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Our first monthly Senior Counsel session of 2022 together with Radius Law, Flex Legal and Crafty Counsel began with a recap of the last and an introduction to effective leadership for senior in-house counsel. Sophie Gould, Head of Development and Learning at Flex Legal, set out the importance of leadership for lawyers, who now more than ever face complex challenges that are less forgiving than those faced by other senior leaders.

Sophie Gould introduced , Director of Strategic Markets at UU����ֱ��, Fellow and Senior Advisor of the Judge Business School, Adjunct Faculty at Henley Business School and an affiliated lecturer at the University of Cambridge Faculty of Law. Mark Smith is a practising executive coach who works with senior leaders and law firm partners, and has experience of leading an international team of in-house general counsel.

Mark began by getting everyone to participate in a virtual word cloud exercise, asking the audience to “think of people you have worked with that have been ineffective leaders. What made their leadership ineffective?” Common traits quickly appeared including lack of communication, micro-management, lack of emotional intelligence, distrust, disorganisation, ego and many more.

Mark Smith quickly followed up by asking the audience to “think of people you have worked with that have been effective leaders. What made their leadership effective?” The common answers this time were trust, transparency, humble, flexibility, supportive, empathetic and those who led by example.

Having framed the key qualities of ineffective and effective leadership, Mark posed the question of how leadership has changed in the Covid-19 environment. Mark framed the response to this question in terms of the emerging leadership theory introduced by Bob Johansen, a social scientist best known for his work as the President of the Institute of the Future. Johansen published a book in 2009 called ‘Leaders Make the Future’ in which he set out the skills and capabilities leaders and organisations would need to thrive. In describing this vision of the future, Johansen applied the term ‘VUCA’.

What does 'VUCA' mean?

Originally, an acronym used by the US Army War College in 1990s, the term stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity. It is used to describe a difficult, complex or changing environment:

• Volatility –when we are unsure about timing - change is coming, but we don’t know when it’s coming or how long it will last, for example volatile trading environments
• Uncertainty – when we are uncertain about when this change will happen; we understand cause and effect, but we don’t understand probability
• Complexity – when there is too much information, or the relationship between that information is too complex to be cognitively processed
• Ambiguity – the inverse of complexity, when the information is unclear or conflicting

Mark explained that to combat VUCA, Johansen created a mirror image of the term that named four key qualities leaders need to thrive in this complex environment: Vision, Understanding, Clarity, and Agility. 

• Vision – the ability to understand clarity and set direction. Mark explained that as we move into a different phase of the pandemic, leaders need to question whether our current assumptions and visions remain true? After the fire fighting strategic issues and the reactive responses businesses and individuals have held for the past 18-months, Mark encouraged leaders to step back, look at their teams and departments and challenge assumptions around internal stakeholders and customers to check – are we aligned behind that vision? If the vision changes, everything below it needs to change as well to ensure we are heading in the right direction.

• Understanding – within a leadership context, it is the need to understand what is happening in the market, and of understanding people and caring for your team. Mark called attention to the widespread humanisation of work, and the waves of empathy and shared experience during the pandemic against the relentless pace of hybrid life. In this new stage of the pandemic, Mark highlighted the importance of listening and listening deeply as the most important thing you can do to improve a relationship. To really achieve understanding, leaders must make time to listen.

• Clarity – Mark suggested that clarity can be achieved through high-quality thought or “deep work”. However, he acknowledged that within the fast pace of the workplace, we are not set up for deep work. The challenge is the better we become and the more effective we become, the more there is to do. As a result, there is less and less time to focus on high-quality thinking and high-quality. Mark encouraged the audience to do less and do it better by working effectively; leaders need to know how to prioritise and know which priorities to focus on. Leaders must create and protect their own time for high quality thinking as well as teach their team to do the same.

• Agility – Mark broke agility down into two categories: emotional agility and empowerment. Calling back to the start of the workshop, Mark explained the tension between emotional agility and the quality of ‘stability’ in traditional leadership, reminding the audience of two ineffective qualities of leaders – inconsistency and unpredictability. In contrast, he suggested that emotional agility is a leader’s ability to not get stuck in patterns, it is a leader’s ability to react to changing environments. The final piece of agility is empowerment and how a leader can empower their team to make and take decisions closer to where the action is happening.

Reflecting upon Johansen’s framework for effective leadership

Mark finished by encouraging everyone to revisit their visions and ask themselves these questions to bring them closer to Johansen’s framework for effective leadership:

1. Does your vision still hold true? Is it right for the environment you’re currently in?
2. Can you create time to genuinely listen and understand your team and stakeholders?
3. Can you create the time and space for quality thinking?
4. Can you pick up when you get stuck and challenge yourself? Can you ask what the best way to operate is? Is your team empowered?
   

To encourage this reflection, the audience was moved into breakout rooms to answer the question “in 2022, what is one thing that you need to start doing, one thing you need to stop doing, and one thing you need to continue doing to be an effective leader”. The session concluded with these thoughtful and independent discussions on how each general counsel would bring these qualities into their day-to-day work.

Further resources

To support your development and thinking around effective leadership, our looks at a number of practicalities around leadership development, focusing on problems and opportunities faced by in-house counsel, such as understanding where to add value as a business partner. The guide is part of our dedicated subtopic on Management & Leadership within LexisPSL In-House Advisor. For full access, request a complimentary 7-day trial .

UU����ֱ�� has recently explored what it means to be an effective in-house legal leader through a series of short videos. whether ‘value’ is one of the most over-used words in business, and what in-house lawyers actually do to create value for their organisations., also looks at whether in-house lawyers are already influential enough and practical steps they can take to add even more value through effective collaboration.

For a recap of what we’ve discussed in the Flying Solo sessions in 2021, have a look at the in-house blogs on UU����ֱ��.co.uk. 

Join us at our next session where you will hear how BARBRI (global leaders in legal education), have built and secured their channel of junior talent and are using the new SQE route to qualification to help them, hearing from subject matter experts and with your peers sharing their insights and practical advice.

Date: Wednesday 23 February 2022

Time: 10:00 – 11:00

Format: Virtual event

Register now