The Conflict Strategist℠ ⦁ Workplace conflict? If you are stuck in conflict, I will get you unstuck ⦁ Team Managers, HR Leaders, & Business Owners, DM to learn more ⦁ Quick Tips: Read my blog, The Strats℠

More than $350 billion is lost each year in the United States because of unresolved conflicts.

When we ignore conflict, it doesn’t go away. It gets worse.  

The impact is reduced productivity, higher turnover, and toxic workplaces. 

Let’s unlock your conflict-solving superpowers.

My name is Leslie Nydick, The Conflict Strategist.


If you struggle with:

> Feeling anxious about difficult conversations

> Avoiding conflicts with your colleagues

> Being managed by a micromanager

> Hesitating to negotiate about work, deadlines, and more.

THEN count on me to help you reframe your communication.


How? I will be your guide to reimagine conflict, negotiations & communication. 

I empower you to build a framework for success with proven strategies and techniques.


Why me? 

I was stuck in conflict, every day.

I was bombarded with:

> A never-ending flow of demands from internal clients

> Complaints about shared spaces

> Emails that sounded like people were upset with me.


What was I doing? 

I was leading real estate, design & construction in all types of industries: financial, education, publishing, entertainment, & government. 

There was something in common: CONFLICT.

There were a lot of attempts, mistakes AND finally, the wins. 

I cracked the code for managing conflicts, and I want to share it with you.


Here are my free resources:

> Connect with me on LinkedIn, post a comment or send a DM.

> Subscribe to my blog for quick-to-read tips: https://www.theconflictstrategist.com/blog

> Visit my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@theconflictstrategist

> View my Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theconflictstrategist/


When you want more, reach out for:

> The Conflict Tune-Up: a compact service with impact. There is a survey, a virtual meeting, and I deliver an action plan plus check-ins.

> Facilitating or Coaching: I will lead you to a new framework of communication & resolution. 

> Customized Learning & Bootcamps: be proactive before your team is stuck in conflict, or if they are struggling with a pattern of conflict.


The results:

> Increased Productivity: Up to 50% of our time is spent managing conflict. Trade those hours to refocus on core responsibilities.

> Happier Workplaces: Unmanaged conflict results in toxic workplaces. When conflict is managed, relationships grow, people are happier at work, and they want to stay.


Why me? 

I have helped 1000s transform conflict into opportunity. It is your turn.

My clients do NOT come back EXCEPT to give me updates, AND to share referrals.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Leslie Nydick

Business and Career Coach for Lawyers / Author of "Winning in Your Own Court" / Entrepreneur

When I was a kid, I was the only girl I knew whose dream did not involve walking down the aisle in a white dress. I wanted a career. My role models were more Mary Richards than Carol Brady. 

And the coolest career, I thought, would be to become a lawyer. 

Imagine if the girl whose mother called her “impossible” for being argumentative could use that specific trait and be a courtroom lawyer like Katherine Hepburn in “Adams Rib!” My dreams became grander when I was in law school and watched how the lawyers on “L.A. Law” lived. The sexy cases, the gorgeous designer suits, the cars, the prestige. Yes, please!

Well, that dream lasted for three years. Yup, 1000 days is all it took for me to realize that being a lawyer can really suck if all you know is what they taught you in law school.  As soon as I graduated, I began to see all the things I still didn’t know. And they were big, crucial things. How to get clients? I didn’t know. How to make partner? I didn’t know. How to change areas of practice if I didn’t like the first one I picked out of law school? I didn’t know.

And, that’s exactly what happened to me. I didn’t like being a litigator, my first job out of law school, because I had no idea what it was like. After all, we never saw the long hours, sleepless nights, drudgery, or stress on “L.A. Law.”

I realized that although I was helping some of my clients recover millions of dollars, I wasn’t feeling like a winner because I didn’t understand the basic laws of being a successful professional outside of the courtroom and so I quit. I shifted my practice a few times and, after 20 years, I decided to leave the law.

My dad said I was crazy. My colleagues said I was crazy. But I’m not crazy because, now, 14 years later with a successful coaching practice, having helped hundreds of lawyers win more in their careers and lives, I realize that this is my purpose, what I was made to do. I’m grateful I became a lawyer so I could become not-a-lawyer and help the rest because we will always need great lawyers. As a lawyer coach, I’m here to make sure we still have some.

Book a call here: https://achievementbydesign.com/calendar/

Dena Lefkowitz, Esq.

Encouragement works in subtle ways.

Fitness instructors praise us in pre-recorded classes. They can’t see us. We know that. And still, many of us push a little harder when we hear, “you got this.”

Research backs this up. Verbal encouragement increases persistence and effort, even when the person offering it isn’t physically present.

Chris Rock once joked that women run on food, water, and compliments. We’d widen that circle. All of us humans do.

My husband and I stumbled into a gratitude practice long before that phrase existed. Married 35 years, we still thank each other for ordinary things. Trash. Dishes. Errands. We both like being noticed and appreciated for the dumb things we do all the time. 

It doesn’t make chores exciting. We just feel better about our efforts than if they were met with silence..

Clichés exist for a reason. Honey, vinegar, all of that. Flattery goes nowhere.  But a real compliment makes a difference. We love to feel seen.

Even when that praise comes from a recorded instructor and we’re alone on a bike in our living room.

A big part of coaching is recognizing our clients’ strengths before they fully recognize it themselves, and holding up a mirror so they can see what we see.

Dale Carnegie wrote about this decades ago. Encouragement, when it’s honest, changes how people feel and perform.

We don’t have to choose between authenticity and impact. We can offer both. And sometimes the most powerful thing we can give another person is simply to be an accurate reflection.

#lawyers #lawyercoach #CareerCoachingForLawyers
#legalcareercoach #legalprofession

Award-winning author of "Winning in Your Own Court: 10 Laws for a Successful Career without Burning Out or Selling Out" (American Bar Association, 2022). I coach lawyers to win.

Office presence keeps showing up as a retention issue, even when everyone involved has the best intentions.

That’s the focus of my latest “Coach’s Corner” column in The Legal Intelligencer. Not a take on remote versus in-office, but a closer look at what happens when presence is required without enough thought about what people are actually gaining from being there. And what they give up.

After all, none of us actually has a dog at home loading the dishwasher while we go to work, right?

Early in my career, being in the office meant access. During my first year as a litigation associate, I followed more experienced lawyers as they took depositions, argued motions, met with clients, prepared witnesses, and tried cases. I watched how they handled pressure, adjusted on the fly, and exercised judgment in real time. That experience shaped how I practiced. 

What many law firm leaders are sorting out now is how firm structures can support both development and sustainability at the same time. When those are in sync, strong lawyers are far more likely to stay, grow, and invest for the long term.

Link to the full piece is in the comments.
Video credit: my_Aussie_gal

Sometimes it comes down to the commute.

Believe it or not, it’s often that single expectation of being physically present that knocks good lawyers right out of the practice. It’s like adding one more ball to a juggler who’s got all she can handle.

They are already sacrificing sleep, exercise, socializing, recreation and are multitasking at every turn (see video).

Firms usually frame in-office policies around reasonable goals: collaboration, training, culture, visibility. All of that matters. A lot. But for mid-career lawyers who are also managing caregiving and family logistics, it can mean the end.

Commutes stretch the day. What used to feel doable starts to feel impossible. The change can feel abrupt, even destabilizing. For some very capable lawyers, that shift forces a hard recalculation about how long the profession can fit into their lives.

That’s what I explore in this month’s Coach’s Corner for The Legal Intelligencer: how office-presence expectations influence retention, advancement, and who decides it’s time to step away.

This isn’t an argument against offices. It’s a look at how policies land in real lives. Performance and commitment don’t always show up as a body in a chair, and attendance has never been a reliable proxy for contribution. 

#CareerCoachForAttorneys #LegalProfession #LawFirmLife #WellbeingForLawyers

Who among us doesn’t have a closet or drawer holding a project we’re sure we’ll get to once things calm down a bit?

The New York Times recently gave that pile a name: aspirational clutter. It’s the hardest kind to release because it isn’t junk. It’s tied to who we thought we’d have time to be.

In 2023, we downsized from a three-bedroom house to a two-bedroom apartment with no storage. No basement. No attic. No “we’ll deal with this later” room. 

Some of my aspirational clutter came with me from an earlier house, I am embarrassed to admit. Jewelry supplies for pieces that never got made. Broken vintage finds waiting for repairs. Bakelite buttons meant to jazz up a lawyer suit.

Recently, a knitting bag turned up one more project the great purge missed. Supplies for a shawl, ironically called “Therapy.” Bought pre-pandemic. Tiny needles. Complicated pattern. Colors I no longer wear.

A familiar internal argument began. I could still make it. I could give it to a friend. But, if I really wanted to make the shawl, I would have already. Having purchased four balls of yarn and a pattern, I allowed that sunk cost to briefly factor into my future plans.

But forcing myself to finish a project  isn’t therapy. So I gave it away to someone who actually likes it.

Aspirational clutter isn’t a failure. It marks an earlier direction that  changed course. Keeping stuff around just delays a decision that’s already been made. Letting it go creates room for where our energy wants to go.

Getting rid of things has amazing upsides. Less competition for our attention. Fewer mental tabs open. More room for what we want to do now.

The moment we realize we’re keeping something for a past version of ourselves, the decision tends to get much simpler. And for the record, i love apartment life and having less stuff.

#CareerCoachForAttorneys #WellbeingForLawyers #LifeCoachForLawyers #Lawyers #LegalProfession

We don’t spend any time learning how to apologize in law school. Or in practice.

But sometimes it’s the only way to move forward and can an effective communication tool.

A real apology names what happened and takes responsibility for the impact. It shows care and respect for the person on the receiving end. And then it knows when to stop.

Done well, an apology lowers the temperature in any room. And in our work, owning up to our mistakes matters more than we want to believe.

An apology doesn’t make us smaller. It shows judgment and self-confidence. It means we’re paying attention to our impact, not just our good intentions.

Most of us are already very good at explaining ourselves. Super good. Apologizing well is a different skill, and builds our credibility faster than a polished explanation or ignoring it.

It’s good to practice in small moments, before the stakes get high. But never without a reason. Agree?

Video credit: indiebuzzofficial

#leadership #communication #professionaldevelopment #lawyers #emotionalintelligence

We all have instant replay built right in. 

But when it keeps endlessly looping, it can drive us a little crazy and steal our time.

You know the pattern. 
It’s the email we want to claw back. The comment that came out weird. 
And what we we wish we’d said instead. 

Rumination is a familiar mental reflex that deepens over time if we don’t interrupt it. 

And it’s never about something pleasant. Our brains don’t ruminate on praise or smooth moments. They loop the awkward ones. The unfinished ones. The moments we’d like to revise or delete. 

Our brains believe what we tell them. If we keep feeding them embarrassment, threat, or imagined fallout, they start planning around that story. More vigilance. More second-guessing. Less attention on the work actually in front of us. 

For lawyers and other high performers, rumination is a real time waster. It drains energy by revisiting emails we’ve already sent, conversations that are over, and actions that can’t be undone. 

If this pattern feels familiar and hard to interrupt, that’s often a sign it’s worth talking it through with someone who can help you step out of the loop and back into forward motion. A conversation is a good place to start. 

Video credit: positivelybrad 

#overthinking #rumination #lawyermindset #lawyercoach #leadership

By January 21, a lot of us are feeling sheepish about our New Year’s resolutions being on retired status.

Usually, it’s because the calendar changed faster than our habits could.

January doesn’t magically clear our slate. It just hands us the same page with a new date at the top.

And that’s not our character flaw. It’s a design flaw in the story we keep telling about change.

Progress is built in repetition, not in declarations.

Which is why one January ritual really works: tying up loose ends from the year before. Closing open loops. Finishing the half-started things. Letting December actually end. It may not feel major, but it creates room. And room makes change possible.

That’s the heart of what I explore in my new article, “The Myth of the January 1st Reset” in the current issue of ABA Journal.

If January ever made you feel behind instead of hopeful, I’m offering a different way of looking at cycles of change.

And, if you’re in a reflective mood, l’d love to hear what has helped change take hold in your own work or life. Link to the article in the comments. 

#CareerCoachForAttorneys #WellbeingForLawyers #LifeCoachForLawyers #Lawyers #LegalProfession

Thank you The Legal Intelligencer for sharing my new column: "Coach's Corner: When Office Presence Becomes a Retention Problem."

From Dena Lefkowitz, Esq.: "Too many talented lawyers leave not because they want to, but because the structure of firm life made staying unrealistic."

🔗 https://lnkd.in/gHDsdJ5C

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Dena Lefkowitz, Esq.

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