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What makes you stand out at work? I mean in a positive
way, of course. We all know stories about people who
implode spectacularly at the office. Like the new associate
at one firm who, when asked by his department manager
to organize a breakfast meeting, reserved a conference
room, ordered coffee and doughnuts, and…hired
a stripper.
Boom!
No, I’m not talking about that. I’m talking
about being deemed a superstar. Someone destined for
greatness. A star-bellied sneetch, if you will.
Interestingly enough, you don’t have to be the
sharpest tool in the box to qualify. You don’t
have to bill 26 hours a day. Nor, thankfully, do you
have to be the obsequious, weasely office brown-noser.
You have to do something more subtle than that. You
have to manage your image. In other words: it isn’t
what you are. It’s what you manifest in your words
and behavior, what other people see and hear of you.
Does this sound paranoid? Sure. But it’s healthy
paranoia, and your career depends on it.
What should you keep an eye on? I could write a book
about it. And, in fact, I already did: “What Law
School Doesn’t Teach You, But You Really Need
To Know.” Here is a sprinkling of highlights for
you. Heed these, and you’re well on your way to
superstar status:
1. “Just be yourself” can be really stupid
advice.
You hear this all the time, don’t you? Whenever
I do, I ask, “Really? What if I’m a racist,
sexist, alcoholic lazy freeloader? Can I be myself?”
Well, of course not. We all know better than that. At
least, most of us. Every new associate who’s ever
been asked by a managing partner, “So how are
you enjoying yourself?” and answered “I’m
bored” or “I could have made twice as much
money in New York City” is indubitably being him/herself.
Face it: you don’t ever get to be ‘just
yourself,’ not ever. When I say to my husband,
“Honey, do you think I’m putting on weight?”
do you think he gets to tell me the unvarnished truth?
“Geez, it’s about time you noticed you look
like a manatee”? Of course not! And what do you
think when you hear someone say, “It’s just
the way I am.
They’re going to have to accept me as me”?
There’s a shorter way of saying that; it’s
“I’m a jerk.”
Office communications are the art of tempering your
thoughts with the audience in mind. Your superiors need
to feel, in your words and actions that you appreciate
the investment they’re making in you and the opportunity
they’ve given you. And regardless of how you feel
about your job, you are certainly grateful for at least
those two things. Make sure you make that plain!
If you do have complaints, couch them in things that
you do appreciate. “I’m grateful for this
opportunity, but I’m wondering how I might go
about taking on more responsibility/trying some work
in X/doing Y.”
On top of that, maintain a social network outside of
work. You might never be able to be perfectly blunt
with anybody in your life, but there’s no question
that you can be much franker with your personal friends
than with your workmates. Your associates at work, no
matter how tight you are with them, still have their
livelihoods to worry about, and you’d be amazed
how comments about people at the office make their way
back to the subject no matter how trusted the confidante.
Your friends, on the other hand – unless they’re
Linda Tripp – are a safe sounding board.
2. Don’t trash your reputation with throwaway
comments.
There’s a wonderful quote about how good deeds
can be undone with evil thoughts. Shakespeare said it,
but I’m not familiar enough with Shakespeare to
quote it for you exactly. Nonetheless, the point is
just exactly right, especially at work.
Just about every career is front-loaded with a lot
of the not-so-fun stuff. Scut work. Chimp work. You
choose the nickname. Every great opportunity, particularly
early on, involves a healthy dose of things you don’t
particularly love to do. For instance, having a child
is wonderful, but it’s got its downsides, neatly
summarized in the words ‘rectal thermometer.’
At work, who’s going to do the more tedious research,
the document reviews, and the less attractive tasks?
Senior partners? Nope. When you work your way there,
you’ll have earned the right to pass off that
stuff. In the meantime – while you’re earning
that right – remember that you won’t help
your reputation by complaining about what everybody
you worked for had to do when they were in your shoes.
Whining about it, when you’re going to do it anyway,
is a losing proposition. You won’t get out of
the scut work any faster, and it will make people who
hear you want to avoid working with you.
So what should you do? Adopt a Please-Sir-may-I-have-another?-Animal-House-fraternity-hazing
attitude? Of course not. You don’t want to be
stuck in the muck forever. Instead, acknowledge that
you know you have to do clean your share of horse stalls
at the same time you make it plain it’s not your
favorite activity. Something along the lines of, ‘Well,
it’s not the most exciting work in the world,
but it has to get done,’ with a smile on your
face, is the right balance. That way, you won’t
be viewed as some kind of masochistic idiot, but you
won’t be the office crybaby, either.
By the way, how do you minimize your time in the warehouse
eating your way through rooms full of dust? Make yourself
useful in other ways. For instance, volunteer to help
partners with articles for bar association publications.
Offer to do some work in your free time for partners
you’ve always wanted to work for. I realize ‘free
time’ is a much-constricted concept in some circumstances,
but you’ve always got at least a little time to
call your own – and putting it to work in the
ways I’ve suggested will do two things: number
one, when you help out other people, you’ve got
a favor to call in of your own, and you can use it to
ask for advice about minimizing your time on tedious
tasks; and number two, you’re demonstrating that
you can do other things, and when you do that, your
bosses will frequently not want to waste you on chimp
work.
3. Make sure you show an appreciation for the business
of law.
When you strip away all the lofty talk of an honorable
profession, you come to realize that your firm has a
lot in common with a hot dog stand: they’re both
businesses. The business you happen to be in depends
on selling time instead of weenies. When you’re
starting out, your role in that business is to “mine
the ore,” as I’ve heard it described. That
is, generate the bills that clients will pay. When you
get further up the food chain you’ll generate
the clients to pay the bills, but in the meantime, those
time sheets you hate to fill out are the most important
thing you do. They generate the revenue that pays you.
So fill them out often and correctly.
Showing you appreciate the business of law in other
ways can only add luster to your reputation, as well.
Take an interest in the businesses and industries your
firm serves. When you come across articles about clients
and/or businesses relevant to work, clip them and pass
them along to your supervisor. When you’re researching
an issue for a client, if you stumble on other ideas
that might help solve the client’s problem, make
a note of it in your memo or presentation. If something
strikes you as being a fertile area for expanding the
practice, say so. Showing that you understand, and take
an interest in, the business aspect of your employer
shows that you ‘get it’ in the most profound
way.
4. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking, ‘It
doesn’t matter what anyone thinks of me here,
because after two years, I’m outta here.’
You’ve heard the old saw that two years in your
first job is a ‘respectable’ amount of time
– after you’ve shown that kind of stick-to-it-iveness,
you can move on to your next job without looking like
a job-hopper. While nobody truly expects you spend your
entire life at one employer – on average, when
you graduate from law school, you can expect to have
sixteen different jobs in your career – your image
is still crucially important at your first job. And
here’s why: most great ‘next’ jobs
come from this one. I’ve talked to many, many
lawyers who left their first gig on the coattails of
a powerful superior who thought well of them. The simple
fact is, you have no idea where the people you work
with are going to wind up – and how useful they
may be to you. That associate sneeringly called ‘rat
boy’ may one day be addressed as ‘Your Honor.’
If treating people well because it’s a moral imperative
isn’t incentive enough, remember: the acquaintances
you make now will be colleagues throughout your career.
So make sure they think of you what you’d want
them to think of you.
5. Use criticism to propel your career.
It may well be that you’ve never faced any sharp
criticism before you started work. If so, you were a
much more competent student than I was. But the fact
is, you won’t become a better lawyer with people
constantly slapping you on the back and saying ‘Great
job!’ You’ll just develop a sore back.
Instead, you can take the criticism you receive and
make yourself look great. Here’s how. Listen patiently
when you receive negative feedback on your work. Take
deep breaths, and stay calm. Thank the criticizer –
that’s right, thank them – for their feedback,
tell them you take their comments seriously, and that
you’ll incorporate that feedback into your work.
To the extent it’s fair criticism, do make the
appropriate changes – and make sure you let the
person who criticized you know that you did so. You’ll
look amazing, especially when you consider that most
people face criticism with a pouty ‘Well, that’s
just your opinion’ attitude.
What if you don’t receive any feedback at all,
good or bad? Solicit criticism – not just feedback.
Often, if you ask someone, ‘How was the work I
did for you?’ they’ll say ‘Oh, it
was fine,’ or ‘No news is good news,’
or the like. Instead, come right out and ask for advice
about how to improve. ‘I hope you’re happy
with the work I did, but I’d like to improve.
Is there anything I could have done better?’ Even
the nicest person, when put in a position where criticism
is what you’re expressly requesting, will often
come up with something that will help you polish your
work.
6. Remember: you’ll never fall so hard that
you can’t bounce back.
Does maintaining a great image mean you’ll never
stumble? Of course not. We all do. Every wildly successful
lawyer you know has made mistakes. But life is all about
second chances. Remember, Richard Nixon came back. Donald
Trump came back. Michael Jackson…well. Two out
of three ain’t bad.
I’ve talked with young lawyers who’ve
lived through every kind of stupid human trick, from
fatally flawed legal arguments to severe social improprieties.
When you trip up, acknowledge what you did, take responsibility,
do what you can to repair the damage, and forget about
it. You’ve got a long career in front of you.
No one incident, no one mistake will define you. Keep
your eye on your image, and when you stumble and have
to rebuild it – you can. And you will.
Top
Kimm Alayne Walton,
an author well known to law students and new graduates
for her presentations throughout the country, and an
expert on great places to work with a law degree, as
well as her views on how to find a legal job offers
some advice about how to stand out in your job –
in a good way.
Kimm Alayne Walton speaks at law schools around the
country, from Hastings to Harvard, about job search
and workplace issues for summer clerks and new associates.
She has written several books, including "Guerrilla
Tactics For Getting The Legal Job Of Your Dreams,"
"America's Greatest Places To Work With A Law
Degree," "The Best of the Job Goddess,"
and "What Law School Doesn't Teach You...But
You Really Need To Know." She lives in Connecticut
with her husband Henry and son Harry. You can reach
her at jobgoddess@aol.com.
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