The legal sector is immersed in countless changes and significant challenges. Lawyers now need to acquire new skills, not just technical ones, to become leaders, effective communicators, and manage their teams with empathy and excellence. Is executive coaching for lawyers the magic elixir lawyers are looking for?
Coaching is here to stay in the legal sector. Lawyers want to advance their skills, implement new tools in their practice, and become the best lawyers for their clients and the firm.
Coaching is all the rage. However, it’s important to understand what it entails so we don’t get confused, know how it works, and when we might need it .
Coaching, according to the International Coaching Federation (ICF), the largest international organization that regulates the professional practice of coaching, is an ongoing professional relationship between a coach (the person who provides the coaching) and a coachee (the person who receives the coaching session ).
This relationship helps individuals achieve extraordinary results in their lives, professions, businesses, or companies. Through this concept, individuals deepen their self-knowledge, increase their performance, and improve their quality of life.
In addition to this definition, coaching ‘s fundamental pillar is that people are whole, creative, and resourceful. People are the experts in their own lives and, therefore, do not need advice or recommendations; they only need to reflect, clarify, and define their own goals, as well as stimulate self-knowledge.
Coaching is important in a lawyer’s development. Professional practice is demanding, competitive , and difficult. Therefore, it is essential to have the resources and skills to successfully manage cases, resolve situations while leading teams, and manage one’s emotions in the most efficient and effective way, thus achieving the highest performance for both the lawyer and the firm.
Coaching provides much–needed skills in a lawyer’s daily professional life. Let’s look at some of them.
The art of knowing how to listen
Listening is fundamental to the practice of law. Pressure, stress, and the demands of our business can make it difficult to properly listen to what a client, a team member, or a partner might be saying. This can result in a lack of understanding or communication with collaborators and partners, as well as a failure to generate empathy and trust with clients.
Active listening involves paying attention not only to a person’s verbal communication but also to their nonverbal communication: how they say what they say, the emotion in their words, their tone of voice, and, more broadly, everything that happens in the environment during the conversation.
A good lawyer must have a holistic and active listening ability, whether in the office, in a meeting with a client, or in a courtroom.
The art of knowing how to ask
Questions are fundamental in coaching , and they are also fundamental for the lawyer. A lawyer must know how to ask questions, not only to conduct cross-examination in a procedure, but also to gather information during the first visit with a client, to understand a situation occurring in the office, and to foster relationships with partners and colleagues.
Effective questions are open-ended, seek to elicit information, and begin with adverbials such as “how,” “what,” “which,” “why,” “where,” and “when.” These are questions designed to allow the person to express everything they want. These questions help the lawyer better understand the case, the workings of the firm, or the perspective of a colleague or partner.
The art of knowing how to manage and know yourself
Lawyers are not emotionless people. Practicing law without emotion often leads to a loss of empathy with clients and colleagues. Especially at the beginning of your career, it is essential to learn how to manage the stress and urgency of a firm, and the moods of your clients. To do this, it is not enough to shield yourself from the emotions of others; you must also have good self-awareness and good emotional management skills.
The art of leading teams
Coaching leadership involves building cohesive teams, in which lawyers are given confidence, autonomy, and feedback, enabling them to develop their professional careers within the firm. Good leadership will help the firm retain the best lawyers and offer better client service.
All of these skills are essential in coaching and in the legal profession. Therefore, coaching has much to contribute to the legal sector.
Lawyers want to achieve their maximum professional development, and to do so, they need time for reflection and to ask themselves questions that can help them establish their own roadmap for their career:
- How do they want to practice their profession?
- How to run a law firm, how to begin their professional journey, or
- How to regain a breath of fresh air and motivation after years of practicing in such a demanding and challenging profession.
At a time when the legal profession is poised to become a dynamic and socially impactful field, fully adapted to changing times, lawyers need to move forward.
Coaching is a conversation about possibilities, direction, and a vision for the future—a much-needed conversation in this period of change that the industry is experiencing.