In my long career at Paris Smith LLP, I have had the benefit of working under and then with truly inspirational lawyers, managers and leaders, the best of whom could operate in various mindsets. I often think of our former Senior Partner, Philip Ely. Philip (or “Mr Ely” to me as a trainee in 1995) was a hugely respected corporate lawyer, served as President of the Law Society between 1991 and 1992, and received an OBE for his services as a member of the Legal Services Commission.
But what I remember the most is his taking me aside in the first few months of my legal career. He asked me about my experience of working in the firm. He took a genuine interest in my circumstances and listened when I told him the reality – which was that I was single, broke and struggling to rent a flat and pay back my law school loan at the same time. This was in 1995, and the only finance available to me for law school had been a short term loan, the monthly repayments on which were a large proportion of my trainee salary. Some days later the loan had gone. I remain at Paris Smith 31 years later.
I mention this in the context of answering a question that was put to me recently. Which aspects of being Managing Partner did you least expect?
Management v leadership
At the top of my list is the difference, as I see it, between management and leadership. For me, management is the art of maintaining, improving, and growing what you have. Leadership is about identifying collective desire, focussing it into a coherent narrative. It is about deciding what you want to be, where you want to go, why and how. It is about setting the example.
Legal work is excellent training for managers. Lawyers like detail, rules and debate. We are good at assimilating information, being accurate, and most of the time believe we have the right answer. These are all excellent and necessary skills in management. Confidence and conviction go a long way towards achieving good outcomes, and we like to assert control over those outcomes.
But this kind of approach does not lend itself well to leadership. For example, if you watch a well chaired meeting, the chair will organise, prompt, listen, summarise and ensure subsequent action. The chair will seek to facilitate rather than dominate the conversation.
I first took up a senior firmwide position in Paris Smith when I became Finance Partner in 2014. I rightly invested huge amounts of time in the effort to understand all aspects of business performance and to present wholly accurate information. What I should never have done (but did at first) was allow this to focus my gaze too much on the short term. That is the magnetic pull of management.
After a couple of years of adjustment (and watching and learning from our then Managing Partner Peter Taylor) I began to realise that leadership demands looking upwards towards the horizon, far more than the detail under your feet. These days I spend much of my time listening to other people. There is no structure to it, just ongoing learning through quiet observation. Over time it is possible to build up a deep understanding of what others want to achieve, individually and collectively. In meetings, I encourage others to do most of the talking first, and whether I agree or not is not the point. It is all information which feeds decisions, even if subconsciously. Especially in a partnership, it is important to encourage all to share their views, and to decide on the direction and culture of the business accordingly. All can be confident they have been heard.
Developing the leaders of the future
One of the great joys of my career at Paris Smith has been watching young professionals grow, through training, qualification, specialism, promotion and ultimately ownership. I have seen it many times and it remains a privilege to run a business which gives opportunities to many – shaping futures, enabling success in every way, personally, professionally and financially.
We have done this for many generations over our 208 years. We are rightly proud of our independent and autonomous culture, in a business which knows its place in the world and the value it provides to the communities it serves. We shape our own destiny, are able to guide the next generation in to sharing it, and to become the leaders of the future. The role of Managing Partner allows me to continue this work on a larger scale, and it has been one of the greatest pleasures of the role. We are deeply committed to it at Paris Smith.
I look back now and reflect on what Philip Ely and the partners in Paris Smith did for me all those years ago. It wasn’t about short-term cost. It was a choice to make it easier for me to focus on learning my profession, and to integrate into life at Paris Smith. It was a small investment for a long-term return. He showed he cared about my situation and that meant he cared about me and my career. The Firm proved it again and again many times afterwards.
It’s my turn to do the same.