Law Firm Advertising – A Search for Leadership

 In ancient times the totem pole was a symbolic expression of past generations. It provided info about a tribe’s identity–a form of linear -understanding of generations that came before them and the leaders who showed them the way. It enforced group solidarity and offered a vital relational context to their lives.

The totem pole was worshiped and ritualized. The history of a complete tribe could be understood by this one particular linear expression. Symbolic communication, as a group organizing technique, is also discovered in law firms. Law firms proudly list their partners’ names on letterhead and post them on doorways. Often some of the names are symbols of the past–a lasting recognition of those who came prior to as well as these who are currently carrying the torch of the firm’s traditions into the future. This symbolic communication portrays the history of a firm’s leader-ship and is an indicator of predicted functionality. But what takes place when the firm’s previous is forced to yield to the firm’s future? When it becomes important for the firm to reinvent itself and set out new organizing principles that match its vision–when the old belief program is no longer in sync with the requirements and demands of altering markets and clientele? Most firms are facing this challenge ideal now, and some are not even conscious of it. The partners I spoke with clearly recognized the need to re-invent themselves or danger sacrificing growth and prosperity.

Are You the Leader?

Who amongst you will lead the charge? This is a incredibly personal decision that should really not be taken lightly. It will depend not only on your own willingness to take on the challenge, but also on the willingness of the key partners who make up most of the power base at your firm.

If you are up for the challenge, accept this know-how and get on with leading. If not, find the person in your firm who is prepared and capable to lead and present that individual all the assistance you can. You are going to soon recognize that the good quality and commitment of your support for this individual will be recognized as an crucial form of leader-ship in its personal appropriate.

The Genetics of Leadership

It really is been mentioned that some men and women are born leaders. That could be accurate, but for most of us, leadership is an acquired ability that comes from our mind-set and our want to effect good transform. Similarly, folks are not born extraordinary. Alternatively, they pick out to accomplish extraordinary issues.
As not too long ago as 2003, scientists found that our all-natural traits are not “set in stone.” (See Matt Ridley’s Genome and Nature through Nurture.) Rather, our genetic code–specially the code responsible for our brain function–is neither unchanging nor unchangeable. As we respond to the challenges and stimuli in the globe, so do our genes. Based upon our requirements and the degree of our determination, various formulations of our genetic code are activated. This benefits in the emergence of a new pattern of genetic instructions. Contrary to what scientists formerly believed, our genes stay active, malleable and fluid all through our lives.

Till these discoveries had been made, the received wisdom was that the traits that enable us to think like lawyers or strive for excellence or uncover the courage and charisma to lead had been handed out to us–or not–at birth. It was taken as fact that our neural makeup was mainly dictated by the genetic code we inherited from our parents. If we have been fortunate sufficient to have inherited “clever” genes, it was anticipated that we had been destined for greatness if the opposite occurred, we have been destined to be the village idiot.

In reality, the purpose so couple of of us break out of the mold is not due to genetics at all. It is mainly because of the fact that, strange as it may possibly sound, most of us surrender to our strengths rather than engage our weaknesses. If we have a tendency to be naturally gifted in mathematics, we gravitate toward mathematics. If CORPORATE AND COMMERCIAL LAW show an early talent in the arts, we gravitate in that direction. It is basically easier to rely on our existing strengths than it is to develop new strengths from scratch.

Psychologist and theorist Carl Jung described this irony in his book Psychological Varieties:

“Practical experience shows that it is hardly possible for any-one to bring all his psychological functions to simultaneous improvement. The quite conditions of society enforce a man to apply himself very first and foremost to the differentiation of that function with which he is either most gifted by nature, or which supplies his most effective means for social good results. Really regularly, indeed as a common rule, a man identifies himself much more or much less totally with the most favored, therefore the most developed function.”

Because Jung’s time, even so, neuroscientists have discovered that the human tendency to adhere to the path of least resistance is not merely ironic but counter-productive. We now know that the brain grows stronger, creating at a significantly higher level, when we force ourselves to feel in new and distinctive techniques.

Till now, you could not have thought of yourself as a leader. But that is no explanation to think you can not turn out to be one particular if your motivation is strong enough. The 1st query to ask oneself is this: What does it imply to be a leader?