Lawlady's Divorce Blog

Employee Departures

This week has been hectic at Lawlady Inc.  The bookkeeper gave her two-weeks notice.   The position she is taking sounds perfect for her, however.  She's moving on to a apprenticeship program that will allow her to train with an accountant mentor and prepare her to go out on her own as a free-lancer next year which is fabulous.  This is exactly the next step she needs to build her career. 

I think in the professional world people do not know how to move on with grace and aplomb.  Employees often stay over-long in a position, begrudgingly showing up each day, bringing a poisonous attitude to work rather than seeking something that really satisfies them.  Or, as employees leave, employers display signs of resentment that make it difficult for the employee to return and check in periodically. 

I think the healthiest companies can accommodate movement and flow of employment, both moving bad-fits out quickly and efficiently, but also maintaining everyone's dignity so that the work-world for both sides is as amicable and rewarding as it can be.

When the career side of our lives eats up so much vital life force, it's important that we conduct our professional dealings with courtesy and support.  I'm glad for our bookkeeper in moving on to something even more perfect, even though I'm disappointed to lose such a nice and hard working professional.

The world is a harsh place.  The way money flows around the globe we need each other for our continued financial success.  Given this great interrelatedness, it's important that we facilitate the movement and flow between employment.

I wish our bookkeeper well. She's been fabulous.  I hope she's enjoyed her stint here as much as we've enjoyed hers. 

If you know of a bookkeeper, we are hiring.

Essence at Work

I heard a charming speaker at the WBE meeting this week. Her name is Carol Sanford and she is with Antioch University, and also a consulting firm. She'll be doing a day-long workshop for the WBE on November 19th, about authenticity in the workplace. She helps companies conduct large scale change of toxic corporate systems. 

I found her presentation loud, bold, kind, and kinda on the edge.  She talked about Essence and the false personality we develop as a coping skill.  She was clear that we need to let go of our false self and learn to live from our Essence at work. 

The highlights of her presentation were:  1) pick a career objective so large in scope that you can't fathom how to get their with what you know currently, 2) only the career objectives that make us grow and learn are significant enough to warrant our time and attention, 3) personality tests suck in the work force. We are bigger than Myers Briggs.

I loved sitting in a large room listening to a forceful, enthusiastic, sort-of overweight woman give it to us straight.  Sometimes I think that the world wouldn't be in half the trouble we are in if hefty, substantial smart women could and would start speaking the truth about the way things are being run.  It's refreshing to get the bold, feminine perspective.

I highly recommend Carol's upcoming 11/19 presentation for about $50.  Sorry I'm too lazy to give you a link.

What do you know needs to be changed to make the world a better place?  What are you certain you could improve at work, or in the world?  What is your Essence calling out to do in the world?

Good questions from Carol Sanford.

Blog Business Summit's Blog Buffet!

This past Saturday I attended the blogging seminar put on by Blog Business Summit. 

Can I just say: the food was fabulous.  I missed the 1980's and 1990's technology hey-day, so I was not invited to the monster parties thrown by monster dot.commers.   As an attorney, we do not get anything at a continuing legal education events except for some Costco danishes, coffee, and possibly cokes and cookies in the afternoon.  At Saturday's event, we were treated to an OMELET BAR first thing in the morning. 

And at lunch, get this:  yummy chicken in a savory mustard-ish sauce, ravioli in a red pepper creme sauce, salmon  in a terriyaki-esque sauce,  polenta-style cheesy rice,  cold Chinese soft-noodle salad, potato salad, balsamic vinaigrette salad, .... the list goes on. 

Why they don't mention this feast in the literature is beyond me.  If I were the head of marketing at Blog Business Summit, I'd do a banner ad:  Weight Watchers, Save Your Points for This Weekend's Blog Buffet!  My only disappointment was eating the salmon patty in the car on my way there.  Who knew the food in store for me!

More on the actual course contents later.

Business Hall of Fame

My personal band of heroes at the moment are:  Seth Godin  (for marketing), Keith Ferrazi  (for networking),  Julie Morgenstern  (for organizing), and  Dan Pink  (for  business trends).  It's hard to find them presenting. They are not frequently scheduled to speak at events open to the public.  I wish they were. I'd like to see each one in person. 

But you are lucky if you live on the East Coast.  Seth Godin has just announced that he will be presenting in November  in New Jersey for $99.00. Here are more details about the half-day event.     I'm sure the event will be worth it.  Go if you can. 

Dan Pink has his own spectacular offer.  He is in the process of  supplementing his book A Whole New Mind and is soliciting input for examples to include in his revised edition.  If you do something wise and right-brained in your work, you might want to share your techniques with Dan for inclusion in the next issue.  His book is already in its 7th printing and there is every indication that his trajectory will continue straight up, so this is an excellent opportunity for some free PR.  He's taking new ideas through October 31st.  Check out his site for details about submitting an idea. 

(Are you enjoying my frequent usage of links?  I do believe that providing them has doubled the time of doing a blog entry!  I hope I can shorte my linkage time.  And for those of you following my tech-dilemma-- I JUST figured out how to do trackback. I had to sign up for PLUS service, to use it.) 

A new way of calendering

Here is a career/ life tip.  What would happen in your life if you listed events in your calendar as achievements, rather than to-do items?  So instead of saying you have a marketing meeting at 2:00, you said instead Completed the brochure and  approved the  Q-4 budget,  stated in the past tense as if you had already achieved the results. Would the visioning required to put the language into past tense make it more real for you?  Would you be more motivated and focused at the meeting knowing it was to complete the brochure and approve the budget, rather than the softer language of marketing meeting?

What would you feel like if you could sit down and read your calendar and see a series of accomplishments, rather than an onerous never ending list of tasks to complete?  Could that uplift your spirits to action and enthusiasm? 

I get tired of my never ending list of to-do items.  It gets defeating sometimes.  We'll never finish our to-do list. It's like waves on an ocean. We can anticipate more and more. 

Magazines

Entrepreneur Magazine

I don't remember ever seeing this magazine before. I saw it for the first time today at the grocery store.  The first article I opened to is an article about how a mild case of a mental health disorder can be good for entrepreneurs.  Asperger's, ADHD and Obsessive/Compulsive disorders can come in handy if you want to run your own business.  One book publisher was noted to say that if she has a busy week heavy with analysis, she'll purposely go off her meds to allow her disease to blossom.  A rush of OCD is good for getting things done with focus evidently. 

Getting Jacked about Getting Organized

Cleaning up and streamlining the systems of life and work increase our ability to handle greater engagements with the world and consequently galvanize unseen forces to fill the channels.  Increased capacity seems to unlock attractive energy that starts to permeate the organism or enterprise.  It invites participation from the world, at a deep and creative level. Conversely, unresolved issues and vulnerable systems will protect themselves by automatically and unconsciously stifling new input. 

From page 32, Chapter 11: The Deeper the Channel, the Greater the Flow from Ready for Anything:  52 Productivity Principles for Work and Life, by David Allen, the personal productivity guru according to Fast Company.

                                                                  ____________________ 

I break the spines of books sometimes. 

That's the moment when I really dig in and decide I want to learn something from that particular author.

Often I will buy books with the hidden agenda that I might return the book.  With those books, I don't eat while reading;  I slightly open the pages, hoping not to leave them permanently disfigured and flopped open.   With those inferior writings, I often get angry at myself the moment my greasy McDonald-fingers stain a page.  "Damn, just bought it, and I don't even like it that much."  Just got lazy with Book Buying Lesson No.  1  mentioned above.  Don't read and eat until you are ready to marry the book, so to speak.

But I know I have a keeper when I forcefully, break open the spine and start to do work to the book.  I did it just now with Chapter 11.  "Damn, that first intro quote is sublime."  I'd been resisting the temptation to line and double underline other passages. (I find when rereading new things are more interesting, and the old lines and double lines annoy me the second read through.)

That moment of cracking the spine is the equivalent to saying: "Shit, this dude knows something and I am paying attention!"

At this very moment, I am paying attention to Sir Allen (I like to think of authors as the royalty of America-- excuse me, good authors, that is.) 

If you are feeling out of control, unable to manage your obligations with calm, cool,  and collectedness, get one of his books.  I think he is on to something. 

What do you think he meant by that first paragraph I quoted above?

Let's discuss after you think for a while.  I invite comments from the four of you who read my blog.  (At this moment, I believe that consists of my employee who is paid to read and edit it, my best business friend who happens to be the blog's first and only fan, and the two unemployed lawyers who are tying to learn something from  me  about finding suitable and meaningful work.  Let's just say, the blog has a way to go in terms of readership!!  But I do appreciate the four of you who are keeping my numbers up there at the 7 visits a day rate!  -- I believe the other three hits are me.

As a complete aside to the aside, isn't someone supposed to discover my blog and link me to a site with a half-million viewers per day?  Or was that something I read in an internet fantasy novel?

Take care.

Have a splendid weekend.  Do yourself a favor and do something different.  The best way to break a routine is to see it from a new vantage point, like someplace you've never been to before, even if that is only the next street over on your weekly dog walk. Doing things differently doesn't always involved doing things hugely differently. Just differently.

In the bonds,

Stefani

Business Planning

Here's an odd confession:  I enjoy writing business plans. 

That wasn't always the case.

Those first 5 years of self-employment, I got the sweats thinking about "doing a business plan."  In my mind it was some awful college thesis.  Lots of footnotes and extra research.  Unfamiliar constricting sections to complete. 

My business plan writing finally developed out of fear.  I thought the Entrepreneur God would strike me down if I procrastinated any longer.  I used legal sized paper and hand wrote the plan with a pencil.  Not much came of the plan.  It sat on the shelf as I tried to remember to make my monthly billable goal.   

Last year, I tried a more strategic approach.  I started reviewing the plan periodically.  Funny thing.  It worked.  Just like they say.  Having the magic number in my mind seemed to make the numbers appear quicker.  I beat my projections.  That was a first.   So I set this year's goal at a lofty level. 

Backfire. 

I was so off track by February 1 that I kind of gave up. There wasn't any way I was going to  recoup and get close to what I had targeted.  Next I did what failed Weight Watchers do:  I avoided looking at the numbers, and ate what I wanted.   

Today, with the employees out for the holiday weekend and breathing room in my schedule, I found myself going upstairs to their offices to play.  Oh my gosh:  making the business plan was so fun.  Rather like playing Magic Money Make Believe.  Just how rich do I want to be?  How much can I pay employees? 

I think that's the right attitude to have when you face the dreaded business plan.  Laugh into its face.  What beautiful, happy future can I envision for yourself?  Heck, you can even write in big-ass vacations and chart out the ideal client work load.  You might even get a free gift from the Universe like I did by the unexpected call from my friend Lily.  "Start offering collaborative law services in the other areas that you don't normally practice in.  Refer in specialists to explain the law.  You provide the collaboration skills."

"Hum..."  That sounded quite delicious. 

So I added in another revenue line: $10,500... Collaborative business services. 

And then the expenses: 

Spa Retreat, Austin, Texas:  $6,000
Hawaii in November. Two weeks:   $4,500

Easy come, easy go. 

Jane's Long Road to Paralegaling

I am a great boss.  My workers would not agree. They hate it whenI am a good boss. The better boss I am, the worse they like me. 

Take for example what happened with Jane this week.  Really, it didn't happen this week. It's been happening for 5 months.  We did "consequences." 

Jane wanted to move up in duties from chief housekeeper to legal secretary/paralegal. Her first assignment in the transition was to hire or arrange for a substitute for her housekeeping duties. Just because she was moving up didn't mean we were moving away from housekeeping.  In fact, the housekeeping job was only going to expand. 

She did whatever it was that she tried to do to find a replacement.  She came back to me.  "I can't find anyone else." 

"Hum,"  was my response. 

She didn't schedule a meeting to discuss alternative ways to find help.  She didn't send out an all- firm memo to seek brainstorming solutions as to how one finds competant help. She didn't try to negotiate her housekeeping duties away onto someone else so she could move into the work she wanted more of.  She didn't try to arrange her non-work schedule - say for example stopping her volunteer job or her cheerleading practice- so she could do housekeeping at night and paralegaling by day.  She didn't come back to me to tell me how unhappy she was in her work and to talk over her feelings and frustrations. 

She acted professionally instead; smiled at work; distracted herself with non-work things to make life barable at work;  sought career advancement opportunities elsewhere, not at Lawlady, Inc.; and basically became miserable at work but was so clever, stoic and diplomatic I was able to forget she really wanted to be doing paralegalling. I actually began to suspect that she might just be a flakey-college girl who doesn't know what she wants and is happy with mindless shopping and food preparation tasks.  That work does allow one to come in hung-over and when you are 20-ish, finding a job that allows drinking binges is a perk. 

So here she was all frustrated.  She would complain to co-workers who reported back to me.

Being a good boss, I bided my time frustrated that the house work was not being lovingly attended to by someone who takes pride in his/her work; frustrated that the paralegaling was not at my exacting standards because it was being handled by the writer (not the job he was hired for) and the lawyer (not her work either). 

"Well, if she's that unhappy, she should come and talk to me about it,"  I would say to her co-workers.

"She's afraid of you," was what I got back.

"Hum."

So I waited, like a good boss.  Letting the tension build. 

I say that like I was the Zen-master sitting back with slanted-knowledgable eyes purposefully training my acolite.  Mostly I looked like an over-forty stressed-out freaky person with too many committments to worry about the inner-workings of a college girl who works for me 10 hours a week.  But the social experiment was set up.   

I never changed my first requirement for the job switch over:  Jane hires her replacement.  At Lawlady, Inc., we don't promote until the employee oversees the hiring and training of the replacement.  I'm not doing all that work, when the staff knows best what the job entails.  I said it once, which for some people might be too few times. But... Had I been asked about job advancement,  I would have reitterated, "find your replacement.  How can I help?"

Jane eventually got there.  The pain finally got so large it bubbled up.   The staff is meeting next Wednesday to come up with potential solutions to the dilemma, how do we move Jane up and attend to housework.  I'm curious to see what they come up with. 

She doesn't move on until task 1 is completed.  It's been an long, achey wait for her to master her first task at the new job. 

Mind Contol

I was reading on Headrush.typepad.com this morning (LOVE that site), that our brains love learning. We love learning.  In fact, once you become used to it, it is quite like an addiction. 

We're going to be learning, so the question is: What are you going to learn. 

Are you aware that your quest for learning can make you a mighty fine marketer/networker/friend/acquaintance/cocktail party attendee/dinner party guest?

The other thing about humans is:  we love to teach what we know.  And we all know way more than we need to know.  We we teach, we clean out the channels for some new learning to come in.  We're pooped out so to speak.  We're no longer in learning mode, we are in out flow, or teaching mode.

When you are in a stressed out,  I-can't-take-it-any-more  mode, check your knowledge inflow/outflow tunnel.  Adjust accordingly.  If you are feeling all clogged, heavy, stopped up, it's time to write, teach, explain, demonstrate, or otherwise move that wisdom on to some other hungrier mind.  When you are feel edgy, whiny, bored, unchallenged, bland, banal, consider opening up the flood gates and letting some new stuff  poor in.  If you are really svelte, figure out your own personal knowledge flow needs and set up systems that maintain your base-line health, as far a brain power goes. 

Brain power management is pivotal in this Wisdom Era (as better explained by Dan Pink in his latest book- did I mention he mentions me in it!!@!, but that's not why I plug it here- Whole New Mind,  Information Age to the Conceptual Age).  We can not be wise counsel if our brains are fried on overload.  Wisdom comes from keeping a relatively Feng Shui'd mind.  Little clutter.