It’s that time of year again in Biglaw. Industry observers watch to see which firms will match Cravath’s bonus scale for associates while partners are contemplating how to best position themselves in their annual comp memos.
Depending on where you fall after the firm’s profits are distributed, you may decide to take part in the lateral migration that takes place every year after the books are closed and disbursements made. Before you put yourself on the market, however, you may want to consider some profile-raising basics to make yourself as attractive a candidate as possible.
At Breakthrough, we help leaders and teams get from where they are to where they want to be. Sometimes, that entails helping clients leave their current firm for a new opportunity. Whether you are seeking to advance your career at your current firm or elsewhere, these profile-raising basics are time-tested tactics that have helped myriad lawyers enhance their careers.
You are Here; Where is Here and Where do You Want to Be?
Creating your personal brand is a process of building awareness and reputation in the marketplace and within your firm. To paraphrase Warren Buffett, it takes years to build your reputation and only minutes to destroy it.
In order to build the brand you aspire to, you first need to understand what exactly is your current brand. The first step in this process is to conduct a gap analysis:
· What are you known for?
· How are you known?
· What do you want to be known for?
· Are you consistent with your brand?
Profile-raising tools move your brand from your current position toward your desired position. For a brand to stick, though, it needs to be consistent. Would Apple be able to continue to command a premium if it engineered an ugly product here and there with a clumsy, non-intuitive interface? Such deviations from their established brand positioning would confuse the market and consumers would likely seek alternatives, thus Apple would lose market share if it failed to consistently deliver on its brand attributes.
Four Paths; No Single “Right” Way
When considering ways in which to help you build your profile, it can be helpful to think of a pie broken into four sections. Let’s call the top-left quarter slice of the pie “industry exposure.” Moving clockwise, the next slice we’ll call “earned media.” Next, we have “owned media,” and the last slice will be “people and networks.”
As you consider this pie, each slice probably doesn’t look equally appetizing to you. That’s perfectly natural and expected! Use the tools that work best for you—lean into your strengths. I worked for a major firm where the chair was a vivacious, extraordinarily well-connected socialite who thrived in front of an audience whereas the managing partner was a brilliant and respected tactician who preferred being behind a keyboard instead of on a dais. Of course, we coach people to flex into areas that don’t come as naturally to them as others, but it’s helpful to build out from your existing strengths—similar to how you would approach expanding your target market as you build your book of business or a firm expands its market.
The piece of pie in which you’re focusing to build your brand as a thought leader doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The result is that your brand-building activities in one section of the pie set off a virtuous cycle in which your thought leadership in one area leads to opportunities in another. For example, an article on potential product liabilities for 3-D printers of medical devices that I placed for a former colleague at a former firm led to a speaking invitation at a conference for medical device manufacturers, the very market that young partner was seeking to penetrate to build his book. That’s an example of what I call “Google juice:” associating your name with your area of expertise or industry specialization so you easily appear in a Google search for your niche market. The conference organizer Googled the key words for a panel he was creating and one of the results was the article by my former colleague.
Issue + Action = Impact
Regardless the form of your thought leadership—be it an article in a trade publication, a post on your practice group’s blog, a webinar or a keynote speech at an industry convention—it’s helpful to remember these three words: Issue. Action. Impact.
Always keep in mind:
What is the issue?
Who are you trying to reach with the article?
Why are you the right person(s) to address the issue in the targeted medium?
What is the timing for this issue?
What practical information will the audience be able to take away that will help them in their own situations?
What are your business development goals for this thought leadership opportunity (e.g., reach a new audience, establish a foothold on an emerging issue, general profile and credential building with key stakeholders)?
Consider this example: A lawyer wants to change employers. He reads this blog post and adopts some of its recommended tools. The lawyer is recognized as *the* person in his specialty area, which helps him grow his book of business. After he receives his year-end profit distribution, a headhunter came across an article he wrote on a topic affecting clients in his niche area and calls the lawyer to tell him about a firm that is looking to build out its practice in his area. After meeting with several partners and members of the executive committee, he receives an offer to join the competitor firm where he will be able to better scale his practice.
Oh, and consider this: I just added some Google juice using owned media associating Breakthrough Consulting Group with helping lawyers like you get from where they are to where they want to be.