President's Mmessage
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
September 2002 Inside this Issue ❖ A Careful Look At Track Changes And Send For Review In Word 2002 ❖ Career Corner ❖ Editor’s Corner ❖ New Members President’s Message new TLOMA year has begun. Although our thanks have already been ❖ President’s Message Aextended, I would be remiss if I did not start by thanking the departing mem- bers of the Executive Committee. Diane Carty, Karen Schrempf, Edmund Reid and John Gambles leave us this year after having made multi-year contributions. ❖ Premises Matters Also departing are our Section Heads, Tina Pack, Heidi Vesley, Laureene Lee, and Brian McLaughlin. TLOMA is healthier and stronger due to their efforts. ❖ Taking Control of Your Career At time of writing, your Executive Committee and Section Heads are about to meet to say farewell to departing committee members and welcome new partic- ❖ TLOMA 14th Annual ipants. The new committee members are listed, together with their contact infor- Educational Conference mation, at the back of this newsletter. Participating on various TLOMA com- mittees affords us a great networking opportunity. This year I will work with ❖ past colleagues and reconnect with people I know quite well. As an added Website Of The Month bonus, I will get to know some people on the committees that I don't know at all. You will notice that Edmund Reid is listed as a Conference Committee member for 2002. He just keeps on contributing. Schedule of Events If you are new to TLOMA, I want to encourage you to attend as many General Meetings and SIG Meetings as you can. We have good speakers and a great September 11-14 - network of people with lots of experience to share. It's your organization. Make Annual Conference it work for you. September 26 - Technology SIG October 1, 2002 - Executive October 17, 2002 - General October 23, 2002 - HR SIG Carole Paskin President Director of Operations Single issue: $5.00 Yearly Subscription: $25.00 Torkin Manes TAKING CONTROL OF YOUR CAREER EDITOR’S CORNER n today's rapidly changing workplace, only one person is Hello and welcome to another year of TLOMA today. I am qualified to make important career decisions: you. It is up honoured to have the opportunity to provide what assistance I I can to TLOMA and its members. My role as Secretary and to you -- not your boss, coworkers or senior management -- to Editor of TLOMA today will be a busy one and my success formulate objectives, develop a plan, and follow through with will depend on the contributions and articles I receive from the necessary steps to realize your professional goals. our membership and supporters. I look forward to getting to know many of you and hope we can continue to provide qualily newsletter that our former editors, Karen Schremp Think of it this way: You are the CEO of your legal career. and Susan Carr have provided over the past few years. I also Like any CEO, of course, you need to solicit advice from oth- look forward to their continued guidance. ers and, in many instances, rely on the expertise of people who have additional knowledge and experience. Ultimately, This past year has been a time of change for many of our members, including myself. I have had the pleasure of joining though, you have to make the big decisions. Lerners as Human Resources Manager after many enjoyable years with another firm. This change has been positive, excit- Here are some guidelines to consider. ing and stressful. We are creatures of habit and luckily I did- n't have to learn a new e-mail system, a new computer system • or a new telephone system as my two firms were very similar. Know where you're going. Successful CEOs invariably I did, however, have to learn to let go of some of my methods have a clear vision or direction for their companies. As the and procedures and learn new ones. Learning to work with CEO of your career, you also need a vision -- an overall goal new people - new lawyers, new staff, new managers - can be of what you want to achieve in the legal field. It isn't neces- exciting and rewarding. Keep an open mind and be ready to sary to cross every "t" and dot every "i" in the plan you for- adapt. If anyone is going through a change either one made by oneself or enforced, a positive outlook is imperative to suc- mulate, especially early on in your career, when you may be cess. exploring various options. But you need a general sense of what's important to you. That is, how successful you want to Our lives in the legal industry are constantly changing, we be, and what form that success should take. How you meas- are constantly adapting and learning to live and work within new boundaries. This is good for us. We grow, we flourish and ure your success -- by financial gain, rank, peer recognition, or we improve our skill sets. Resistance to change is self-defeat- personal satisfaction -- is up to you. What's important is that ing. If you are embroiled in change and are not enjoying it, you have a target that is more than a dream. pick up and read a book called, "Who Moved My Cheese?". It is light-hearted, very funny and very real. See yourself as • one of the characters. Be honest with yourself and have a Develop a plan. A common pitfall in career management laugh! (and in running a company as well) is becoming so bogged down with day-to-day priorities and pressures that you lose Our September issue includes the following articles: sight of the big picture and where you eventually want to go in your legal career. One way to guard against this pitfall is to Taking Control of Your Career create a strategic career plan, which is a broad outline of the A Careful Look at Track Changes and Send for Review in steps you need to take to achieve your goals. Every few Word 2002 months, set aside some time (two or three days at least) to reflect on where you've been, what you've been doing, and Premises Matters where you're headed. Make sure you're still on target with Many thanks to our contributors. respect to long-term career goals. If not, you need to make the appropriate adjustments. I hope you enjoyed your summer and that we will see you at Nottawasaga in September. • Make every job count. Every job you take as you Enjoy our September issue! progress in your career should be logically keyed to the goals you've established. When you uncover new employment opportunities, capitalize on them and run a success-driven job Audrey Isenor Human Resources Manager hunt strategy. And as an employee, you need to work effec- Lerners tively within your firm's culture and deal wisely with the polit- ical dynamics. Origins • Keep your life well balanced. It's much easier today than At local taverns, pubs and bars, people drank from pint and quart sized it used to be to stay committed to a career and still have time containers. A bar maid’s job was to keep an eye on the customers and and energy to devote to your family, your leisure pursuits, or keep the drinks coming. She had to pay close attention and remember your personal interests. Investigate opportunities for alternate who was drinking in “pints” and who was drinking in “quarts.” Hence the term “minding your P’s and Q’s.” Continued on page 3 www.tloma.on.ca 2 September 2002 Please contact: Carolyn Berger or Sharyn Linds 20 Richmond St. East, Suite 315, Toronto, ON, M5C 2R9 www.zsa.ca Tel: (416) 368-2051 Fax: (416) 628-7435 E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected] work arrangements, such as flextime, part-time employment, the concerns and motivations that lie beneath the words. And job sharing, and telecommuting. When they're compatible it's especially important, in this era of e-mail, to communicate with your job duties, these arrangements give you more con- as clearly, concisely, and persuasively on paper (or on-screen) trol of your time and help to ease the pressures that arise when as you do in person or over the telephone. the responsibilities of your career and your personal life coincide. • Expand your network. For most high-level executives, networking has played an important part in their career • Learn how to manage yourself. The typical CEO almost advancement. True, staying in touch with people takes time always operates in overload mode. Only those who have dis- and effort -- two precious commodities in today's workplace. covered how to set priorities and manage their time effective- But by creating an organized schedule, you can usually fit in ly are able to meet their responsibilities. Managing a career one or two days per month to mingle with colleagues at an lends itself to many of the principles that apply to time man- association meeting, a trade show, or similar venue. Think of agement. You set goals. You reevaluate priorities on an ongo- it as an investment. A network of colleagues and associates is ing basis. You recognize when you're taking on more tasks not only a resource for advice and help, but also enriches your and responsibilities that you can possibly manage. Tools such life on a personal level. Keep in mind that networking isn't as project-management software or day-planning notebooks something you do only when you're looking for a job; it can help.