by LAWPRO

resilience

A lawyer that is low on resilience is thin-skinned, defensive, and easily wounded by criticism. Even small things, such as a client or a lawyer not returning his call, will offend him.

The quote above is from LAWPRO’s recent post on resilience as a part of the lawyer personality. That post explains that resilience is a trait many lawyers score low in. This can sometimes have upsides (it makes them risk-averse on client matters) but frequently can leave the lawyer unable to effectively deal with setbacks.

Thankfully resilience can be a learned trait. The e-Course Resilience: Facing Life’s Challenges With Courage and Conviction by Homewood Human Solutions gives four ‘lessons’ for those looking to improve the way they bounce back from life’s challenges:

  1. What you think is what you get
  2. Let feelings be your teacher and not your master
  3. Behave your way to success
  4. Stay connected to people and passion

Each lesson features a real-life scenario of a person faced with a personal challenge, and advice/analysis from two experts on how the person handled the situation and emerged stronger.

The e-Course also suggests addition reading of books such as What You Can Change and What You Can’t and Adversity Quotient: Turning Obstacles Into Opportunities.

LAWPRO believes that helping lawyers improve their personal health and workplace effectiveness can reduce the likelihood of claims, and financially supports the Law Society’s Member Assistance Program (MAP), which is administered by Homewood Human Solutions (HHS). Homewood offers a number of e-Learning Courses that lawyers can do from their desks, and from time to time we’ll highlight one of them here on our blog (note that first-time users of the Homewood site will need to register before proceeding to the e-Courses)

Categories: Wellness and Balance