Chapter 3 Who Is Flourishing

• Library: Accelerating Lawyer Success: How to Make Partner, Stay Healthy, and Flourish in a Law Firm (ABA) (2015 Ed.)

Lawyers who are flourishing . . .

• Are masters of their own fate

• Feel in control of their lives
• Strategically invest in their careers

• Are highly networked

• Uses others' expertise
• Develop informal mentoring relationships

• Make relationships work

• Feel valuable to others
• Put a confident face to the world
• Like teamwork
• Make work friends

• Strive for "bestness"

• Have a drive for bestness
• Enjoys overcoming challenges
• Take initiative and ownership over decisions ("focused ownership")

• Think nimbly
• Are direct in dealing with conflict
• Pursue continual growth

• Maintain a strong learning orientation
• Enjoy difficult tasks

• Are optimistic

Context also matters. Lawyers who are flourishing also tend to say they:

• Have autonomy (are less likely to be micromanaged)
• See their work environment as less political
• Have more formal mentors
• Have fewer minor ailments
• Bill more hours

How You Think: Your Mental Game

By 2012, Lindsey Vonn was one of two women to ski in four World Cup championships, and one of six women to have won World Cup races in all five alpine skiing disciplines. What is it that made her so good? Obviously, hours of practice, competition, and expert coaching have helped, but in addition, many attribute her success to the mental planning and preparation she did before hitting the slopes. She visualized successfully maneuvering down the mountains before every competition. Her optimism is evident in her love of the sport and her love of competition. She obviously enjoyed a challenge; she was the first woman to compete on men's skis. She was confident she could learn how to use them and stay in control. And even under the iciest conditions she gives 100% to the mountain. She relishes overcoming the challenges of the mountain and winning; she is happiest when she is the best. Throughout her career, she has constantly sought to learn and set new goals for herself. Beyond being a champion, she obviously flourished throughout her career. Working at a law-firm is not that different from hitting the slopes—at least, not in terms of the recipe for success. Associates and partners at law-firms must be passionate about their work, have confidence about their control over their work, and want to succeed. These traits will go a long way toward helping them flourish at their firms.

Flourishing

Before going further into what helps lawyers flourish, let's talk about what it means to be flourishing in your career. When a lawyer is flourishing, she is growing and developing in a healthy, vigorous way while being happy about her achievements. If a lawyer is not growing professionally and staying happy at work, can she truly say that she is successful? Even if a lawyer manages to work her way up the chain at a firm despite not flourishing, she will likely be unhappy and unsatisfied with what she has achieved. True success requires flourishing.

As part of this study, we used four survey items to determine whether lawyers are flourishing: a) whether they are satisfied with their current jobs, b) whether they are satisfied with their career progression, c) whether they receive opportunities to develop their skills, d) and whether they feel as if they are flourishing. These four items capture what it means to be flourishing in a law-firm (or for any career!).

Now let's talk about the characteristics of lawyers who are flourishing, satisfied, and receive opportunities to develop their skills. To a large degree, a lawyer's view (or, for that matter, anyone's view) on success comes down to how he or she thinks—and the attitude and actions that belief creates. It is not shocking that partners feel that they are flourishing more than do lawyers who have been working for over 10 years but have not made partner. Surely making partner will help you feel more satisfied with your job, career progression, and the opportunities you've received. Our research bears this out—we found that 66% of partners versus 27% of non-partners were flourishing. But we found a lot of other factors that are related to flourishing—factors that are related to one's mind-set and behaviors—go way beyond getting that single "win" of making partner. And certainly many partners go to work each day but do not have a sense of flourishing, and perhaps even wish they had never chosen to go to law school in the first place.

Being Valuable to Others

Not surprisingly, a factor that predicts flourishing as a lawyer (or in any career) is feeling (and being) valuable to others. In fact, our research found that while 80% of survey respondents who are flourishing also feel that they are valuable to others, only 56% of survey respondents who do not feel like they are flourishing feel valuable to others. A lawyer must feel as though he is contributing something to the team. He must be aware of what he is good at and what he is not. And hopefully others see it, too. Alex says he tries to become indispensable to clients right from the beginning, and in doing that believes he is adding value to his team. He tailors how he practices to the needs of each of his clients, gives them good legal work, and feels he is pulling his weight when clients come back asking for him. Feeling valuable to others goes beyond a high-quality work product, of course. When you are really valuable to others, people will come to you for advice. So it is no surprise that flourishing lawyers indicate that their colleagues seek them out for advice. In fact, a whopping 92% of flourishing lawyers said that colleagues and friends seek out their advice because they have good judgment; only 56% of lawyers who are not flourishing were able to say the same.

Of course, advice doesn't count for much if no one is listening. Lawyers who feel really valuable to others also report that they are able to persuade and influence others because they understand other people's motivations and needs—that is, they have the empathy and social awareness necessary to understand what is important to people and how to best direct them. When a lawyer doesn't feel he has value to add, he is unlikely to flourish. Of course, knowing what value you can add also means that you need to know your strengths as well as your weaknesses. To help develop your sense of value, you should remind yourself that you have the skills to get the job done, notice when others come to you for your good judgment, and reflect on times when...