Peer to Peer Magazine

Self Awareness Techniques Following the practical steps outlined in this article can help you build the self-awareness that can enhance your leadership abilities and your success in the workplace. Reach Inward 1. Cultivate introspection. 2. Be truthful with yourself. 3. Manage yourself. • Understand self-development. • Investigate your educational needs. • Acknowledge that education cannot fix everything. • Find a passion outside work. Reach Outward 1. Teach others. 2. Market yourself. • Market internally within your firm. • Assist with external marketing material. 3. Treat business as theater. Fortunately, the culture of legal work tends to reinforce the concept of work informed by ideas. Lawyers make their living combining the abstract with the particular, and they appreciate people who can do the same. You will likely find support for the hard work of becoming self-aware to enhance your leadership skills. ILTA something to the effect of, “No, remind me of that situation.” This straightforward response requires the person with whom she is speaking to state clearly the purpose of the conversation and the work objectives. Here, the business needs are quickly revealed. Any vulnerability can become a source of strength. Find a passion outside of work. Your passion could be a hobby or a social organization. Such experiences should not be underestimated for their value of clearing the mind and heart and energizing one for further work. As business guru Peter Drucker puts it: [I]t is vitally important for the individual — but equally for the individual’s family — that there be an area in which the individual contributes, makes a difference, and is somebody. This means having a second area, whether a second career, a parallel career, a social venture, a serious outside interest, anything offering an opportunity for being a leader, for being respected, for being a success. This is not to say that respect and success cannot be gained through your primary career. Having outside interests, however, provides new opportunities to understand the fundamental values important to you, to expand your horizons and to increase leadership skills. Reach Outward Teach others. There are few opportunities to know your own mind that are as effective as teaching others. We have several opportunities for this in our firm. We have a dedicated technology education staff, and we occasionally have others outside the group — records management and litigation support staff — lend a hand in training. We also have created a leadership development series. The focus of this series is to engage employees in readings and conversations that will stimulate their thoughts on leadership and help them make more effective decisions in their roles. Another way to teach others is to volunteer to participate in a technology-oriented CLE session. This can also be valuable in helping you focus work objectives. Recognize that education cannot fix everything. Much is made in business literature of playing on your strengths, but sometimes weaknesses cannot be easily overcome. Self- awareness, in some circumstances, may lead you to embrace your weakness and turn it to your advantage. For example, a colleague has mastered the technique of overcoming a “weakness” by turning it on its head. She has a famously poor memory, which may be the consequence of having to balance broad business goals and important minutiae integral to her position. Instead of making excuses when asked about a situation or discussion she doesn’t immediately recall, she says 72 www.iltanet.org Peer to Peer Market yourself. First there is self-marketing inside your firm. Spend time at practice division meetings and other appropriate venues where attorneys gather. These are your opportunities to state what your services are and to sell them to others. Of course, any interaction, such as a helpdesk call or training engagement, is a marketing opportunity. Forewarning: when communicating to a lay audience, using terminology like “technology agnostic” or “silos of functionality” and other tech-speak will work against you. Such language comes off as arrogant and obscurant. It is best to use plain language to court those unfamiliar with the nature of your work. Marketing outside the firm involves engaging your marketing group to help write client-directed marketing

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