Investment in yourself – why are we reluctant?

 

When I was a practicing employment lawyer, the thought of paying for any training myself… in fact for ANYTHING myself was a foreign consideration.  Courses, lunches, petrol, networking etc was all paid for by my firm. 

 

Today the inspirational and award-winning entrepreneur, author, influencer and women’s activist, Jane Frankland, said to me

“…[people] need to invest in themselves, until then they are dependent and controllable [by their organisation].”

 

I wholeheartedly agree!  Why do we, lawyers in particular, look to our firms so much for development, rather than seeking it out and investing time and money in ourselves independently.

 

For me, not investing in myself away from the workplace left me vulnerable to burnout, which cost me three months absence from work, a grueling three months staggered return to the workplace, the loss of confidence and a lot of damage to my self esteem – none of which I identified with before I burned out.

 

Responsible Initiative

 

When working with lawyers, I often explore with them the mindset of Responsible Initiative; the idea that no one in the world cares about our career, our wellbeing or our lives as much as we do. 

 

We can suffer with impostor syndrome or risk burnout because we don’t take control of our destiny.

 

Dependence v Interdependence

 

During both my Fly Higher programme and Understanding and Managing Stress workshop, we explore what dependent behaviour looks like and how it impacts on us as individuals and the workplace.

 

Although sometimes being dependent is an appropriate behaviour, overall it is costly and draining to resources. 

 

Realising that in addition to this, it also brings with it a vulnerability to be controlled by our employer, it brings another layer to motivate us to equip ourselves with skills to operate interdependently with our colleagues and firms.

 

Leadership and Interpersonal Skills

 

For those of you who have been on any of my workshops will recognise this Dale Carnegie quote:

 

“15% of your earning potential comes from knowledge and direct skills, the other 85% comes from leadership and interpersonal skills.”

 

When so much of your future financial success will come from the skills most law firms don’t expressly teach you, what are you going to do to break the control and invest in yourself?

Why not register your interest for my free Master Class to unveil the seven key steps to Flying High in your career without working harder.

Register your interest here

 

 


About Vikki

After many years as a practicing employment lawyer and a founding partner of a successful law firm, Vikki suffered from burnout; recently recognised by the World Health Organisation as being caused by chronic workplace stress that is not successfully managed.  Vikki was inspired to help others to be high performers without risking burnout so retrained as a coach and licenced practitioner and founded her business, Skylark.  

Vikki now works with professionals, through speaking at events or on a one-to-one or group basis, to help them successfully manage workplace stress and create sustainably high performing environments.  Vikki has a wholistic approach to her work, always starting with the individual before equipping them with a tool-kit for success including a mindset, key skills and, for leaders, a process.