Career Assessment

What are you really paid for? How do you add value and produce winning results for your clients or employers? What do you do best and feel good about – when you are doing it? What do you really want in or from your career?

Whether you are starting in legal practice, have been practicing for a significant period or are looking for non-legal options, fully understanding and being able to project your most effective, productive and enjoyable gifts and talents is key to your long-term professional success. If you have never explored what your best career options might be ྭ(in or out of the law), now might be the time — even if you are satisfied now.

Long-term career design entails a full assessment of how you contribute value — to your clients, employers, partners and colleagues. Assessment can also include reviewing your values, life purpose and long-term personal goals — and the extent to which they are being honored in your current career. If they are not being substantially honored, you are likely to be experiencing some form of stress.

When you really “know” who you really are, and how you impact and influence others, you enhance your “Base of Personal Power.” This means that you can optimize your ability to be deliberately pro-active (vs. reactive) and “create-ive” in all you do. ྭBeing fully in charge of all of your career elements (and your life) is “New Millennium” common sense.

The Meraki Muse offers assessment instruments and evaluations designed specifically for attorneys, professionals and executive talent. These help you to develop your own personal profile — of what really matters — about you and for you. Supported by in-depth coaching sessions, you can put yourself in the position to make career decisions, and take supporting actions, that are right for you. In any transition, you need to be able to clearly articulate how you make a difference to those you serve — in addition to projecting your enthusiasm about what you value in yourself. In addition, when you receive offers, having fully assessed yourself puts you in a better position to assess whether the job is really right for you — and for the offering employer.

The Meraki Muse also helps you explore various careers attractive for JDs and attorneys. (There are more than you would think there are!)

Career Transition

If you are thinking about making a career or job change, the Meraki Muse can assist you in not only assessing your options, but in enhancing your ability to market yourself to potential employers or respond to new opportunities. A solid communications strategy is key to your success. The right marketing materials, strategy and presentation can make the ultimate difference. The Meraki Muse consults and coaches you on all these elements — to enable you to put your best self forward — with confidence and enthusiasm.

If you are considering non-legal careers and have an extensive legal background, you may wonder — why would anyone hire a lawyer for a non-legal position? Most lawyers offer traditional resumes or letters which merely list their employers and responsibilities. Typically, an employer is left to figure out for themselves how to assess your potential in a non-legal position. The process then stops dead in its tracks.

The key is being able to effectively market your transferable skills and the kind of results you create. You can enroll others to understand how a legal background is actually representative of the very non-legal skills they are looking for! The Meraki Muse helps you to do this.

Personal/Professional Development

You may want to create what you want in your current career. This can mean enhancing your effectiveness, visibility, reputation or value within your employment environment.

If you are vying for partnership, how do you best chart your course?   

If you are a new partner, and want to begin to build your own practice  and/or build a power base, how?

If you want to practice “in-house”, what are the skills you most want to develop?

If you are an in-house lawyer and want to transition to a business position — what’s the best strategy?

If you want to transition to another area of legal practice, how?     

If you want to enhance your professional reputation in the legal community  as an expert in your field — what should you do?

Once you are assisted with the “what to do’s,” ྭMeraki Muse coaching can help you stay in progressive action toward your goals.

Time Management

If you believe you never seem to have enough “time” to do your work or “have a life,” maybe there is a “smarter” way to work. Whether is an overly detail-oriented approach to ‘everything,’ poor delegational skills or not using the word “no” enough, coaching will help you develop better time management habits and assist you with managing the difficult clients and bosses who treat your time as though it is theirs.

If you have trouble setting boundaries on your time, hate to delegate, are afraid of delving into the efficiencies offered by technology, or define time as only “work” and “sleep,” you need a coach!

Life/Work Balance Issues

Having a life in the law can mean having no “life” if you work in a demanding environment and in the “responsive” mode most of the time. That’s usually because nothing can be done or delivered fast enough. When a spouse and children are in the picture, new dilemmas result — and a career’s progression and a cherished family life seem like opposite sides of a fence called “balance.” Very busy people, like lawyers, search for “balance” as though it is an elusive Holy Grail. Balance emerges in assessments and choices made — moment by moment. Coaching can help you make better decisions about structuring a work style and life style that creates more fulfillment — which is how “balance” shows up.

Sometimes the inherent design of a law job can prevent even the most creative or belligerent from working overtime all the time. If unhappiness and personal sacrifices begin to overshadow the future intended benefits, and a transition decision needs to be assessed — but where’s the time — then coaching can help to move the process along much more efficiently and effectively — because you get a partner.

Firm and Organizational Management

“People do make the world go round.” If you are responsible for building or managing a law department (whether in a firm or corporation), attracting, developing, managing and keeping your legal talent is not often attended to as well as the “deal” or the “litigation.” Lawyers were not trained to manage people — just issues and problems. Then there never seems to be the time to think about it, much less put energy into it. Typically, no one usually knows how to interview candidates to assess what really matters. Usually, you just want to know that they are nice (the pre-screened resume replete with the appropriate credentials absolves you from assessing real skills or propensity for creating winning results) and that they come highly recommended by someone in the firm or company.

• How do you know, beyond the Resume, the LinkedIn Profile, the Interview and your “instincts,” that the individual is truly right for the job, for  your organization  — or is really an efficient achiever or effective with clients?
• How do you provide career support and incentives to your good performers and develop those in whom you see clear potential?
• How do you know that the individual has the right skills, attitude and emotional intelligence for the job?
• How do you assess what your lawyers are best suited and motivated to do — and what best contributes to the business?
• Have you ever figured out all the actual costs (including opportunity costs) of recruiting, training and developing a lawyer who either does not work out, or is unhappy enough to leave or be wooed away?
• However, there is great “help” that can make selecting, developing and keeping the “keepers” easier and more cost/time efficient. Through learning about and using assessments tailored for lawyers and coaching, you can become a better managing leader. You can also offer Meraki Muse coaching to your lawyers who could benefit from external consultant whose only commitment is to the success and satisfaction of each client.

Q’s and A’s

What is Coaching? What are its Benefits?

Coaching is   not consulting, mentoring or therapy. Coaching is an interactive   and facilitating communication with a professional committed to your success   and satisfaction ྭ– purposed to put you into   Real Action to Create   What you Really Want, Based on Who You Are and What Matters Most to You.

You Can:

•          Gain Clarity in Direction and Vision, Discern your “Blocks” and move off  “Stuckness” and Fear — to take Definitive Action
•         Create Personal Goals and Boundaries which fuel your well-being.  
•         “See” and “handle” what deters or prevents optimum career performance or recognition — or what stops you in your tracks from growing.
•           Address Current Obstacles and Issues with poise, preparation and creative   solutions
•          Stay on track despite limited resources — of Time, Energy, Money
•          Create a confidential relationship with a committed “partner” in your success – who understands your experiences, shares a common   background — when those closest to you are the hardest to talk to…

How does Coaching Relate to Career Development?

The  Meraki Muse will personally work with you to explore and address:

•         What Attracted You to Law in the First Place? Recovering the Original, yet Buried Seeds of Your Personality, Gifts, Talents, Interests and Passions
•          Uncovering and Applying Your Transferable Skills and Interests
•        Creating Your Vision, Grounding Your Options
•         Dealing with “Stuckness” and Fear of Change or Failure
•         Assessing Market   and other Realities of Your Career Transition and Options
•        Creating and Executing a Practical Career Transition Plan
•        Restructuring and Launching Your Resume/LinkedIn Profile and other Tools for Career Transition
•        Learning how to Self-Market Effectively — Communicating from a new Platform of Personal Power
•        Targeting, Contacting and Influencing Prospective Employers
•         Entrepreneurship ྭr “Solo-ing” — Is it for You?
•        The Adjustments of Career and Life Transition for You —  and those Closest to You — including Financial Considerations.

Tell Me More About What Coaching Is…

“Coaching” is an increasingly pervasive and popular profession — with training and resources which have been developed successfully through coach training organizations and individuals with hundreds of thousands of clients benefits for over the last 20 years. Coaching provides a different vantage point through which to view your life (including those things   you normally don’t see) and to empower you to take those actions to optimize it.

What it means to be “coached” is to be in relationship with someone committed to your success and well-being — and who listens and responds to you in a way to facilitate you to:

•        Take Inventory of the Voids and Gaps in your Personal Well-Being and Create Methodologies for filling them
•          Get “Unstuck” and Release What Holds You Back from Being and Having ALL YOU WANT
•         See How You Really Operate in Life and actually move several notches ahead ྭ– quickly and with Focus
•         See and Honor Your Own Truth (Be in Integrity)
•         Challenge the parameters and paradigms which do not work in your life
•         Define, Set and Reach Attainable Goals — Faster
•         Be Grounded in the Present — Not the Past
• ·       Take Action, Not Just Talk About the Possibilities

Career Coaching for a “Meraki Muse” client is analogous to an athlete being coached — it means having the personal courage and willingness to Listen, Learn and Act accordingly.

Is Coaching Right For Me?

To determine if you could benefit from Coaching, ask yourself the following questions:

• Are  you at a point at which you are willing to “do what it takes” to “be, do  and have” what you really want in your Life?
• Do you have trouble defining, setting and achieving goals in those areas of your life requiring your focus and attention?
• Are you willing to be “present” and “tell the truth” at all stages of the coaching relationship?
• Can you handle honest feedback and challenges to “see differently?”
• Do you have a willingness to “try on” new paradigms, ideas and approaches —   as long as you stay in personal integrity?
• Are you able to devote the financial resources to coaching as an investment in yourself?
• Are you ready to commit to more than a month of time in a coaching relationship to improve the quality of your life?
• Would you view working with a personal coach as a sign of your wisdom, vs. a sign of weakness?

If you answered in the affirmative (whatever the degree) to all of the foregoing questions, then you can benefit from coaching.

How Does Coaching Work?

Any productive relationship, including the Coaching   relationship, is created by clear agreements and boundaries. The principal ones are Honesty, Keeping Appointments and Honoring or Addressing Commitments and Promises.

First, through a free, initial consultation, we will make a mutual determination to work together, and whether the relationship will be via the telephone or in person. After that, the First Session serves to set the goals and parameters of the coaching relationship and to elicit background information about you. We will establish a mutually convenient time to meet or talk on a weekly basis. Each session after the first would be up to 50 minutes, unless otherwise agreed.

Our weekly sessions will address your personal data, explore and handle your issues, formulate strategies, establish your commitments for action, celebrate your successes and handle setbacks or breakdowns. The time we spend together will depend  on your individual needs and goals, in addition to time frames.

The degree of success of our coaching relationship   is proportional to your own willingness to stretch your wings — with the   risk you may fall out of the nest from time to time — but with the motivation   to taking ultimate flight.

What Exactly Do You Do to Assist With Career Assessment And Career Transition?  Is it Just Coaching?

Coaching is the communication process used to facilitate your journey. Career Assessment and Transition is the journey.

The Assessment Process — Developing a Vision

 You may already have a definite picture of what you   want to do — and perhaps the particulars of what it looks like and feels   like.  However,  if you have “no clue” about what you can do, or what   you want to do, then we accompany you on the journey to find out. Through   a revealing, but gentle personal assessment process and your active completion   of several assignments, you will develop a clear profile of WHO YOU ARE IN   WORK, HOW YOU WANT TO WORK and the KIND OF WORK in which you will best   thrive. In addition, you will begin to see yourself in terms of the   Transferable Skills, Talents, Attributes and Preferences You Possess   — rather than a paradigm of perceptions called “a Lawyer.”

Creating and Grounding Your Options

Once we develop your Career Profile and Goals, we can begin to explore your options — the types of career opportunities available and their attributes. This is done through an exploratory process and   dynamic research. By this, we mean not just researching in standard   ways, but by employing informational interviewing — of people doing what   you want to do, or at least — pretty close!

You will have a plan of attack and the tools and   methodologies to open up conversations — so that your options can be grounded   — taking into account those factors that matter to you the most — namely the content of the work, the people, the remuneration and the contribution   you can make through your services.

The Resume/LinkedIn Profile — You are not just a Degree’d, Chronological credential   — You can Live off the Page…

If you are considering working with a career coach,  your resume/LinkedIn Profile is probably inadequate to transition out of law or your current  position. Why? Because you cannot develop and present an effective resume without having first gone through the processes described above. Without a clear assessment of what you offer and a vision of what you really   want to do, your resume is not likely to be an effective communicative tool   about you. Developing a resume, whether for legal or non-legal employers,  must be dynamically communicative about your potential value and contributions to the employer’s organization. Too often, resumes offer little but  factual information about your past, without offering a real picture of who   you are and how you can benefit the prospective employer.

Through self-inquiry and our interactive processes   with you, we can help you develop one or more resumes which communicate your   background and benefits — serving you more as a “talking piece” for the potential of a future relationship, rather than merely an outline of  your past achievements and jobs. In addition, our approach to resume drafting clearly demonstrates how your skills and accomplishments are clearly transferable and beneficial to the needs and requirements of a legal or non-legal position.

The Self-Marketing Process — Communicating from a Powerful Source — YOU

Next, it will be time to begin to create interview   opportunities. To do that, you must know how to communicate — how you, your skills and your gifts are a natural “fit” for the employer.  Or, if you are choosing a more entrepreneurial route — how to begin to create   a business and appeal to potential clients or customers. In either case, you cannot describe yourself as “just a lawyer” anymore.

What does it mean to market yourself? Who ever taught you how? Marketing and “selling” are nothing more than communicating   the benefits of a product (YOU) in a way to satisfy the needs or wants of the customer (the Employer). Marketing yourself employs the same concepts!   In truth, you are a walking, talking composite of benefits and skills —   able to solve the problems and meet the needs of an employer or a customer.   You will be coached on how to describe yourself, your goals and how you would contribute and benefit the employer. You will be coached on interviewing techniques and management, in addition to how to communicate in networking  situations and initiate contacts.

In addition, how you use your contacts is important.  Too often, job-hunters call contacts simply to inform them they are   looking, and if they “know of anything.” Imagine being able to engage in a conversation (by asking the right questions and providing a succinct   description of what you are looking for) which will generate real leads or ideas?

How to interest people in you — is the goal and the accomplishment of this part of the coaching process.

What happens while you are taking your steps  — and after you make the move?

Our coaching relationship can continue for as long  as you desire — to keep you moving through your career transition process   — particularly addressing those periods of “stuckness” — or even fearfulness   around leaving your current position, about being unemployed, or even about   managing those important relationships affected by your new initiatives.

Our coaching is available to “keep you in the game”  —until you win — and even afterwards — to maintain and improve on your   successes!

Suppose I don’t want to transition into another job or career?  Suppose I just want to better balance my life and achieve more satisfaction in my current job or other avocation?

The Meraki Muse was created by an attorney who wanted to address the coaching needs of attorneys — because it takes an attorney   to understand and appreciate the life and challenges of a Lawyer/JD. Coaching is also provided in the following areas:

•         Developing strategies to effectively address the pressures of legal work and difficult Clients/Supervising attorneys
•         Balancing the demands of work and home life / Time Management
•         Starting your own firm or business
•          Designing strategies for promotion/partnership within your firm or company
•          Transitioning within your company to a non-legal business position
•           Enhancing your interpersonal communication skills and effectiveness, including the impressions you make on your clients or juries
•         Unleashing inhibitors blocking you from “rainmaking” success or growing your clientele
•           Creating better office management efficiencies and strategic relationships to leverage yourself better
•          Anything else “not working” in your Life.

   How Much Does Coaching Cost?

The Meraki Muse offers reasonably priced, customized   packages for the JD/Attorney interested in career development, planning and   transition. Such programs may include some or all of the following: full personal and professional assessment testing and analysis, guided and facilitated  work as the basis of a transition plan, preparation of a career and marketing plan, regularly scheduled or as-needed coaching sessions, mock interviewing and preparation/review of resumes and other self-marketing   materials. The fees for our services and products are determined and based on individual goals and needs. A proposal would be provided for your review and agreement before commencing services.

All Package Fees are fully payable in advance. All monthly fees are payable at least 10 business days in advance of each month of coaching. All coaching sessions are conducted by Zoom (preferred) or phone.

How Do I Start?

Schedule a Discovery Call. Be prepared to share your resume or LinkedIn Profile by sending it to angelectra@themerakimuse.com. Let’s talk openly and frankly about what’s going on in your life and whether Coaching with The Meraki Muse will forward your intentions and goals.