The legal advisor role is specific, functional, and largely dependent on giving impartial legal advice to organisations. It’s a role that does not often demand long-term strategising, but rather depends on immediate responses and practical solutions.
Most in-house leaders see themselves as legal advisors first, strategic leaders second. That’s hardly surprising, considering most in-house leaders were recruited, trained, and developed by law firms. But the in-house landscape is rapidly shifting, particularly around expectations.
In-house leaders are now expected to adopt a wider view of the business and keep sight of major commercial elements, allowing them to make the best decisions for organisations. They are, in short, expected to develop the skills that help them shift towards the strategic.
That’s why it’s important to know how to switch from ‘legal advisor’ to ‘strategic in-house leader’. As discussed in the recent ½Û×ÓÊÓƵ report, created in collaboration with Dr Paul Hughes from the , successful in-house leaders need to embrace that switch towards strategy, which depends on harnessing the qualities mentioned below.
Leadership is best understood as a social process that allows people to work together cohesively to produce results. Leadership stems from the interaction of unique people, using key skills to gain results from their many interactions, and using those results to drive organisations forward.
The ability to develop people is thus essential to effective leadership. In-house leaders need to factor in the development of others alongside personal development. Focusing on that joint development, that interdependence between the self and others, helps to define the switch from ‘legal advisor’ to ‘strategic in-house leader’.
There are plenty of practical steps in-house leaders can take to develop people. The first, and perhaps the most important, is to engage the leadership team. Justify budget and schedule, ask for resources and time, and consult on the best routes to success. To develop people, leaders should rely on expertise of people who have already successfully developed people.
In-house leader can also practice ‘putting on the other shoe’. That means encouraging others to think about how people might react to certain actions. Encourage consideration of how actions might impact certain stakeholders. In meetings, in-house leaders might want to take time to learn about other perspectives, developing people with other people in mind, practicing empathy and appreciating the complexities of the wider organisational ecosystem.
With that said, in-house leaders can create ‘team charters’ that support the development of people while simultaneously helping everyone to manage paradoxical tensions between the legal side of in-house work and the wider organisational aims. Perhaps create a ‘culture decoder’ that helps team members simplify language, such as unique jargon or odd acronyms.
In-house leaders should drive organisations – and they will need to develop people that seek that collective aim. They will all need to elevate thinking, seek out paradoxical tensions, and ultimately employ effective strategic skills to push things forward.
Developing people is a core requirement of a successful in-house leaders. But leaders also need to create the conditions for learning and cultural change. Simply put, in-house leaders must tackle the structural issues in any given organisation, alongside people development.
Strategic in-house leaders will need to help those in the legal function and their teams to work across departmental boundaries to cultivate relationships and share practices and norms that define the organisation. The in-house leader should attempt to make the conditions for cross-functional working as seamless and effective as possible, ensuring commercial synergy.
One potential route to creating the right conditions is to share the abovementioned across the organisation, encourage open questions, and ask other teams to share similar documentation, too. Then collate the charters and create a shared one that outlines how best to work together to achieve organisational aims.
You can set up ‘buddy systems’ to create the right organisational conditions. Consider, for example, allowing one-to-one relationships unrestricted by department or hierarchy. You can go further, with job rotation, shadowing, mentoring, and secondments. Create conditions of empathy and understanding, with shared knowledge of the different roles and departments.
You can also draw on expertise from other departments. Invite people to join your team meetings, to contribute, to share knowledge, to add value. Encourage your team to do the same, effectively pooling knowledge and creating an efficient knowledge-sharing ecosystem that will help to drive your organisation.
The above is conceptual and often discussed. But leadership starts with action – and leaders must lead by example. Effective leadership brings organisation-wide results, such as improved processes, streamlined operations, greater value generation, better collaboration, and so on. In-house leaders need to make the above a reality – and that starts with the leader.
The most essential element of switching from ‘legal advisor’ to ‘strategic in-house leader’ is developing the leader: changing the way the leader thinks, acts, and influences people to produce better outcomes. And, importantly, great strategic in-house leaders will not only add greater value, but they will also help to mentor a new generation of in-house leaders.
is packed with practical content to support your development and thinking around effective in-house leadership. The is a great starting point, whether you are new to leadership or seeking fresh perspectives as an experienced General Counsel.
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