SCCA Wellbeing Chapter’s journey concerning Sustaining Corporate Counsels in Singapore.
By Geeta THAKERAR
In my last BLOG I focused on being authentic and the effects of imposter syndrome and its potential adverse impact on wellbeing.
I would now like to reflect on the Chapter’s journey concerning the Association’s focus on sustainability of corporate counsels and overall wellbeing.
Our Chapter’s journey began in late 2017, thanks to initiatives taken by ShiYuan Yeo, Dharmendra Yadav and Dessi Silassie, all of whom were absolutely front and centre, in supporting the Chapter getting off the ground.
The Chapter’s mission then, as it remains now, is to support in house counsel in their profession and careers which also needs to embrace overall wellbeing. A more holistic approach was required in addition to legal skills training. Self-care strategies together with reframing work life balance to improve both work effectiveness as well as improve awareness around recognising the signs of mental illness and how and where to seek support. Most importantly what habits, rituals and routines to be adopted to better cope, adapt and become personally more resilient.
We were able to leverage off Baker& McKenzie’s annual in-house counsel’s relevant legal updates conference, in Singapore, during January 2018, where we announced the formation of the SCCA Wellbeing Chapter and outline our objectives and overall mission.
We had three Chapter leads initially, Monisha Kamdar, Shi Yuan Yeo and myself.
Since 2018, the Chapter has been working and continues to work to raise awareness of wellbeing issues in the legal workplace in Singapore.
Initially, we shared through regular flyers pertinent articles, write ups and surveys on various wellbeing for lawyers’ topics, together with a summary of some key sound bites. This continued regularly over several years. Together with these awareness updates the Chapter also held in person events, small intimate groups, usually after work. The sessions included inter alia, leveraging aspects around positive psychology, salsa dancing and teamwork, play therapy interventions, speaking up more about mental health in the legal workplace, together with talks and shared learnings about thinking well, improved self-awareness and mindfulness over lunch times.
The Chapter was also involved in some focus groups set up a while back when the pandemic restrictions were being lifted, by the Singapore Academy of Law/Ministry of Law, to provide feedback in this space.
The Pandemic acted as a catalyst for “voice” around wellbeing and in particular mental wellbeing and its importance. Momentum has really gathered since and the topic has become much less of a TABOO.
It is also timely for the Chapter, which is now well positioned to address the earlier calls to action within the legal community in Singapore, that the Government has recently also made mental health a National Priority.
More recently, The Chapter has been working closely with Mindful Business Singapore and since Q3 2023 has run regular Wellbeing Wednesdays, as a series of lunch/dinner time sessions focused on wellbeing and related topics.
The Wellbeing Wednesday Series has continued throughout 2024, focused on small intimate groups, a safe space environment, on a range of topics, polled from the SCCA Community. The series has covered inter alia wellbeing in the workplace, which coincided with the Tripartite Guidelines issued; bullying and impacts on wellbeing; managing conflicts/intercultural relationships; mindfulness tools and tips; stress and anxiety around voice and conversational intelligence; tackling imposter syndrome and effects on wellbeing for lawyers; managing emotions at work - to highlight a few.
The flagship event for the SCCA Wellbeing Chapter was the full day immersive in person conference as part of SCCA WellFest which was 100% focused on the sustainability of corporate counsels.
It was an energising and very engaging day, held under Chatham House rules and very kindly sponsored by Pinsent Masons MPillay, held at the Singapore Swimming Club, on Friday 18th October 2024.
The opening reflections were made by Ian Laing, Partner and Head of office Singapore for Pinsent Masons MPillay and ShiYuan Yeo, APAC head of legal & compliance at Fuji Film APAC/Healthcare APAC /Chemicals. A few key sharings included impactful interventions being critical, collaboration being key as we are all in it together, and any small change as leaders being encouraged. There was an up close and personal with Anthea Ong, Chairperson and founder of WorkWell Leaders, moderated by Shiyuan. Wonderful stories were shared by Anthea, the importance to intentionally create safe spaces, continue these important conversations – definitely the way to go, as well as some of the WorkWell leaders’ initiatives including reinforcing mental health being a National Priority.
This was closely followed by a panel discussion reflecting practical tips on implementing sustainability guidelines within legal workspaces. The panel comprised a cross section of inhouse industry lawyers, private practice lawyers and legal educators. It was moderated by Danny Quah, Director of CHP Law LLC, with panellists Rachel Wright, Legal Director of Lawyers on Demand (LOD); Gregory Tan, Managing Director, Legal & Regulatory Temasek; Rebecca Chew, Partner at Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP; and Paul Neo, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer at Singapore Academy of Law (SAL). Many practical examples were shared during the dialogue. There was emphasis on framing the right conversations; making small simple but impactful changes, especially for example, the relevance of certain types of meetings; calibrating skill sets; ensuring no judgement and solving issues together. There were also stories shared of those wishing to take the scenic route, versus those on the autobahn; embracing the culture of working smart and efficiently; staying the course; mindfully and consciously avoiding unnecessary stress. Rebecca shared some of the firm’s initiatives, such as customising a work well guide within the firm. Paul shared some of the projects the academy is involved with rolling out. This included work of the SAL Ethics & Work Standards Committee deploying preventative measures and interventions largely aimed at training for mid/senior level lawyers “to walk the talk”. There was also mention of the newly launched SingLife Insurance Scheme for mental wellness for lawyers. Greg shared Temasek’s implementation, since July 2024 of its customised mindful workplace guide. Meanwhile, Rachel shared some practical tips and insights from what LOD have sought to implement. The various interventions to retrofit the culture of teams within the organisation/department recognising that a one size fits all approach will not work seamlessly.
The conference then transitioned into the critically important topic of sleep and its impact on wellbeing. The session also looked at aspects of parenting and balance. Snigdha Nahar lead the engaging dialogue together with Catherine Yong, both facilitating a broader discussion and interactions within the room. There was a deep dive into the different levels of sleep, their respective levels of importance to the body and mind, giving context as to why it is so important to pay proper attention to. Key learnings were shared around the importance of the 7-hour rule for sleep, no phones or screen time before bed, practicing certain bedtime rituals consistently, proper management of diet and hydration as well as ensuring children got the right amounts of sleep at the right age.
There was a focus on leveraging cultural intelligence as an advantage to getting the deal through. Dr. Catherine Wu facilitated the first part of this interactive dialogue. With commanding her sense of presence, she artfully and captured the attendees’ attention, with some of her great story telling and giving live examples. There were reflections of why sometimes we struggle to get things done when dealing with cross border cross cultural divides in negotiations. Ethnocentric bias (hard wired, universal, and unconscious), the various cultural differences in negotiating styles where countries were placed on a grid from confrontational, emotionally expressive, unemotionally expressive and avoiding confrontation respectively, and much more.
The second part of Getting the Deal Through was led by Pinsent Masons MPillay panel, moderated by Valerie Wu. The discussion took a deep look at the “Balancing Act” - largely between the Client, the Team, the Family and yourself, in the middle. Great learnings were shared by the panellists from the firm. The panel comprised 2 partners David Clinch and Frederic Gillion, and Legal Director Andrea Clark, respectively. A range of very practical approaches were discussed. One particular tip shared, was to start every day with what can I delegate today? And then procced to delegate the task early in the day. The panellists were heavily involved in ongoing projects for clients but were able to step away and be panellists for the firm at this session. Valerie also had commitments and demonstrated how to be efficient with time and mindfully manage meetings.
Of note to highlight, the firm also was one of the founding signatories to the Mindful Business Charter and has adopted various commitments within the firm around the Mindful Business Charter’s four pillars comprising openness and respect; smart meetings and communications; respecting rest periods; and mindful delegation, respectively.
The latter part of the immersive day focused on psychological safety, with the session facilitated by Michelle Mah, from Rebalance. As a wellbeing practitioner and qualified counsellor, Michelle steered the interactive dialogue to look at why psychological safety is so important to enhance performance employee engagement and levering this to have high performing teams and maximizing the full potential. There was emphasis on leaders playing a pivotal role and the pressing need for this to be better advocated and championed within teams/organisations. We also looked at the potential negative implications of toxic leadership on both individual performance as well as that of teams. Clearly a business priority and a MUST have for organisations.
Ee Ting Choo and Cedric Lee, both from Connecting DNA, rounded up the immersive day with a session on nutrition and DNA. One insight shared was that there are more people dying globally from poor eating habits than die from smoking related diseases. Another insight shared was that a survey has shown that the legal profession as a whole generally have poor eating and hydrating habits. There was much interactive dialogue on the timing of eating certain things, such as fibre intake versus protein, versus carbohydrates. What to eat, when to eat and how to eat. What to watch out for in terms of sugars and salt intake.
The day ended with a gathering for socials and networking drinks.
The Wellbeing Chapter of SCCA will continue to raise awareness within the corporate counsel legal community in Singapore and will work on curating further such sessions in the future. These are important conversations and the dialogue must continue.
A huge thanks to Pinsent Masons MPillay for assisting with supporting this Wellbeing Chapter event, without which we would not have been able to have this event in the format of a full immersive day for all who attended.
