Conclusion

• Library: Positive Professionals: Creating High-Performing Profitable Firms Through Engagement (ABA) (2017 Ed.)

Putting It All Together

After working hard to learn so many tools and strategies to boost work engagement, I hope you're feeling excited about what's possible and confident about your ability to contribute to a better future for the legal profession. You now have a solid, science-based foundation to start creating your own positive law firm. First, you know four main ingredients to mix into the foundation of your positive law firm:

1. Meaningfulness: At the heart of work engagement is the experience that our work is meaningful. This means that we feel that our work is significant and contributes to a greater good and that our role in it is valued.
2. Self-determination theory (SDT): SDT is a powerful theory of motivation based on the premise that we all have three basic needs: autonomy, competence, and connection. Having these needs met fuels a form of high-quality motivation that helps us be our best and persevere through setbacks.
3. Positive emotions: Positive emotions are uplifting feelings that powerfully affect our thoughts and behaviors and are a critical contributor to work engagement.
4. Transformational leadership: Positive leadership is a key component to positive law firms because so many engagement strategies depend on leaders' behaviors. Transformational leadership is one effective leadership style that focuses on developing people to their full potential.

You also have learned that these four foundational ingredients contribute to cultivating the six psychological experiences of work engagement—which is our overarching aim. You also learned multiple strategies for developing these six experiences:

1. "My work matters."

• Amplify Job Significance: Frame and design daily work in ways to enhance the experience of meaningfulness.
• Draw on the Power of Purpose: Broaden firm values to emphasize the purpose of law beyond making money.

2. "I matter."

• Champion Autonomy: Offer choice, give discretion and flexibility, invite participation, and lead by influence rather than coercion.
• Concentrate on Connection by Building High-Quality Relationships: Foster the feeling that people are cared about and valued.
• Concentrate on Connection Creating a Sense of Belonging: Create a sense of fit and acceptance.

3. "I'm growing and capable."

• Develop a Sense of Mastery: Build people's sense that they are capable and competent to succeed.
• Build Psychological Safety: Cultivate a workplace in which people trust that they can speak up, make mistakes, and be themselves without devastating effects.
• Develop Growth Mindsets: Foster mindsets and behaviors that reinforce that abilities aren't fixed and can grow.

4. "I feel energized."

• Instigate Positivity Infusions: Inject workplaces with energy from positive emotions.
• Support the Constant Juggle of Work and Home: Enable people to invest fully at work while maintaining a happy home life.
• Encourage Recovery and Rejuvenation: Protect activities that maintain energy in the face of ongoing work demands.

5. "I know how I'm doing and how to get even better."

• Give Regular Feedback Using the 80-20 Rule: Follow negative feedback with a pile of genuine, positive feedback to circumvent lawyers' psychological immune systems to criticism.
• Give Plenty of Positive Recognition: Regularly use informal recognition to direct lawyers' attention to what they're doing well and to positively reinforce it.

6. "I'm able to bounce back from setbacks."

• Develop Optimism and Resilience: Cultivate these personal strengths that can help lawyers better manage the demands of their jobs.
• Design New Associate Orientation to Boost Resilience and "Start Tough": Launch new lawyers' careers with tools and strategies for resilience to help them manage all their new challenges and maintain engagement.

As the above reflects, you've learned a lot and now have a framework and many tools to help you get started on building your positive law firm.

Becoming Our Personal Best While Creating Positive Law Firms

Since I left my law...