Leadership Foundations: Essential Mindset Shifts For Lawyers
I recently hosted an Australian visit by one of the world’s pre-eminent thinkers on business and legal leadership, Professor Michele DeStefano.
As Professor of Law at the University of Miami in Florida, a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and Faculty Chair of the School’s Impactful Leadership Program, Michele uniquely focuses on the leadership challenges of lawyers, law firms and professional environments.
Michele believes lawyers and professionals can and do make highly effective leaders, but they also face particular challenges, especially when making the transition from technical excellence to leadership.
For example, one of the key characteristics of strong leaders is ‘empathy’ and yet lawyers consistently score low on empathy measures in personality tests. This might be due to legal training that highlights rationality, or perhaps the nature of the personality attracted to the legal profession, but either way it can be overcome by conscious effort.
Michele says this is shown by a particular example of the famed Dunning-Kruger Effect (1999), in which confidence is inversely proportional to competence.
“The older and more senior you are the more you think you are good at the EQ stuff,” she says, “but it has been shown that the reverse is true. It is the new leaders who sometimes lack confidence who work at it harder and are better.”
She urged lawyers who aspire to leadership – or even those who want to enjoy stronger client relations - to understand their strengths and weaknesses and actively develop their skills.
Here’s how to do it with Michele’s Three Rules Of Engagement…
1. OPEN MIND
Know your strengths and weaknesses.
Write down your strengths and your weaknesses. Select two from each to improve over the next 12-months and share your plan with someone as a clear commitment to building your leadership skills.
Applying this to client relationships: If you’re responsible for managing a key account then start the year by sharing what you’re working on to improve and how you’re doubling down on a strength that distinguishes your firm. Ask your client what their plans are.
‘No but’…to ‘Yes and …
Learn to listen first, rather than coming in with instant judgement. Erase the words ‘no but… from your vocabulary. They cut the conversation flow and cut us off from being open-minded and building on ideas. Replace them with ‘Yes and …’ which completely alters the way you listen and respond.
Australian readers might recognise this improv technique for idea-building from our masters of comedy Roy & HG.
2. OPEN HEART
Create trust through empathy, not sympathy.
If someone shares their troubles, try not to begin your response with ‘at least …’ While bridges to silver linings are paved with good intentions, what most people want is connection rather than a solution.
Watch more from Brene Brown On Empathy (2013).
Learn to fully listen at an empathetic level and don’t seek to fix things without fully understanding
There are four levels of listening - Downloading; Factual /Debating; Empathetic; and finally, Generative or Flow listening (Scharmer, 2018). Only when you get to the third and fourth levels do you connect with the listener in a real way. To achieve this ask more ‘why?’ questions to uncover root causes and high-context.
Applying this to client relationships: When problems are shared, many professionals naturally dive into their solution mode. Sure, sometimes that’s what the client wants to hear. But sometimes, they can be sharing a confidence, or talking through a personal worry, or getting a load off their chest.
So offering solutions, before understanding lacks empathy. Simply acknowledging someone’s troubles and allowing them to be heard can transform a client relationship.
What they have shared is important, so ask for time to think about it, and get permission to come back to them.
3. OPEN DOOR
Open the doors of perception through diversity.
The best way to gain some of the most insightful ideas is by creating and empowering diverse teams. And within the categories of identity and cognition, diversity takes many specific forms - gender, ethnicity, experience, age and thinking style.
Then allow it to be heard.
If you are the leader, simply ensuring that you don’t speak first can make an enormous difference to what you get from a team discussion (and minimises ‘social loafing’).
Applying this to client relationships: When you next have a brainstorming or strategy meeting with a client’s team, consider introducing new perspectives from your ecosystem (and theirs) to the conversation. For example, include a Partner from a new area of practice, or your Business Development, Technology or HR professional, or a familiar independent Expert. [You can read more about how professionals can learn from creatives here.]
There you have it. Three practical solutions to help you engage as a leader and a trusted adviser.
Want More?
For more practical ideas on how lawyers can shift from a technical mindset to a leadership mindset check out Michele’s new book Leader Upheaval: A Guide to Client-centricity, Culture Creation and Collaboration (2024).
References, Further Reading and Listening
Block P (2013) 2nd Ed Leadership: Choosing Service over Self-Interest. Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Covey S R (2007) Seek First To Understand, Then To Be Understood (Habit 5 from The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People), Simon & Shuster Audio
Kulhan B with Crisafulli C (2017) Getting To “Yes, And”: The Art of Business Improv ,Stanford University Press and (2013) Why “Yes, And” Might be the Most Valuable Phrase in Business, BigThink.
Kruger J & Dunning D (1999) Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognising One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Self-Inflated Assessment, American Psychological Association, Journal of Personality & Psychology 77(6), 1121-1134.
Maister D (2007) Offering Advice When it’s not Been Asked For
Neuro Leadership Institute (2021) Why Diverse Teams Outperform Homogenous Teams
Prodonovich (2022) Why Collaboration Eats Cross-Selling For Breakfast
Prodonovich (2016) 7 Things Professionals Can Learn From Creatives
Saltojanes K (2023) The Improv Mindset: How to Make Improvisation Your Superpower
Scharmer O C (2018) How Are You Listening As A Leader?
Sue-Ella is the Principal of Prodonovich Advisory, a business dedicated to helping professional services practices sharpen their business development practices.
She works with Law Firms and Business Consultants that focus on positive client relationships, and with individuals who want personal, intelligent support.
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