Law firm leaders learn from those who give them the hardest time
With over 1,000 attendees, there were more Tweeters this year than any other. More users = more personalities, and a few who decided to use Twitter as their soapbox. I must say…I was disappointed that people I consider colleagues took to Twitter to voice their negative opinions. Fine, you don’t like a presenter. Maybe a session was a joke, and you think you can do better. Or, maybe you’re listening from afar, and feel like you need to poke fun (I mean, who doesn’t have unlimited time to do this? [sarcasm, people]). It’s one thing to give criticisms, but entirely another to rip someone to shreds. And to do it on a platform where meanings are easily misconstrued. Online communities make it easy to “hide” behind a profile picture or as “anonymous,” but it’s cowardly to do so to hurt another human being. I hope these people realized that senior members of our organization were “listening.” And so were the presenters who worked to put their presentation together – that doesn’t change, good presentation or bad. And these users who decided to publicly attack – their reputation is on the line because of the things they decided to publish. No one thinks you’re any funnier for making a mean-spirited quip about someone else.
I agree with Gutierrez that ‘ripping someone to shreds’ is counter-productive, but open, frank, and honest communication is something the legal profession needs. For example, New York Attorney Scott Greenfield has already challenged Gutierrez’ rules of etiquette to which we must comply in his blog post this morning. I am not saying Greenfield is right and that Gutierezz is wrong or vice versa. But we do have some candid and open debate taking place. Greenfield has given me as hard a time as anyone, regularly challenging the things I believe in. I’ve tried to return the favor. We’ll carry on our debate out in the open on blog posts, Twitter, and more recently on Bloomberg TV. I’ve learned much as a result. I hope Greenfield has as well. When I started participating in the online discussion on legal marketing about 15 years ago I became a lightening rod. People thought I was too controversial. Part of that may have been me my style. But I think a lot had to do with people not being accustomed to others challenging their opinions and the way they did things in a public and open way. I hope senior members of our organizations (LMA or law firms) were listening to Tweets and blog posts from the LMA annual conference. If they were not, they were derelict in their duties. If they haven’t used the Internet to respond to the challenges in an open and candid fashion, they’re missing an opportunity to act as a leader. The people whose opinions or presentations were challenged ought to thank those who took them on. You learn from the people who give you the most trouble. Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, who served as President of Notre Dame for 35 years and in 5 White House Administrations in various capacities, including on the Civil Rights Commission in the ’50’s and 60’s, was asked by the Wall Street Journal four years ago why he liked best the Notre Dame classes which gave him the most trouble, such as the ‘student radicals’ of the Viet Nam War protest days.
Well, you learn. You don’t learn from people who tell you you’re a wonderful guy. You learn from people who say you know you have a long way to go…
Kevin McKeown, LexBlog’s President, a lawyer and business development professional of over 30 years, crafted the LexBlog Leader’s Code of Conduct a couple years ago. McKeown pulled from multiple sources, including existing company values, our leadership team, his own leadership accumen, his mentors, and Patrick Lencioni’s book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, to craft our code which sits on my desk and hangs on our office walls. In our code of conduct we commit to, among other things, “Engage in unfiltered conflict around ideas.” As defined:
Conflict is frequent debate marked by passion, emotion, and frustration around concepts and ideas to produce the best possible solution. We do not engage in destructive fighting or personality-focused, mean spited attack.
Sure, conflict is tough. It’s hard to separate the personal side from the debate of the ideas. By asking people to be passionate I am not sure it can even be done. We all agree the legal profession and those serving the profession have a long ways to go. The shift of marketing to business development. Using the Internet for business development to develop relationships. This work is going to be tough for all, especially those looking to lead others to the future. As leaders, we owe it to ourselves and the profession to embrace frank and candid debate to get us there.