I love listening to a wide range of podcasts. They are guaranteed to keep me informed, help me to see other perspectives on important issues of the day, and even increase my vocabulary! For example, the other day I learned the phrase “vacuous agon”. Before I heard the definition, I just knew it had to [...]
I’ve noticed an interesting trend in current law firm activity. It’s slowed down, almost to a crawl. But it’s not the results of a change in markets for law firms. It seems to be a reaction to the tumultuous world around us. Trump’s on again, off again tariffs and uncertainty about their ramifications. The Canadian [...]
Decision-making is a key component of most leadership positions. Yet it can often be the leader’s greatest weakness, especially if they believe their job is to have all of the answers. This is particularly true of law firm leaders, who might believe the whole purpose of their role is to make those calls. Ultimately, a [...]
I’m a fan of CBC. I think the national communications platform plays an important role in our country. I see them as informative, insightful and strong in exploring information of importance to Canadians. And I love my podcasts, especially CBC’s weekday Front Burner. But today’s episode threw me. It speculated on how easy it might [...]
I was recently asked by a client to do a presentation to the firm’s lawyers on how to network during an event: a skill I call “working a room”. I’ve written and spoken about this skill so many times, I was shocked to find the I had not posted on this topic here. But then, [...]
A good portion of my coaching- from Managing Partners to individual lawyers - is about helping them to identify and fix areas of self-sabotage. This is particularly the case when they are faced with strong challenges, or issues they consider to be a threat. These moments can take them into their egos faster than you [...]
I live in Canada, but as a strategist, I’m fascinated by the lessons arising from the recent election down South. Specifically, I was shocked by how divided America is between two radially different ideologies. Honestly, they couldn’t be more different. And we’re facing the same thing in Canada. In BC, where I live, we recently [...]
Much of my practice is coaching Managing Partners, so believe me when I tell you I’ve heard and seen it all. This includes helping MPs to deal with the many different tactics their Partners and Associates might throw at them. On reflection, it struck me that sometimes, managing a law firm is a bit like [...]
I recently listened to a podcast called “Fail Better” featuring actor David Duchovny interviewing accomplished individuals and talking about how important failure can be. In this episode, he was interviewing Freakonomics writer and podcaster Steven Dubner and they posed the question: why is it that failure is the best lesson; why do we seem to [...]
Biden held onto leadership as long as he could. But when it became apparent that he had lost the faith of his party, and that he couldn’t possibly beat Trump in the Presidential election, he was convinced to step down. There can be tremendous strength in quitting a strategy, and trying something different. Lawyers, and [...]