Improving Your Communication Skills – setting boundaries, giving feedback and building professional relationships | Dr Anna Colton | Survive & Thrive and the Talent Retention Working Group

Effective and constructive communication is essential in the workplace; it is the foundation for good teamwork, professional growth and an inclusive culture.

We are delighted to welcome back Dr Anna Colton for a lively and timely discussion to explore how we can create more successful and enduring relationships between barristers and chambers and in house at all levels by improving communication. This session will focus on feedback in the legal profession.

Moderated by Lady Justice Whipple, this event will cover the benefits of giving and receiving feedback not just for individuals but the Bar as a whole. We will see demonstrations of how - and how not - to do this.

We will host a reception with drinks and canapes after the session. Members and students from all four Inns of Court, non-members, and guests are welcome to attend.

Non-Middle Temple members can book by calling the Treasury Office at 020 7427 4800 (line is open 10:00 -16:00). Middle Temple members can book through the website. Tickets for this event cost £5.

To read more about the Inn's Survive & Thrive Programme, click here. To read about the Talent Retention Scheme, click here.

Dr Anna Colton is a chartered clinical psychologist and executive coach with many years' experience in both the NHS and private practice.

Anna works closely with the Bar and law firms. She consults to Institute of Barristers' Clerks and sets of barristers' chambers on wellbeing and mental health, delivering talks, running regular surgeries and advising on, or writing, wellbeing policies. She runs Mental Health First Aid training and assists with setting up effective and robust wellbeing teams within chambers and law firms so that difficulties are spotted early and intervention accessed quickly and effectively so that crises are pre-empted and avoided. She also coaches solicitors, barristers, clerks and other high performers on a one-to-one basis.

In addition to her practice in the legal world, Anna has particular expertise in performance anxiety and stage fright in high performers (in all fields: the law, business, sport, the screen and stage). She has worked with the leads in many West End shows, works with the British Association of Performing Artists and Musicians (BAPAM), is the psychologist on Matilda the musical and consults to theatre companies.

Finally, she can often be seen or heard on the TV and radio, discussing a range of topics, advocating for early intervention in mental health.

Members and students from all four Inns of Court, non-members, and guests.

Non-alchoholic beverages will be available.

Click here to see details of the QS Requirements and how to be credited with the QS for this session

Learning Aims:

After this session, students should be able to:

• Discuss of issues of feedback, appraisals and upskilling in the legal profession
• Distinguish between good and bad practice management methods
• Apply the principles discussed during the session to their own practice management in the future

Links to the Professional Statement, wider workings of the Bar, administration of justice or a public interest matter

This event aims to help barrister to:

• Possess sufficient understanding of organisational and management skills to be able to maintain an effective and efficient practice.
• Understand the organisational systems or structures within which they work and which support their delivery of a professional service.

Click here to view the BSB's Professional Statement

QS Feedback

If you have any feedback on a QS you have attended or have any suggestions for future sessions, please contact the education department on education@middletemple.org.uk

If you have questions about accessibility at the Inn or if you would like to request support, please email Laura Hacon.

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