Lawyers as leaders
Jim Siemens
Certified Family Law Specialist
The American Bar Association presented on Lawyers as Leaders at the Peace Center in Greenville on October 23rd, 2015, and it was a good refresher for me to attend. Presentations focused on personality traits of lawyers, and how those traits impact leadership; lawyers as leaders within their firms; lawyers as leaders in client relationships; and, lawyers as leaders in our communities. One presenter suggested that perfection is the ideal aspiration for a firm to adhere to. That means going all in, in every case, great and small. Ideas to beat the Pareto principle (the 80/20 rule) and to move to 100 in the client experience were discussed and included maintaining consistent situational awareness; maintaining open, diverse and deep social networks; and operating from a growth mindset as opposed to a fixed mindset that is bound by an unhealthy ego.
Maybe the perfectionist mindset isn’t all bad, I found myself wondering. Personally, I believe that to beat the commodification of the legal profession, which is happening, lawyers must meet the leadership challenge. For one, that means collaborating with your client in a way that ensures that he or she can see, hear and feel the difference a lawyer committed to leadership can make. The call to leadership has my attention. As my firm’s leader, the goal of Siemens Family Law Group remains to exceed client expectations while positively impacting the legal profession, the Courts, and the community at large.