I’m fresh off of a 12-day whirlwind business trip.
I traveled 14,983 miles over 19 flights and 1 bus trip. I visited six countries (while transiting through a total of 11 countries). I didn’t get very much sleep or eat nearly enough. But I certainly accomplished the goals that I set out to when I planned this trip, even if I might not organize six flights for one day the next time around.
Continue Reading Do we Deserve to Thrive…and not just Survive…at Work?
This Friday, I have the pleasure of joining some fantastic legal industry colleagues on a panel at the Legal Marketing Association’s Northeast Regional Conference. We’ll be addressing the topic: “The Best Influencer is a Good Story” and you’d better believe it’s one of my favorites. I’m tickled to be speaking with one of my favorite people, Adrian Lurssen, Co-founder, VP Strategic Development, JD Supra, and joined by the brilliant Paula Zirinsky, Co-Founder & Chief Strategist, Structura Strategy Group LLP who is moderating the panel and Steve Cohen, Partner at Pollock Cohen LLP, who is delightful and will tell us all about how he ended up going to law school at 58.
Continue Reading The Best Influencer is a Good Story
There are two sides within me that are constantly at war.
I think it stems from the one and only Barbie outfit I ever really liked (I was a stuffed animal gal – and still am). It was this pink velveteen skirt on one side that was really put-together looking (with a matching suit jacket, of course). And on the other side, it was a hot pink tulle party skirt. You know, so Barbie could go from day to night.
I have never owned anything like that as an adult, but frankly, it sounds really practical for business trips.
Continue Reading We are Messy and Imperfect…and That’s Okay
I am blessed with four of the best nieces and the best nephew around (and I will fight you on this).
Weekly, I have video chats with the two oldest ones, who are 13 (almost 14) and 11 (separately, because, teens/tweens).
The other day, 13 and I were talking about how she had to give a speech to her whole school (about 200 kids) because last year, she created a recycling program. Somehow, her school didn’t already have one, and she noticed that and decided they needed one. Uh, yeah, she’s amazing. So she rounded up some kids in her class, told them they could miss one lunch period a week, and figured out what she needs to do to make this happen. This year, her principal is going to oversee the club (I think because she knows it won’t continue after my niece graduates otherwise).
Continue Reading Being a Good Leader Means Knowing When to Ask For Help
It’s the dregs of August. It’s hot and humid. You may be in the office or you may not be. But if you are, this may be the time of year when you start to feel…stuck.
August is like the 4 pm of the day, the Sunday of the week, and while there are beautiful descriptions of how to languish in a porch rocker, listening to the crickets and cicadas while sipping a cool drink as you watch the condensation slowly make its way down the glass…I am not an August person.
Also, some of us may be stuck in the frozen tundra of an air-conditioned office and not sitting languorously anywhere and so the need to feel “unstuck” is a very real one – alas, for me, my home office is the hottest room in my house, so that’s not me either. I’m more like an office hobbit, hunched in front of my laptop, dreaming of crisp fall days and pumpkin-spiced lattes (only a week away!).
But, I digress.
Continue Reading Two Ways to Become Unstuck
Yadira Flores is a partner in Fogler Rubinoff‘s Business Law department and is a member of the firm’s Indigenous Business Law practice group. Myriah Graves is the firm’s Director of Professional Development and formerly a litigator with the firm, who began as an articling student there. In this episode, Lindsay speaks with Yadira and Myriah about the impact of the pandemic on women, both generally and in the legal profession, how the return to work and continuing of hybrid working may continue to disproportionately affect women and their opportunities for advancement, and the ways in which young lawyers have also been impacted. This was a fun and fascinating conversation.
Since 2019, I have had the pleasure of being involved in the Empowered Women’s Event series as a committee member, with our organization as an in-kind sponsor. The event focuses on storytelling and according to event founder and host, Susan Freeman,
Stories have a transformative power to allow us to see the world in a different way than we do if we just encounter it on our own. Stories are an entry point to understanding a different experience of the world. Storytelling, presenting a different perspective of the world, is important when it comes to connecting with each other. It gives us an opportunity to learn from another person’s experience and it can shape, strengthen, or challenge our opinions and values. When a story catches our attention and engages us, we are more likely to absorb the message and meaning within it than if the same message was presented simply in facts and figures. When someone tells their own personal story, we catch a glimpse of a view of the world that may be slightly or radically different from our own. When we see the world as they see it, or walk in their shoes, the experience can inspire empathy.”
I wrote a version of this post a few weeks ago when the Supreme Court draft was leaked and I was thinking about it again this morning as I was having trouble concentrating because of the massacre in Uvalde, Texas. I know I’m not unique in feeling this way – I’ve talked with friends and other professionals here in the US who are having a really hard time this week, those who are parents and teachers especially. I am neither, but I do have a ten-year-old niece, whose face I can’t help but superimpose over all the victims as I consider the goofy and earnest conversations we have over FaceTime each weekend, how much she loves her stuffies and her family, how hard it was for her mom, my sister, to send her and her older sister to school yesterday morning.
Continue Reading Human Connection: The Most Important Role We’ll Ever Have
My title today comes from Luvvie Ajayi Jones, whose new book Rising Troublemaker: A Fear-Fighter Manual for Teens, comes out today (yes, my copy for my oldest niece arrives today too). Luvvie is one of my favorite authors, speakers, self-professed “troublemakers,” and the reason I’m mentioning her today is that the book I’m currently reading has me all fired up and her words this morning brought me some comfort (more on that shortly).
I’m reading The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts by Richard and Daniel Susskind. And if you know me at all and follow this blog, I’m sure you’re wondering how such a book has got me in a lather – truthfully, I agree with almost all of the predictions in the book, which is unfortunately terribly dry and academic (Richard already has me blocked on Twitter for some unknown reason, so this post won’t fix our relationship). I’ve read his other tomes in earnest and enjoyed his previous speeches, but I am trudging my way through this manual from 2015 like I’m wading through oatmeal.
Continue Reading What Makes You Different is Your Superpower
Many of you who read this blog will know that last week, there was a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion on Roe v. Wade that indicated that the Court plans to overturn it.
I have a lot of feelings about this leaked draft, as a woman, as an American, as more information continues to come out from states around my country. Those feelings have often made it difficult to concentrate and focus on the things I would like to, to be as driven as I normally would be as my very rights are in question.
Continue Reading Lessons in Leadership: Supporting Real Humans