JournalJournalhttp://attorneycoach.squarespace.com/journal/2008-11-07T01:51:39ZSquarespaceUsing Outside Transition CoachesThe Coaching Processhttp://attorneycoach.squarespace.com/journal/2008/11/6/using-outside-transition-coaches.htmlsgallagher2008-11-06T23:30:22Z2008-11-06T23:30:22ZOne of the ways law firms can adjust to today’s high-risk culture is by actually expanding one-on-one mentoring through the use of professionally trained coaches. With the number of “baby boomers” entering retirement age, these senior lawyers may become the talent pool you will need to enhance personnel development within the firm. For our purposes, coaching can be described as, “a process of helping someone enhance or improve their performance through reflection on how they apply a specific skill and/or knowledge.”[1] Coaching in the business setting is a one-on-one relationship to help people better use existing knowledge and skills to maximize performance. As a general rule, coaching is both person-centered, and system-centered. Successful coaching achieves positive change for both the individual and the system; i.e., the law firm.

[1] Sara Thorpe & Jackie Clifford, The Coaching Handbook: An Action Kit for Trainers & Managers (London: Kogan Page Limited, 2003), p. 1.

]]>Learning Communitieshttp://attorneycoach.squarespace.com/journal/2008/11/6/learning-communities.htmlsgallagher2008-11-06T23:16:36Z2008-11-06T23:16:36ZYoung professionals are looking for better ways to increase their worth to their organization, while at the same time, developing the transferable skills needed to enhance their own market value. Law firms are finding that ‘one size fits all’ training programs are no longer sufficient to enable individuals to keep-up with a new fast-paced, turbulent business environment. Today, law firms have to become learning organizations, where “longer-term human development is seen as a continual and integrated part of daily life.”[1]

According to Peter M. Senge, “learning organizations are organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to see “the whole” together.