the world’s large corporations. A running theme of her message here is that we’re ultimately responsible for our own misery and happiness. So, she says, people should plan for the long-term by considering what kind of work energizes them, where they want to live, how much money they really need, how much time they want to spend at work and the kind of people they want to be around.
Slim’s insights pair well with an article I recently read on maximum workplace engagement by Dean Robb, Ph.D [hat tip to the Be Excellent blog]. In it, Robb cites a recent survey finding that just “20 percent of workers feel very passionate about their jobs; less than 15 percent feel strongly energized by their work; and only 31 percent (strongly or moderately) believe that their employer inspires the best in them.” Based on these and similar statistics, Robb declares workplace engagement and commitment to be at an all-time low. The antidote for the dip, he proposes, is to cultivate a workforce of people who “actually care, emotionally and spiritually, about the purpose — the raison d'etre — of the enterprise, and about the part they play in it.” This connection to purpose, in turn, is rooted in an “authentic, two-way give-and-take between individual and organization” – an exchange that values the individual as a unique being and not just a corporate cog.
