Performance at work

Lawyers – Are you fed up with stressful days and sleepless nights?

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The obsession with billable hours…

Many lawyers tell me they are becoming increasingly stressed at work. They do not enjoy their job and have no work/life balance. They are feeling really fed up and see no way out.

When I hear lawyers talking like this, I can usually predict the cause of this kind of stress and it normally comes down to targets and billable hours.

Each day a lawyer is faced with a battle against the clock of chargeable hours. Some days they win this battle and achieve their target hours and some days they do not. On the days they do not, they leave the office feeling drained and demotivated. After all, lawyers like to win!

When the days of winning become less frequent, the obsession with dividing the day into 6 minute units commences.

How have I only charged 6 hours when I have been sat at my desk for 12 hours? How can I stop writing off time? How can I ask for more work? Do I have time to waste a unit by making a cup of tea? How quickly can I run to the toilet?!

Slowly, the lawyer loses all perspective on life.

If you feel your stress levels are rising due to unachievable targets, please take some time to stop and review matters before you start counting how many units it takes to make a cup of tea. There may be changes you can make to your case load and working day that will make all the difference.

For example, if the hours you record are not a true reflection of the number of hours you have been sat at your desk, start making a detailed note of what you are doing during non-changeable time. Whilst doing this, have a think about the following questions:

  1. Do you need more work? If so, arrange a meeting with your boss to discuss your workload.
  2. How do you structure your day? Are you working in a productive manner or do you find yourself flitting between different tasks? It is very difficult to focus and record time accurately when flitting between tasks. Ensure you allocate specific times of the day to answer emails, make phone calls and review your post. When concentrating on one task, do not allow yourself to get distracted by the phone, your email or anyone else.
  3. Do you write off time? If you feel a piece of work has taken longer than it should have, perhaps check with your boss before choosing to write off time. It may be a piece of work that required you to take a long time.

As you become more productive, your billable time will increase and you will be able to enjoy life out of work again.

As an alternative, should we all be thinking about scrapping billable hours and target hours? According to Roll on Friday’s firm of the year, this is one of the reasons Slaughter and May usually rates higher in the work/life category than other Magic Circle firms. Perhaps this is the way forward?!

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BREXIT – THE END OR THE BEGINNING?

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Brexit has triggered an explosion of emotions over the past week. On Friday 24th June it was announced that 52% of the UK had voted to leave the European Union. This meant that 48% did not want to leave and it is these 48% who are feeling shocked, angry and confused.

This result has triggered a reaction that has exposed us all to an intense build-up of negative emotion. It is surrounding us in everyday conversation and on the news. My Facebook thread has been dominated by unhappy and angry posts written by family and friends who feel really passionate about our country and care about what happens to our future. Through no choice of their own, the change and uncertainty which lies ahead has caused them, as well as millions of others, to feel fearful.

However, it is this fear that makes individuals feel even more out of control and anxious about their future. It is this fear that stops individuals from achieving the things they want to achieve. It is this fear that causes unhappiness.

I have already seen the impact this is having on some individuals and feel really sad about this. This is why I was so relieved to read Dr Rebecca Edwards’ recent post on Facebook. Rebecca is a very good friend of mine and extremely committed to her political views. This is her request:

‘If today you are feeling outraged, harness that energy and get involved in politics. There is great political uncertainty ahead, with changes in leadership in our political parties certain and a general election in Autumn most likely. We need people to step up and act as our representatives and for many more voices to be heard. Join a political party (even if it needs changing from within), write an informed blog piece, take part in a protest, deliver some leaflets or talk to a neighbour about why your viewpoint matters. Let’s take politics back.’

My request is similar. I now challenge you to decide what your positive beliefs are in reaction to Brexit and to start acting on these beliefs to move you forward towards an inspiring future. It may be a change to your personal life, it may be a career move or it may be, as Rebecca suggests, a political move. No matter how big or small, start making positive changes.

Some of you may now be thinking I am being unrealistic and there is nothing you can do anyway.  Yes, it probably feels like everyone is being unrealistic at the moment and there is not much happening to spur us on. However, isn’t the negative climate we are currently living in an even bigger reason to be driving yourself forward?

Being positive is the foundation for making good decisions, taking action and becoming top of your game. Please take action and create a fulfilling life for yourself.

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Five ways to achieve as a perfectionist

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‘A person who never made a mistake, never tried anything new.’ (Albert Einstein)

Are you a perfectionist?

Do you set yourself standards so high that they are almost impossible to reach? Do you frequently feel disappointed with yourself for not being able to meet the standards you set? Do you worry about what other people would say? Do you view mistakes as failure?

If you answer yes to these questions, you may be a perfectionist.

Being a perfectionist, does not lead to perfection….

A perfectionist sets themselves extremely high standards which are usually unattainable. Furthermore, when they don’t achieve perfection, they can spend a large amount of time criticising their efforts leading to feelings of frustration, anxiety and exhaustion. Their unattainable high standards rarely lead to perfection but instead lead to feelings of not being good enough and a fear of failure which can ultimately stop them from achieving what they want to achieve.

Does this sound familiar? If so, I am sure you would admit that these experiences can be very stressful and leave you feeling really disappointed with yourself.

Now let’s turn to the good news which is that anyone can be successful without being perfect. Let me tell you how…

Being successful without perfection.

If you find that being a perfectionist is stopping you from moving forward with your career or any other part of your life, please believe me when I say that there are ways to achieve without being perfect.

Have a think about something you would like to achieve but have not pursued for fear of failure. Perhaps it’s a career change, a promotion or a new hobby. Now have a think about how you can overcome your fear of failure. Read the following five ways which will enable you to move forward and achieve what you want to achieve:

  1. Stop thinking ‘I am not good enough’ and start thinking ‘I am good enough’. Nobody is perfect!
  2. Be constructive and don’t worry too much about the detail. Instead ask yourself, what is the worst that can happen? Accept that we all make mistakes and use these to help you move forward (rather than feeling rubbish about yourself). How can you do it better next time?
  3. Be kind to yourself and lower your standards. You can still set high standards but make them achievable.
  4. What small step can you now take? Allow for some imperfection!
  5. Celebrate your achievements! Enjoy it!

Remember, you can be excellent without being perfect!

 

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3 steps to turn your fear of rejection into career success

tessaarmstrong.co.uk fear of failure, job search, Performance at work

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I recently watched a very amusing and informative TED talk by Jia Jiang titled ‘What I learned form 100 days of rejection’. As we all know, fear of rejection is extremely common and can surface anytime, anywhere and to anyone. It prevents us from trying new things, stops us from achieving our goals and pushes us away from what we really want in our life and career.

In his talk, Jia Jiang talks about how a fear of rejection can arise from misunderstandings. When being rejected, we often run away wrongly assuming we are the reason for the rejection. We don’t ask questions, we don’t engage in conversation and we don’t find out the true reason. We close the door to discovering other possibilities and we achieve nothing.

I can remember applying for a training contract as a trainee solicitor and being faced with a pile of rejection letters. Each letter took away a small chunk of my confidence and it felt like a personal attack on my personality and ability. I could have given up but I now know that these jobs were simply not right for me. There was in fact one firm I really wanted to work for and so I persevered with the application process and was successful. The rejections had taught me that the competition was tough and so I needed to work extra hard to achieve.

How can we all turn rejection into opportunities and success?

Jiang’s solution to overcoming our fear of rejection is simple and can be summarised in three steps:

  1. Embrace your fear (Don’t run)
  2. Ask the right questions (Don’t assume)
  3. Turn your findings into opportunities (Don’t stop)

It involves a desensitisation from the pain that rejection brings (step 1) and asking for what you want (step 2).   It is through asking the right questions that we can discover the true reason behind the rejection and uncover further opportunities (step 3).

‘When you get rejected in life, when you are facing the next obstacle or next failure, consider the possibilities. Don’t run. If you just embrace them they might become your gifts as well.’ (Jia Jiang)

To find out more, watch his talk and listen to how Jiang proved the success of embracing rejection by setting himself a challenge to seek out rejection for 100 days. It is only 15 minutes long and will certainly engage you in how to overcome the fear of rejection in an encouraging and inspiring way.

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Four ways to feel happier at work

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We have all felt unhappy at work at some stage in our career and can recognise the impact this can have on our life. Work misery can dominate home life, friendships and health making your work-life balance all about work and little about play.

If you feel unhappy at work, you have a choice. You can keep doing what you are doing, making work misery the norm and something you ‘just have to put up with’, inevitably leading to high stress levels and further misery.   Alternatively, you can focus on making positive changes at work, giving yourself the chance to be happier.

To help you make some changes at work, I have set out four focus areas:

  1. Support – Are you getting the right support at work? Ask for help when necessary from colleagues and managers.
  2. Expectation – ensure you are clear about what is expected of you.
  3. Working hours – are you working long hours? Think about your work pattern and spend time focusing on your productivity. Are you taking too long on some pieces of work? Do you set aside specific time for admin tasks? Do you sit at your desk stuck on a piece of work instead of asking for help? If necessary, speak to your manager about your workload.
  4. Challenge – Are you challenged enough? If not, perhaps talk to your manager about obtaining more work. Can you be given a different project to work on?

Through making small changes, bigger changes will start to fall into place making you feel happy at work once again.

Remember – if you keep doing what you are doing you will keep getting the same result.

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