Is "leadership" a verb or a noun? I’m not trying
to be cute—the real question is whether leaders are simply
born, or can be made.
To step back, leadership is one of those ineffable qualities the
intrinsic desirability of which no one questions—but which
next to no one has been able to define, aside from weak tautological
efforts along the lines of "someone people look up to."
I believe the elusive nature of leadership reflects the reality
that it means different things in different situations. In
a crisis, for example, a decisive, directive approach is called
for; in calmer times where inspiration needs to be generated, a
collaborative and visionary style is needed.
Indeed, the more closely the management literature has looked
at leadership, the more diverse its manifestations seem to be. What,
then, can we say about how a firm can cultivate its next generation
of leaders? (I’m assuming the incumbents are, well, the incumbents.) Managing
Partner magazine helps distill the roadmap:
- Create a vision. This means capturing
the hearts and minds of people with a call to action to engage
them in creating the firm’s future. Financial analytics
and market assessments are surely part of this process—to
ensure the business case is sound the promised land realistic
and attainable—but engaging people’s emotional juices is
your primary challenge. The rationale, truth be told, comes
later. - Walk the talk. Even as young children—perhaps
especially as young children—people’s hypocrisy detection
sniffers are as powerful as a dog’s nose. If your proclaimed
goal is to institutionalize the client base and promote collaboration
and professional development, for example, you’d best be seen
as acting that way yourself. - Face hard realities. The reason you
call it a "vision" is that it’s not yet reality. In
other words, there’s a gap between where we are and where we
want to be. Do not duck, temporize, or change the subject. If
people’s behaviors have to change, a steady diet of comfort and
reassurance isn’t going to do it. - Breed cohesion. Griping, splintering,
and conflict must be avoided or faced squarely and dealt with. How? Withholding
judgment until all (well, all rational) points of view have been
heard; enlisting cooperation and avoiding the Lone Ranger temptation. Explaining
fully to those whose opinions were on the losing side how you
reached your decision. And once the decision has been made,
it’s time for folks to get on board. (Yes, the recalcitrant
may have to be made an example of.) And lastly: - Celebrating wins. Reward progress. Recognize
individual contributions. Point out the distance traveled.
Assuming you concur that this all sounds beneficent, how can you
get there from here?
Fortunately, the management literature, again, has something to
say.
- Developing leaders needs to permeate the firm. This
means it should change the way you recruit, change your coaching
and professional development efforts, and change your retention
and promotion criteria. Remember "walk the talk?" Here
it is in action. - Expand training beyond "skills" and into "behavior." A
technical capability can be developed through essentially cognitive
tools, but a set of attitudes and behaviors are complex and require
time, feedback, nuanced coaching, and an unusual degree of self-awareness
on behalf of the lawyers being groomed for leadership. This
takes planning, commitment, dedication, and follow-through—activities
and behavior patterns to which lawyers are no strangers.
Now, the reaction of many lawyers to a conscious, premeditated
plan to develop the next generation of their firm’s leaders through
reliance on tools born in behavioral science and honed in corporate
America may be the reflexive, "But we’re different than a corporation! What
other law firm does that? We’ve always let partners develop
autonomously."
The answers to which, in order are: (a) less different than
you think; and why not adopt proven techniques that the F500 and
their brethren have learned often at the cost of paying great tribute
to McKinsey & Co.; (b) perhaps few—and so?;
and (c) is your track record under the autonomous model the equivalent
of a best-of-breed executive development environment (say, GE)?
The need for leadership is real, as are the tools to address
it. It’s too late to pretend the best we can do is letting
nature take its course.
