Taking Instructions Training
This page gives you details of our Taking Instructions Training for junior lawyers. Junior lawyers, trainees and paralegals are required to take instructions from more senior lawyers. Being successfully delegated to is a skill which can be learnt and developed.
Challenges of being a junior lawyer
There are a number of challenges in being a junior lawyer, one of which is in the process of being given work. This workshop gives you ideas and tips on how to fastrack to becoming a useful member of the team.
Personality of the senior lawyer
Understanding the personality, or work style of your senior lawyers is critical to making sure you are delegated to successfully. We use our own model the ITD Work Styles Model to help make sense of this relationship.
- ITD Work Styles Model.
- Drivers of delegation.
- Typical challenges for the senior lawyer.
- Working with the different styles.
- Practice scenarios.
Assertiveness
The firm may well expect you to be assertive, but what does this mean for the junior lawyer? You don’t want to appear too pushy, but then you need to be fully briefed. This section helps you to become more assertive.
- Assertion defined.
- Questioning assertively.
- What assertion is not.
- Practice scenarios.
Questioning
Asking senior lawyers questions can be daunting either during a delegation, or afterwards. This section gives you ideas on how to approach these situations:
- Neutral positioning.
- Pre-question statements.
- Open & closed questions.
- Practice scenarios.
Challenges during the execution of a task
You will find that completion of a given task is not always what it seemed when you were first briefed. This section covers how to approach these situations.
- Who to ask if you have questions.
- Do what you can do.
- Sources of help.
Taking Initiative & Adding Value
All senior lawyers will tell you that what they want more than anything when delegating, is for their junior lawyers to demonstrate initiative. We expore how to do this in the specific roles of the junior lawyers, whether this be graduate trainee, trainee, or paralegal.
- How to take initiative.
- Identifying specific tasks to take initiative on.
- What to do when you see a potential task to take on.
- Looking ahead.
- Identifying tasks not specified in the delegated task.
Feedback
Feedback is critical for learning and development. This section covers the challenges with feedback and how to deal with it:
- How to take feedback.
- How to ask for feedback.
- Substantive v stylistic feedback.
- Personality driven feedback.
- Interpreting feedback.
- Practice scenarios.
Taking Instructions Training details
Duration
This training can run from one hour, 90 minutes to three hours, depending on how much practice and role-play you want the participants to do. Two hours is often a good compromise.
Participant numbers
The smaller the number of participants the more each one can ask questions of the trainer. The larger the number the more it becomes a seminar. Up to 12 participants can work well.
Virtual or Live
Our taking instructions training can be either a virtual or in-person session.
Pre-workshop
The participants complete the ITD Work Styles Model which will give them a heads up on the personality factors that come into play in a delegation.
Post workshop
Each participant receives a pdf of the workbook used in the training.
Client Case Studies
Make an enquiry
Complete the form to get a proposal on this taking instructions training.
