The question of alternative career options for lawyers comes up a lot in my work. What I often see are lawyers who are busy practicing in their day-to-day, trying to squeeze in their personal life, and aren’t entirely satisfied with their careers but find a large part of their professional community doing the same.

 

Maybe you feel like there’s a lack of information about what else is out there, or find it hard to access those resources. Maybe you start looking for alternatives and your initial discoveries aren’t that fruitful.  Perhaps everything has been lockstep in your journey up to this point, and stepping off the beaten path feels completely foreign to you.

 

Have you had a bad experience with mentorship? Do you find it intimidating to put yourself out there and approach people with a mentoring request? The truth is even if you’ve had a not-so-great experience with mentorship, it doesn’t have to stay that way, and it’s also a step that can accelerate your career trajectory.

 

This week, I’ve got two very special guests on the show. Jessica Forman and Sarah Ewart are both employment lawyers and workplace investigators who work at Forte Workplace Law, and they’re here to talk to us about mentorship. Jessica happens to be Sarah’s mentor, so you’ll be hearing the ins and outs of mentorship, both from the perspective of a mentor and mentee.

 

Last week, you heard part one of my conversation with Yanique Russell, Siobhan Lennox, and Gina Alexandris: three amazing guests who each has expert insights and unique perspectives to share on the topic of internationally trained lawyers in Canada. 

 

As we dive into part two of our interview today, we are getting into even more challenges internationally trained lawyers face while going through the process of qualifying and becoming licensed to practice in Canada. Yanique, Siobhan, and Gina are sharing their favorite strategies and resources to help you along. 

 

This week, you’re hearing part one of a two-part interview on a topic that will be an infinitely valuable resource for many of you. If you’re a lawyer trained outside of Canada and want to learn what the process is like to practice in Canada but don’t know where to start, you’re in the right place. 

 

There are so many internationally trained lawyers who are navigating the system, but when there’s no singular process that works for everyone, carving out your own path becomes extremely challenging. The good news is I have a panel of three amazing guests who each has a unique perspective on the topic of internationally trained lawyers in Canada, and I’m quizzing them on it all today. 

 

How are you currently engaging with social media? With a plethora of different platforms available to us, you’re likely splitting your time across them all. LinkedIn is probably one of those you regularly check, but it’s also very likely that you aren’t leveraging it for your business as much as you could. 

 

Louise Brogan is a LinkedIn Marketing Specialist for professional services companies who has over a decade of experience helping small businesses thrive on LinkedIn, and she’s also an international speaker, writer, and host of the podcast LinkedIn with Louise. She found that her time on LinkedIn resulted in not only closer connections but also more money far more quickly than other channels, and she’s here to offer her expertise.

 

Welcome to the final part of our series on executive function and time management! So, you’ve made your plan, gotten started, managed to stay focused on your task or project, and now, it’s time to finish what you started, which also ties in perfectly as I wrap up this series.

 

Even if you’re working on a task or project that you love, you might find it challenging to actually finish it. You’ve gotten so close to crossing the finish line, and yet, you feel discouraged, sidetracked, or bored before you do. Maybe you feel the desire to abandon the task altogether. Maybe you finish your task but start nitpicking and questioning if it’s good enough.

 

Now that you’ve heard how to save time before you start a task and how to overcome procrastination once you’ve started, in part three of our series on executive function and time management this week, we’re diving into all things focus and sustaining your attention. 

 

Whether you’re working on a long-term project that is going to take a few years, or a shorter-term project with a deadline soon, a lack or loss of concentration is extremely common. We all have distractions in our lives that pull us away from our task at hand, and this is where the executive functioning skills of sustained focus and impulse control step in.

 

Last week, you heard part one of our series on executive function and time management as it relates to you and your legal practice. I introduced you to what executive functioning skills are, how to leverage yours, and what to do before you get started on a task to save time. And in part two this week, we’re diving into the next phase: getting started.

 

Procrastination is heavily tied to your executive function skills, and all humans procrastinate when it comes to tasks we don’t want to do. If you find yourself putting things off, doing tasks with your hair on fire, and generally experiencing a stressful work environment, you’ll find this episode helpful because you’ll learn how to identify the executive functioning skills at play, and how they might be showing up for you. 

 

As a lawyer, your ability to access higher-level thinking and use your executive functioning is vital, not only in the work you do, but also in the way you manage your practice. Since many of my clients want more tools to help them leverage their executive functioning skills, this is an area I’ve been doing additional training in as a coach. 

 

So, today marks the first of a four-part series where I’ll be diving into executive function and time management. If you often find yourself feeling stressed or reactive as you execute a project, or embarking on a goal feels time-consuming and messy, you’re in the right place because I’m guiding you through how to set yourself up for success before you even start.

 

To celebrate the start of 2023, we’ve been having a bit of a New Year theme happening here on the podcast. We’ve discussed creating sustainable success with your resolutions and being courageous moving forward, so if you’re looking ahead at the goals you want to achieve, changes you want to make in your practice, or transformations in your personal life, I’ve got you.

 

Whatever you choose to set your heart on this year, the reality is that you are going to need to make some difficult decisions. Whether it’s a decision you have to make in your practice, a new direction you want to go in for your career, or a decision you’re making about a personal relationship, the purpose of today’s episode is to provide some strategies to help you along.