Chapter 5 Context Matters

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

Lawyers who . . .

• Enjoy difficult tasks
• Are optimistic
• Feel in control
• Have a learning-oriented mind-set
• Have less of a need for others to see how smart they are
• Are direct in dealing with conflict
• Are strategic about career investment
• Are flourishing

. . . tend to be in less political environments.

Lawyers who . . .

• Enjoy difficult tasks
• Are optimistic
• Feel in control
• Establish clear boundaries
• Are flourishing
• Have fewer minor ailments

. . . tend not to feel micromanaged.

So far, we've talked a lot about the skills and traits you can learn to help make you more successful at work, but we would remiss if we neglected environmental factors that you may have less control over. Specifically, we looked at two workplace characteristics: the political nature of the work environment and micromanaging. What does it mean when people say they are in a "political" work environment? Essentially, it means that who you know is much more important than what you know. And that feeling of having someone hovering over your shoulder—that's micromanaging. A lawyer who is micromanaged is not given ownership and flexibility over her tasks. Instead, her supervisor is involved in nearly all decision making.

You remember Don—we've seen his successes with getting feedback, and we already know he earned the coveted brass ring of making partner. Don, ever the optimist, has a pretty positive view of his workplace. Don thinks his workplace is typically not very political; but he knows that when it comes to advancement, you need to have the right people on your side. And when it comes to originations, he told us that you need to be prepared for a fight. Mostly, though, Don feels that if you don't land in the right place with the right person, like he did with Nate, the workplace as a whole would feel more political.

Despite his ascent, Don hasn't always worked with partners who give him as much freedom as Nate. While Nate may give him an assignment and set him loose on it, another partner might be sending an email to "check in" every 15 minutes, never giving him time to reflect or even progress in his work. In other words, some managers will micromanage themselves into huge distractions.

We investigated the characteristics of lawyers in political and/or micromanaged work environments. Yet the existential "chicken or egg" question remains: Is it the work environment that makes the lawyer, or do lawyers with a certain outlook see their workplaces...