Archive for category NALS Guide to Model Competencies
NALS Guide to Model Competencies For Legal Secretaries, Vol. II Debuts!
Posted by Collins in NALS Guide to Model Competencies on February 17, 2012
By Marsha Watson Smitherman, PP, PLS We wrapped up Volume I of the NALS Guide to Model Competencies for Legal Secretaries late last year with the presentation of the finished Volume I. It is high time we began to present Volume II. To refresh your memory, we have been exploring the concept of competencies, which [...]
FREE BOOK! Great NALS Member Benefit!
Posted by Collins in NALS Guide to Model Competencies on November 30, 2011
By Marsha Watson Smitherman, PP, PLS Some of you have been watching the NALS Guide to Model Competencies for Legal Secretaries in progress. Some of you may be new to this online publication. What we’re offering you today is the complete NALS Guide To Model Competencies for Legal Secretaries, Volume I. We’ve spent the last [...]
How the Employee Should Handle Competency-Based Reviews
Posted by Collins in NALS Guide to Model Competencies on September 2, 2011
By Marsha Watson Smitherman, PP, PLS One of the final components we will consider about competencies is how they alter the traditional review processes. Employees are often accustomed to check-box reviews or reviews with scales of 1 to 5 indicating their performance in a given area. Competencies are intended to revolutionize the review process and [...]
How the Boss Uses Competencies
Posted by Collins in NALS Guide to Model Competencies on August 2, 2011
By Marsha Watson Smitherman, PP, PLS While there are a number of ways competencies can be used, as we discussed in Section V, the most common is in the employee performance review process. Competencies differ from standard job descriptions here in that they are not just used to identify employee strengths and weaknesses over the [...]
What Does a Legal Secretary Do, Anyway?
Posted by Collins in NALS Guide to Model Competencies on July 7, 2011
By Marsha Watson Smitherman, PP, PLS Of course we all know what we do, but the point of model competencies is to examine not only what we do, but how we do it and how we can do it better. The committee that developed The NALS Guide to Model Competencies for Legal Secretaries developed a [...]
Writing Model Competencies
Posted by Collins in NALS Guide to Model Competencies on June 20, 2011
By Marsha Watson Smitherman, PP, PLS Now that you know what a competency is, how it is defined, some of the language that goes with competencies, and how it differs from a traditional job description, you’re ready to learn how to create them. As you’ll learn in Section VI of The NALS Guide to Model [...]
Competency? What’s a Competency?
Posted by Collins in NALS Guide to Model Competencies on June 2, 2011
Marsha Watson Smitherman, PP, PLS We’ve talked about how the billable hour sometimes fails to support quality, efficient legal work. We’ve pointed out that the current economic climate demands value for the client’s buck. We’ve talked about theories of human resources management and the role of competencies in offices where employees are encouraged to participate [...]
Lazy, Stupid Worker vs. Motivated Worker
Posted by Collins in NALS Guide to Model Competencies on May 17, 2011
By Marsha Watson Smitherman, PP, PLS Have you ever had the ugly feeling that your boss viewed you as a robot—but worse yet, as an incompetent robot? As we continue to explore the concept of competencies, it’s important to understand the mindset that results in traditional appraisal versus competencies. In the 1880s, the theory was [...]
The Emergence of Competencies
Posted by Collins in NALS Guide to Model Competencies on April 25, 2011
By Marsha Watson Smitherman, PP, PLS In our last posting, we looked at the basics of what competencies are and why NALS opted to bring them to forefront in our organization. This week, we’re going to look at how competencies came to the attention of law firms. With the economic downturn of the last couple of [...]
The NALS Guide to Model Competencies for Legal Secretaries Debuts!
Posted by Collins in NALS Guide to Model Competencies on April 20, 2011
By Marsha Watson Smitherman, PP, PLS The next hot new benefit from NALS has arrived! In this space, we are going to unveil a NALS publication designed to help you increase your VALUE to your employer by improving your performance, and to help your employer work with you to improve your skills. The new tool [...]
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