Finding Mid-Career Motivation: An Interview with Phil Cox

Mid-career can be a transformative moment in an IP professional’s life. You’ve acquired the knowledge and experience and are more than equipped to help your clients. But now that you’re here, what will your next 20 years or so look like?

INTA’s Professional Development Committee is hosting a workshop at the upcoming Leadership Meeting, taking place in Miami, Florida, on November 15–18, 2022. Participants in the workshop will have the opportunity to dig into this question and, as panelist Phil Cox (Business Development for IP Attorneys, USA) explains below, come away with “actionable objectives, tasks, and advice they can act on immediately.”

Titled, “Mid-Career Motivation: How to Stay Engaged and Inventive in the Ever-Changing Legal Profession,” the workshop takes place on Tuesday, November 15, 9:00 am–11:00 am Eastern Time.

The PDC is a new committee in the 2022-2023 committee term. What is this committee’s core objective? And what are you working on so far this term?
The PDC has three subcommittees, each addressing one of three objectives for this committee term. The Programming Subcommittee is developing programming proposals, creating content, and taking the lead on implementing our programming.

The All-Star Portal Subcommittee is supporting the Associations’ overall efforts to champion the development of INTA members’ professional skills by developing an All-Star portal, which will be accessible on the INTA website.

And finally, the Mentor Program Subcommittee is creating tools for mentorship for IP practitioners at all stages in their careers and in the variety of roles in which they serve.

The subcommittees are meeting regularly and have come up with some great ideas that we look forward to discussing in Miami and taking forward in 2023.

The PDC’s workshop at the upcoming Leadership Meeting is titled, “Mid-Career Motivation: How to Stay Engaged and Inventive in the Ever-Changing Legal Profession.” Why might some IP professionals need motivation mid-career?
Mid-career is a transformative moment in an IP professional’s life. Many of us have achieved much of the vision we set for ourselves when we were 30. As we transcend our careers and our skills develop, we gain experience in all aspects of life and work, which means that our perspective also changes over time. The things that motivated us earlier in our careers usually have also changed, and we don’t always recognize this.

Humans do best when challenging themselves, so it’s important for us to innovate, change, and set goals that align with our changing perspectives. But unfortunately, we get caught on the treadmill and forget to stand back from time to time and review where we are now and, most importantly, purposefully decide where we want to go next. For many, taking time to get out of the monotony and find deeper meaning in work and relationships is the path to future fulfillment.

With myriad crises happening globally and technology advancing so quickly, we’re living through a time of tremendous upheaval and change. How is the external world compounding the challenges facing mid-career professionals?
As humans, we are not well equipped to handle change, especially fast-paced change coming from a series of angles all at once. Whether we think we feel it or not, the past few years have taken an undeniable toll on all of us.

Being mid-career brings increased responsibilities. Taking care of people is difficult even when things are running smoothly. Factor in non-work stresses like bringing up children, needing to discover your inspiration, market uncertainty, and more, and we’ve got a perfect storm to test our mental fortitude.

Given what you know at this point in your life, being mid-career is also an excellent time to step back, take a breath, and reflect on what the next decade might look like.

How will the PDC’s Leadership Meeting workshop help participants confront the challenges they face?
We want participants to work together to identify and diagnose common issues that IP practitioners may be experiencing at this stage in their career and then offer some suggested solutions. Our panelists have first-hand experience with the topics being discussed.

Perhaps more than anything, we want everyone to learn from each other’s experiences. One of the most valuable benefits INTA offers us—its members—are the opportunities to connect with our peers by hearing (and recognizing) the feelings and emotions coming from others.

We will tackle three key areas: Purpose, Vision, and Motivation; Business Development; and Stepping Up and Transforming. Taking each of these areas individually, we will shape the problem and use first-hand examples to visualize it. Then each table will break out to explore specific and well-crafted questions so participants can learn what others have also been going through, along with coping mechanisms, remedies, and models for success.

Our fundamental goal for this workshop is that everyone comes away with actionable objectives, tasks, and advice they can act on immediately.

How do you stay motivated?
I changed my business model three years ago because I lost motivation. Having built a successful business as a business development consultant, I realized that to stay motivated at this particular stage in my life, I needed to have a deeper connection and meaning to what I do.

Personally, I love teaching. So, I took the skills I’d learned up to then and refined them into a coaching model that helps transform the impact trademark lawyers have in both their professional and personal lives.

So, to stay motivated, I needed to identify a higher purpose and create specific goals and actions around that. With the vision laid out, motivation simply becomes the act of reminding myself daily what I want.

Learn more and register for the 2022 Leadership Meeting. The Mid-Career Motivation: How to Stay Engaged and Inventive in the Ever-Changing Legal Profession Workshop takes place on Tuesday, November 15, 9:00 am – 11:00 am. Pre-registration is required and attendance is limited.

Although every effort has been made to verify the accuracy of this article, readers are urged to check independently on matters of specific concern or interest. 

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