Stress and Burnout in Law Firms
Leadership Challenges and Choices
Published: 2022
Pages: 224
eBook: 9781787428621
This Special Report is written expressly for professional colleagues who want to work together in common cause to bring greater awareness to wellness needs and to minimise excessive stress or distress in the legal workplace, positively impacting workplace culture, professional relationships, firm reputation, talent retention and profitability.
This practical guide summons lawyers, leaders and managers to greater alertness about stress-producing factors in the workplace and to more effective applications of practical responses and methods in the special conditions and circumstances of the practice of law in today’s often intense and highly competitive environment. It is written expressly for professional colleagues who want to work together in common cause to bring greater awareness to wellness needs and to minimise excessive stress or distress in the legal workplace, positively impacting workplace culture, professional relationships, firm reputation, talent retention and profitability.
Written by a world-recognised counselling psychologist, who has worked exclusively with the people and organisations in the legal services industry for more than twenty-five years, it focuses on actions, not theories and philosophy, that any leader and legal services organisation can begin to use immediately to make sustainable investments in the well-being of its people.
Table of Contents
| Cover | Cover | |
|---|---|---|
| Title Page | 1 | |
| Copyright Page | 2 | |
| Table of Contents | 3 | |
| I. A practical guide for leaders | 7 | |
| 1. High stakes and changing expectations | 9 | |
| 2. The key role of leadership | 12 | |
| 3. The goal of a supportive work environment | 14 | |
| 4. Acknowledgements | 16 | |
| II. Getting started | 17 | |
| 1. Defining our terms | 17 | |
| 2. Food for thought | 24 | |
| 3. Questions to help us get started | 25 | |
| III. Reluctance and commitment | 27 | |
| 1. Overcome reluctance to respond | 27 | |
| 2. Challenge what we think | 30 | |
| IV. Leaders as helpers | 39 | |
| 1. Understand roles and choices | 40 | |
| 2. Become more self-aware | 46 | |
| 3. Consider potential biases | 47 | |
| 4. Think about time differently and how to plan it | 51 | |
| 5. A case study in leaders as helpers: The Clique of Malcontents | 59 | |
| V. What leadership actions best prepare organisations for change? | 63 | |
| 1. Pay close attention | 63 | |
| 2. Stay engaged | 63 | |
| 3. Accept that power dynamics may create barriers to communication | 64 | |
| 4. Assume that feedback from others is necessary | 64 | |
| 5. Plan to communicate | 65 | |
| 6. Make the time to analyse and interpret data | 65 | |
| 7. Check in with each other regularly to get relevant information and show support | 67 | |
| 8. Remind ourselves that we are not always right | 67 | |
| 9. Set a good example | 67 | |
| 10. Take pre-emptive action whenever possible | 68 | |
| VI. Stay alert | 71 | |
| 1. Alertness in relationships | 71 | |
| 2. Alertness to current trends and information | 79 | |
| 3. Collect relevant data | 81 | |
| 4. A case study in relationship alertness:a well-informed, step-by-step response to a colleague’s emotional outburst | 84 | |
| VII. What do we need to know about talking with each other? | 97 | |
| 1. Lessons learned from leaders: talking with each other about stress | 100 | |
| 2. The function and dynamics of feedback as a stressor in organisational life | 104 | |
| 3. The importance of the professional compact | 114 | |
| 4. Demonstrate mutual respect | 116 | |
| 5. Use leadership feedback to improve the feedback culture | 117 | |
| 6. Have learning conversations regularly | 119 | |
| VIII. Improve internal communication structures and engagement | 125 | |
| 1. Through informal connections | 125 | |
| 2. How can lawyers get the greatest value from their relationship connections? | 128 | |
| 3. Through engagement with groups | 129 | |
| 4. Use the Four Stages of Competence model | 137 | |
| 5. Through the use of questions | 139 | |
| 6. Through mentoring | 141 | |
| 7. Use the status of current relationships to guide next steps | 146 | |
| 8. A word of caution: fixed mindsets | 154 | |
| 9. A natural strength: commitment | 157 | |
| 10. Can we be better? | 159 | |
| IX. Emotional competencies and effective communication | 161 | |
| 1. Basic assumptions | 161 | |
| 2. A leadership perspective | 164 | |
| 3. Committed leadership action: documenting behaviours as a first step in behaviour change | 169 | |
| 4. Documentation as a conflict management tool | 171 | |
| X. Shouldn’t conflict be avoided? | 173 | |
| 1. Building trust, confidence and optimism | 174 | |
| 2. Procrastination is not conflict resolution | 176 | |
| 3. Choose to learn | 178 | |
| XI. Systems thinking and a structured change process | 183 | |
| 1. No organisation is perfect | 183 | |
| 2. A case study in Anticipate, Plan and Execute | 186 | |
| 3. Three conditions for success | 195 | |
| 4. Pay close attention to the work climate, what it is and what’s happening in your organisation | 197 | |
| 5. Responding to complaints about stress: two case studies | 208 | |
| XII. Increasing our effectiveness as leaders in a stressful work environment | 213 | |
| 1. Question your current mindset | 213 | |
| 2. Balance optimism and pessimism | 214 | |
| Notes | 219 | |
| About the author | 223 | |
| About Globe Law and Business | 224 |
Lisa M Walker Johnson
Founding principal, Walker Clark LLC
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-walker-johnson-3a031145/
Lisa Walker Johnson's professional background is as a counselling psychologist, with more than 30 years' experience in senior levels of business management and consulting to corporations and law firms worldwide. As a psychologist with deep experience in law firm management issues, Lisa helps law firms to manage sensitive and frequently difficult change management issues, such as the integration and retention of lateral partners, leadership transitions between generations of partners, cultural due diligence during mergers, and the implementation of strategic change in the disruptive business environments confronting the legal services industry. Lisa has published extensively in these areas and frequently speaks about them at major international conferences for legal professionals.