“A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together.” -- Goethe
There is a plethora of leadership theory out there, some of it useful, much of it interesting to those who like leadership theory.
Too many leadership articles quickly become a wish list of what we’d like from our leaders, not so much about what we as leaders can actually provide. Idealism over reality.
For lawyers, it seems leadership gets more complicated by the nature of the practice of law and the law firm time-based business model. Lawyers moving up the ranks tend to take on leadership roles in addition to being on the tools, not instead of. And promotions are often based on technical ability, not so much on people skills and ability to lead and inspire.
This is in sharp contrast to leadership roles outside the law, where as you move up the ranks you tend to become more strategic, more focused on motivation and leadership, and less on the tools.
So how do you focus more on leadership and building your team while still being hands on?
The key is to be clear about what leadership means for you, really focused on the core things you want to improve, and then actively seek new perspectives.
Clarity
1. Make leadership a priority
Developing leadership skills has to be a priority. You’ve got to want to be a better leader, not just pay it lip service. And when you’re in the thick of it, it’s the day-to-day issues and the pressing needs of clients that become the focus, quickly shutting out all other priorities including the needs of your team.
You need to be clear about where team building and your leadership development sits in your agenda, so that you can give it the time and thought that it needs. That way it can be at the forefront of your mind, influencing your daily decisions as well as your long term goals.
Joshua Cole, Managing Partner at Ashurst, Hong King, has a really insightful article on building a dream legal team.
2. What sort of leader do you want to be?
It might be necessary to delve into leadership theory or consider some role models that you admire and see what aspects of their leadership style you might like to adopt.
For a good discussion of leadership styles and when they might apply, see this article by TEC.
The key is to be realistic about your strengths and weaknesses; playing to your strengths and finding work-arounds for your weaknesses.
Peter Drucker puts leadership in perspective in a way that may be particularly useful to lawyers: “Our mission in life should be to make a positive difference, not to prove how smart we are or how right we are.”
3. Take time to reflect
Getting outside the bustle of the day-to-day is helpful to provide the time to simply reflect on how your leadership is going. This is essential to finding clarity, and without clarity it’s easy to simply spin your wheels.
Focus
1. Pick 1 to 3 things you want to improve
The longer the list of things you want to improve or change the less likely you are to change it. For me, picking one key thing that is going to have the biggest impact is ideal.
Some things you may want to work on:
Vision – what’s your vision for your team, where are you headed?
Communication – how are you communicating, running meetings, having those difficult conversations?
Delegation – in a time based business model, you can either work longer hours or become a better delegator, which in addition to helping you, actually provides others in your team with opportunity.
Building relationships – applying empathy (read my article on empathy), taking the time to talk to your team, to inquire and understand their perspectives.
2. Hone in on the things that will have the most positive impact
Changing behaviors can be challenging, and you want to make sure you are improving those leadership skills that are going to have the biggest impact. And this brings us to perspective.
Perspective
1. Feedback is the key to perspective.
It’s fine to identify things you want to improve to become a better leader, it’s so much more effective if you actually change behaviours that your team or peers would like you to change.
Feedback is simply information that already exists; it’s only new to you. Armed with feedback you can use that perspective to focus your attention to ensuring you have an impact. It can be formal like a 360 feedback tool, or as simple as asking a team member: can you give me one thing I can do better when communicating with you? Or: What is one thing I can do to be a better boss?
2. Be open to learning
Being open to learning is pretty obvious, but if you are already at the top of your game as a technician it can be challenging when moving into a leadership position and having to take on a new set of skills -- or at least come to grips with the fact that your people skills might not great as you thought.
3. Get a mentor and/or a coach
Getting a coach or a mentor can really be the difference to getting that fresh perspective. It’s so easy for us to get caught up in seeing things our way. (Find out more about why lawyers engage coaches.)
Wrapping it all up
Becoming a better leader takes time, it’s not a zero sum game, and it’s certainly not about being perfect. But finding some clarity around your leadership style and approach, combined with focusing on key improvement areas and new perspectives will pave the way for tangible improvements while still having all the competing demands of being ‘on the tools’. To paraphrase Drucker: it’s about having a positive impact.
If you’d like some support on your leadership journey, please get in touch.