What to do when marketing yourself makes you want to hide under your desk
Last week, a group of Female Lawyers’ Club members got together for a roundtable on marketing ourselves. I opened by admitting that the whole subject makes me want to hide under my desk, and that I’m sometimes the person who’ll spend far too long agonising over a two-line LinkedIn comment. It turns out I’m not the only one.
Is apologising gendered?
Occasionally the idea for a blog doesn't so much suggest itself as smack me in the face and insist that I write it. This is one such occasion.
This was prompted by three separate incidents in fairly short order. I was on the receiving end of suboptimal behaviour from three different people, and on none of these occasions did the person apologise. I say “people” when what I actually mean is “men”, and it gave me pause to wonder whether the propensity to apologise, or not, is gendered. I had a suspicion that it was, and this prompted me to look into it further.
This will stop you second-guessing yourself
"Know thyself."
These words were inscribed on the entrance to the Temple of Apollo at Delphi in ancient Greece, where people travelled from across the world to consult the oracle. The fact that this was the first thing they were asked to consider before seeking answers elsewhere feels about right to me. People have understood for a very long time that knowing yourself is one of the foundations of a well-lived life.
And yet most of us spend very little time actually doing it.
Confident or “difficult”? Depends who you ask
Last week I ran a session for Capsticks LLP on gendered leadership. 109 people attended, and around 20 of them were men. And at the end, the outgoing Managing Partner, Martin Hamilton, described it as "the best conversation on leadership we've had at Capsticks."
That’s going on the wall!
I would love to share the key messages from the session with you, because leadership in the legal profession is, in many ways, still catching up. When you find an example of it being done well, it’s worth talking about. Not just as proof of what is possible, but as a reminder to anyone working somewhere less enlightened that it does not have to be this way.
The question to ask before you say yes
Coming back in January after the break can feel like being thrown straight back into the deep end.
Targets reset, expectations stay high, and somehow we’re meant to be back at full speed straight away.
Last week in Female Lawyers’ Club, we hosted a brilliant masterclass with Vikki Pratley, former lawyer and founder of the StressLess Academy, on avoiding burnout while still staying ambitious and performing at a high level.