legal sanity

Lawyer burnout is a topic I’ve repeatedly covered here from various angles. We all know that this kind of career-fueled depletion is not exclusive to the practice of law. It occurs across a range of professions and industries. But, the hard truth is that lawyer burnout is so pervasive that it’s become the functional equivalent of an environmental hazard – law firms will not be able to sustain themselves if they don’t do something to cap and abate the rampant lawyer depletion in their ranks.

Knowing that this is a subject of great interest to me, my friend and fellow lawyer David Abeshouse directed me to a New York Magazine issue focused on the science of burnout. In an excellent cover story titled Can’t Get No Satisfaction, Jennifer Senior chronicles the evolving study of career burnout, from its roots in the “caring professions” of the 1970s to its affliction of the best and brightest in today’s buttoned-up corporate culture.

One of the most interesting points the article makes is that we’re often told that each of us – as an individual – is responsible for monitoring and dealing with our own burnout. Yet, researchers have found that this push to self-help misses the mark because burnout within a business or organization really “says more about the employer than it does about the employee.” So, it makes sense that new burnout studies are focusing on workplace environmental factors that cause and alleviate this kind of employee depletion.

Interestingly, the piece highlights this factoid concerning the legal profession: “Of the 75 law firms surveyed in New York in The American Lawyer’s recent survey of mid-level associates, the firms ranked No. 1 (Dickstein Shapiro) and No. 3 (Patterson Belknap) had one thing in common: They both received perfect scores on their attitudes toward pro bono work.”

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I’m taking some time off for the upcoming holiday. I wish everyone celebrating a very happy Thanksgiving. I thought I’d leave you off with a sampling of posts and articles that provide some great food for thought on managing the people that law firms rely on for everyday success.

First up is a post from Client Service Insight that relays a story-excerpt from a book called The Leadership Challenge. The story is about a young girl who, when asked why she’s learning sign language, explains that she’s doing so to better communicate with her best friend, who is deaf. Continuing, the girl says: Now “I listen with my eyes and my heart, not just my ears and my brain.”

The ability to listen to others with our “eyes and heart” is a great leadership asset. This heart quotient is also considered in a recent article from CareerJournal.com called Business Is Personal, So Managers Need to harness Their Emotions. The piece quotes one of my favoriite authors, Daniel Goleman, who states: "Good [manager-employee] relationships act like vitamins, while bad ones are like poison -- undermining our cognitive efficiency and creativity."

Last, but not least, on the roster is this mediate.com commentary on Deceiving Others. In it, author Manie Spoelstra explores the act and art of lying - a topic that “has captured the attention of managers” given the recent spate of highly publicized business deceptions.

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The rainmaking roundup has become a fairly regular feature here.

The latest round of commentary on this popular topic includes this CareerJournal.com piece on Networking Strategies for Shy Professionals. While it focuses on the hunt for a new job, the article’s tips apply equally well to the type of networking-for-client-generation lawyers typically engage in under the rainmaking umbrella.

The tips compel us to think of networking as “using shared interests to develop and maintain mutually beneficial relationships.” Considered in this light, networking is “as natural as eating and sleeping. Whenever you talk with others and seek their opinions to make an informed decision -- even if it's just to find a good restaurant, movie or electrician -- you're networking.”

The piece goes on to suggest that reluctant rainmakers “connect” with their passion – a “product, service or cause” that excites them. Focusing on these passion-driven interests allows us to “talk with conviction and insight, which can reduce [ ] networking jitters.”

For more insight into buoying the reluctant rainmaker-networker, you can check out the article I wrote for the Legal Marketing Association on Fearless Networking (pdf).

For another interesting perspective on rainmaking, you should read Bruce Allen’s commentary on How to Become an “A” Player Attorney. Among the pearls he shares are:

· “Be principled, honest, giving, open-hearted, and dedicated to helping other people achieve their dreams.”

· “Believe in yourself enough to be able to say, ‘No.’”

· “Treat people as if they are far more important and interesting [ ] than yourself.”

I’ve also found a lot of valuable information on rainmaking in blogger Jim Hassett’s new book, Legal Business Development. One of the points that really resonates for me is Jim’s emphasis on taking action instead of just planning and thinking. As I say: Ready, fire, aim.

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About six months ago, I discussed the new rules of engagement in the law. The post culled insights into the importance of looking beyond the mantle of people’s titles and roles at work to connect with the humans – and human needs, concerns and hopes – underneath.

Fostering this human-to-human skill set is a key part of any successful law firm employee engagement campaign.

I just came across a couple of blog posts mirroring this point. The first, titled See the Person Not the Role describes how Anna Farmery discovered the “awesome” skills and ambition of some of her former co-workers during an off-the-clock birthday party. Her experience led to this observation: talent often goes undiscovered and unacknowledged in a firm because leaders “do not ask, do not listen, [and] do not see past the tag of the job title.”

The second post, called Benefits, hails from the always-interesting Brains on Fire blog and represents the flip side of the engagement coin – how companies find “unique and authentic ways to appreciate their employees.” Citing an article about notable benefits some businesses offer their workers, the post concludes by stating: “taking the extra step to show your appreciation in a way that is true to the values that the company hopes to foster and share with its employees… that’s when you create authentic internal advocates [a/k/a employee evangelists] … and something truly special can be built.”

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In a very candid and provocative post, David Maister asks Are We Too Negative? This query stems from Maister’s observation that many blogs, including his own, focus on people’s flaws. Specifically, he notes:

“When you go visit other blogs, you see lots of criticism, complaints, cynicism and skepticism. You only see a very little praise and celebration of successes, triumphs and things done right. For every blog post or comment illustrating excellence, creativity, trustworthiness or professionalism, there are multiples bemoaning the lack of these things.”

The post has elicited a lengthy comment thread that’s well worth a read. What occurs to me after considering the commentary is that there’s really no point in being negative and self-flagellating about all this negativity. Rather, just calling it out is a positive step because it opens the door to a much-needed dialogue on what’s ailing the legal profession.

Like the larger culture, our profession is plagued by rampant pessimism that’s reinforced by heavy doses of bad news delivered daily by media outlets and firm leaders. Through my training and development work, I’ve come to see how this unhealthy diet of negativity has left many practitioners depleted and hungering for positive filling. They’re searching for some meaning at work and beyond.

This drive to redress negativity with an infusion of meaning and filling has deep roots. It’s the focus of famed psychiatrist Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy, “which identifies the search for a meaning in life as the primary motivational force in human beings." It’s also addressed by the field of Positive Organizational Scholarship. And, at the law firm level, the need to avoid depletion and gain positive energy is reflected in the rise of employee engagement initiatives.

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One of the topics I really enjoy covering here and in my training + development programs (now offered under the moniker Legal Sanity Learning Programs) is employee engagement.

Firms coming to grips with the prevalent issues of lawyer attrition, retention, succession and leadership deficits are waking up to this important topic and taking steps to discern to what extent, if any, their employees experience a meaningful connection to the firm’s culture and values.

I recently discovered a blog called The Engaging Brand from UK-based consultant Anna Farmery. I toured its archives and discovered much practical guidance on improving “company performance through the engagement of people.”

Farmery captures some of the basics of employee engagement in a series of recent posts outlining 4 Steps to Engagement. The steps, taken in turn, are:

• Attract (Part 1) and (Part 2)
• Motivate
• Inspire
• Engage

Farmery’s points are well made and she provides some excellent reference tools for law firms looking to create employee evangelists.

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Since posting about women in the law yesterday, I ran across a FC Now blog post addressing How Working Mothers Find Work/Life balance. It poses this provocative question: “can a woman work hard enough to succeed in her career without coming across as a negligent mother?”

The post refers to a Novemebr 1, 2006 New York Times piece titled Working Mothers Find Some Peace on the Road. Among many other points of interest, that article offers the following observation: “as hard as it can be to balance the demands of business trips and family life, for the relatively small group of employed mothers who travel, it [solo business travel] can be delicious.”

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A couple of weeks ago, I posted a roundup of sources addressing the legal profession’s gender gap. This post made for an interesting companion piece to my prior commentary on the feasibility of flex-time work in the law.

The more I speak with women lawyers participating in my Legal Sanity Learning Programs, the more convinced I am that firms are missing out on opportunities to listen to, engage and empower this vital population.

The cyber space is home to a vibrant and very candid conversation about the struggles and triumphs of women in the law and the larger workforce. What follows is just a sampling of the online dialogue that’s been generated in the short time since my last post on the subject. 

Over at Amazing Firms Amazing Practices, Gerry Riskin points to a recent survey (pdf) confirming that women are under-represented in the top tiers of our profession and play a less extensive role in law firm governance. The survey also found evidence of a compensation gap between female equity partners and their male counterparts. An article featured at law.com augments this discussion by sharing what several women lawyers had to say about the survey and its implications.

Lending a slightly different perspective to the topic is another law.com piece asserting that Women Hold the Keys to Their Success. It opens with this very upbeat assertion: “The keys to success are to create a supportive environment that allows time to focus on what has to be done and how it can be done best: to nurture relationships, build a team to support the endeavor and enjoy.” As the above survey connotes, however, the task of creating a truly “supportive environment” for women within a law firm culture may be a much more formidable challenge than this well-meaning article lets on.

Lawjobs.com also weighs in on the conversation with a very interesting article on law firm efforts to rehire alumni. A “dearth of minority and women attorneys in the upper echelon of big firms” is among the reasons cited for the rise in alumni programs aimed at “bringing back attorneys who leave for perceived greener pastures.”

Placing the subject in broader context is a csmonitor.com piece offering The truth behind women ‘opting out.' The coverage concerns two reports citing “a weak labor market and inflexible work policies as the main reasons women are staying home.” Some additional insight is provided by a CareerJournal.com article in which executive coaches offer tips on Grooming Women for the Top.

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