valuing your self in the practice of law
My recent posts about narcissism and self-awareness in the practice of law prompted a friend of mine to question the boundary between the two concepts.
This is a great question.
I’m not a therapist, won’t pose as one and certainly can’t give a clinical definition. But, I’ll share my layman’s take on the answer.
As I’ve noted here before, many people resist the notion of self-reflection and self-expression as vital business skills because it raises the specter of the robber barons of yesterday (and today) – people often pejoratively described as Self-Absorbed; Selfish; Self-Centered; and Self–Aggrandizing. While I understand why they make this connection, I believe it’s a faulty one. There’s a big difference between being a complete narcissist and infusing a healthy sense of self (an amalgam of our needs, wants, interests and values) into our work and workplace relationships.
People certainly can take self-awareness and self-expression to an unhealthy extreme such as narcissism. When they do, there’s no room for anyone else. There’s no give and take. So, there’s little to no chance of creating mutually rewarding and lasting relationships in business or elsewhere. But, the same poor odds hold when we try to cultivate business connections without putting our self into the mix. As I’ve also previously asserted, business relationships are as much about valuing and evincing our selves as they are about reaching and helping others. Both aspects (self and other) need to be expressed and honored to foster lasting connections for business success and satisfaction.
Highlighting this last point is a mediate.com article by Trime Persinger titled What Do You Want? In it, Persinger looks at self-expression as an important, but unsung, relationship skill. Noting that our “parents, our peers, and our culture have taught us that it is selfish to ask for what we want,” she discusses why we shouldn’t heed that lesson and offers guidance on asking for what we want from others.
Why wait until 2020 for reduction in green house gases? A contributing article.
Why wait until 2020 for reduction in green house gases? A contributing article.
The legal industry has an opportunity to fuel the “virtual employment” industry by designing work-from-home programs for secretaries, transcriptionists, paralegals, accountants, and the lawyers themselves. With internet technology, pdf/paperless office, electronic filing, remote access, faxes, cell phones, case management software (networked), email, computer aided dictation/transcription software and hardware, and all the superhighway infrastructure we have, surely, we can help the environment before 2020 comes rolling down the auto maker’s factories.
I’ve been working remotely/virtually for years, being a legal technologist, I just don’t understand why law firms are changing thousands of light bulbs every day, paying millions of dollars in parking lot space for employees, and supporting the silk tie and pantyhose market unnecessarily. Can you just imagine how many barrels of foreign oil is spent congregating all the legal support people in one building or office suite after millions of them have dropped off their babies at the day care center? All those empty houses during the day – tsk tsk – when they could be set up as satellite offices with handy technology, networking, cameras and instant messaging (don’t forget the online collaboration software as well!).
I fix computers over the internet. Yesterday, I had a request from a college student in Norwich, England – got his computer all fixed up from New Mexico, no problem. I also do law office bookkeeping remotely. They fax me everything each month and I email them a Quickbooks Portable file after everything is entered and reconciled. I do payroll online and have the checks direct deposited… all this without a pair of pantyhose in sight.
I’ve designed my work priorities to test all the ways people can save gasoline usage and “save the planet”, by NOT going to work every day. Because I have a lot of different skills, I beta test all of the available technology for usefulness, reliability, and practicality. Efficiency and economic savings are a given…. whenever you don’t have to pay for office space at $130+ Sq.Ft., or office utilities, or coffee and bagels (the list goes on and on), then you have just paved the way to changing the attitudes about work and the necessity to congregate in person every day for 10 hours a day.
Happy planet, happy people, happy babies, happy futures! Sad auto makers, sad oil refineries, sad oil-rich countries, sad lobbyists of all sorts…. I guess that explains it, nothing else does! We have an alternate route to get to work using the internet highway, now we need to put the map to good use.
Be well!
Gayle Kinsey
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Law Office Virtual Technology Support
RAMtech Consulting
http://www.ramtech.com