Whether working with your highest performers or the ones with the most room for growth, smart leaders are constantly contemplating how to motivate and influence their teams to succeed. So often we rely on external rewards – like motivating a horse to run with the carrot on a stick – yet these can only work for so long. In this workshop, we take a deep dive into the psychology of motivation, and explore specific strategies to directly influence your teams to operate at peak performance.
Development Training
Leaders Aren’t Born – They’re Made.
We build impactful team + leadership development experiences designed for legal services teams. We work with legal professionals to strengthen communication pathways, establish organizational trust, and shape influential leaders who master intricate case management, client expectations, and practice evolution. From teams of family law attorneys and public defenders to general counsel, department heads, and aspiring legal leaders, our dynamic, precisely-calibrated approach generates practical tools and sustainable development.
Suggested Leadership Workshops: Legal Professionals
The DNA of Engagement & Motivation
Leveraging Motivation to Spark & Inspire Engagement
Learning Objectives:
- Explore the three types of motivation and engagement, taking a pulse on current organization-wide strategies and opportunities for the future
- Experiment with three unique theories to immediately increase intrinsic motivation
- Develop an action + implementation plan for positive, long-term behavior change
Key Themes & Leadership Behaviors:
- Engagement + Motivation
- Talent Strategy + Development
- Leading with Values
- Active Listening
Learning Objectives:
- Experiment with interactive exercises to enhance active listening, setting others up for success, challenging the status-quo, and confidently stepping outside of our comfort zones
- Embrace the concept of “YES, AND” to build upon the ideas of others in an effort to strengthen interpersonal, team, and organizational relationships
- Develop an action + implementation plan for positive, long-term behavior change
Key Themes & Leadership Behaviors:
- Collaboration + Trust
- Effective Communication
- Openness to Change + Innovation
IMPROVing Team Collaboration
Embracing “YES, AND” to Foster Leadership & Build Trust
Understanding the fundamentals of improvisation enhances core communication in personal and professional settings. Improvisation requires participants to think on their feet, be in the moment, and use enhanced active listening skills, all of which play a role in our success in the work we do on a daily basis. In this workshop, participants will gain an understanding of how to fully embrace “YES, AND” and other core principles from improv for increased collaboration, trust, and enhanced team dynamics.
Bouncing Back from a F**k Up
Approaching Setbacks with a Learning Mindset
F**k ups may be inevitable, though staying stuck doesn’t have to be. This workshop helps participants break free from the mental traps that keeps us dwelling on past mistakes, learning how to shift our focus toward growth, resilience, and action. Through a mix of cognitive reframing techniques and practical action-oriented strategies, participants will learn how to bounce back with confidence, reignite our motivation, and turn failures into fuel for future success.
Learning Objectives:
- Explore the five common THINKING TRAPS where individuals get stuck, and discover the ESCAPE ROUTE strategies to help ourselves and others to break free
- ILeverage positive psychology to move from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset
- Inspire a culture of resilience, trust, and psychological safety
Key Themes & Leadership Behaviors:
- Confidence
- Emotional Intelligence
- Effective Communication
Learning Objectives:
- Leverage feedback conversations to transform and inspire performance of peers, direct-reports, and other frequent collaborators
- Identify the theories behind three common negative reactions when receiving feedback
- Discover the three types of feedback to more effectively inspire peak performance
- Develop an action + implementation plan for positive, long-term behavior change
Key Themes & Leadership Behaviors:
- Giving + Receiving Feedback
- Navigating Conflict Conversations
- Positive Psychology + Trust
Thanks For The Feedback
Inspiring Performance through Effective Feedback
We are constantly receiving feedback. Through formal and informal words and actions, each dinner invitation, speeding ticket, book recommendation or annual performance bonus says something about who we are and how we are perceived by others. This workshop introduces us to key strategies for both giving and receiving feedback, taking a deeper dive into understanding the types of feedback, discovering why and how we react, and how to more effectively deliver feedback in the future.
Why Choose Us for Legal Professionals Leadership Training?
Looking to advance teamwork, analytical leadership, and collaborative effectiveness across your legal services practice? The Leadership Laboratory offers team + leadership development workshops that are fun, grounded in research, and built to reflect your organization's unique culture. Our data-driven workshops are strategically structured and participatory – elevating your team and leaders to the next level.
Legal services teams possess extraordinary analytical skills, and we're focused on propelling those abilities to superior levels. Whether your team includes trial attorneys, transactional lawyers, litigation support staff, or legal operations managers, The Leadership Laboratory produces targeted, evidence-supported workshops that reinforce professional strengths, boost leadership effectiveness, and generate elevated teamwork, critical thinking, and client relationship excellence. Anchored in positive psychology research, our framework emphasizes growth, not gaps, to establish enduring, positive transformation throughout your organization. Our data-driven legal leadership workshops implement proven methodologies tailored specifically for legal environments to inspire long-term, positive behavior change.
The Leadership Laboratory operates nationwide with both in-person and virtual legal services leadership development workshops. We proudly serve legal organizations across the country, including Chicago, New York, Denver, and Houston.
Building tomorrow's leaders today.
The Leadership Laboratory works across multiple industries - including start-up and established technology firms, non-profit and government agencies, finance companies, healthcare organizations and more. We are proud to collaborate with individuals and teams of all sizes.
Contact us and say hello! We're excited to get to know you and share our ideas on learning + leadership development.
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Collaborating Partners
“I laughed harder than I have in a while!”
Our workshop was engaging, informative, rejuvenating and pure fun. I laughed harder than I have in a while! This was a phenomenal way to get more comfortable as a team.
— Director of People, SpotHero
“You made this easy to apply and implement”
You listened to our needs and adapted on the spot to incorporate leadership lessons. Every element was backed up by research, and you made this easy to apply and implement.
— VP / HEAD OF PEOPLE, WARBY PARKER
Meet Jacob Goldstein
Jacob Goldstein is the founder of The Leadership Laboratory, and leverages his experiences in education, the performing arts, and corporate learning & leadership development to his work. As a performer, Jacob has sung as a backup vocalist for musical artists such as Josh Groban, Idina Menzel, and Patti LuPone, as a recording artist for Netflix series Sense8, and at venues including The United Center, The Chicago Theater, and Chicago Symphony Center. In the education space, Jacob has served as an educator for high school, undergraduate and graduate students, and has been a Guest Lecturer at Northwestern University since 2016. As a Learning & Leadership Development Consultant, Jacob has worked as a one-on-one coach and group workshop facilitator to organizations ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies in diverse industries, including technology, healthcare, non-profit, and fashion/apparel. Jacob holds a Bachelor’s degree from The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a Master’s of Science in Communication from Northwestern University.