About this time of year in my corner of the world, the tiny frogs known as spring peepers arrive in their millions. And millions. They’re countless, and everywhere. As you walk through the woods or near ponds and streams, especially in the evening, their sound is nearly deafening. For the few weeks that they sing,…
In the study of Alignment, one comes to understand that there are actually four different Alignments which interplay one with the other. These are the Communication Alignment, the Professional Alignment, the Business Alignment, and the Life Alignment. What we see is that individuals who tend to be aligned in one facet will be aligned in…
Somewhere in my boxes and binders of “practice development” material is a very old, very yellowed, page from the Canadian Bar Association’s magazine of the day. But although it’s easily forty years old, it’s as true today as it was then. Featuring a cartoon of a sports lawyer standing with his arm over the shoulder…
I’ve done a lot of posts, workshops, webinars, and platform talks about communication, so here’s a quick reminder of some of the key points we’ve covered: ● Shorter is better than longer ● When it has to be longer, chunk it up for easy digestion. ● Spellcheck and predictive typing can save your day. ●…
We all know people who are utterly indiscriminate in their love lives. “Any warm body will do” seems to be their motto. Fortunately, there are no such rascals amongst present company, Sadly, though, that test is widely seen in professional circles, in at least two important circumstances. First, far too many professionals are promiscuous in…
We began to practice law, the four of us, in the middle of the 1981 recession, and we were all broke. So, having acquired some office space and some ratty office furniture from the surplus store, we set about hiring our first staff member, a receptionist. What the four of us knew about running a…
Of all athletes, none are as far out as rodeo riders. Think of it– you’re dropped onto the back of an angry three-quarter ton bull or a hot bronco with one simple goal: stay on top of the unhappy beast for ten seconds. That’s all there is to it. Well, except for the part where…
This is neither to paraphrase nor parrot Simon Sinek’s wonderful book Start with Why, but rather to think about why “starting with why” is nearly always the smartest and most efficient way to figure out nearly anything. As a teacher, parent, coach, or mentor, inculcating the habit of “starting with why” is the best thing…
Once upon a time I knew a lawyer who hated being a lawyer. Actually, I’ve known many. But this particular lawyer was an especially sad case. The individual in question came from an immigrant family who believed in hard work and sacrifice. They expected each generation to achieve what their parents had not had the…
Many a professional career has been crushed under the tyranny of an addiction. I’ve known fine lawyers who ended up as broken drunks, clever engineers who became hopeless crack-heads, and wonderful doctors whose out-of-control sex drive tanked their practices and their lives. You know such stories, too. There is one addiction which is more insidious…