Vol. 75, No. 5, May 2002

Reassessing Career and Personal Goals Now that You're a Partner ...

by Ellen Ostrow

Success comes from doing what you enjoy. If you don't enjoy it, how can it be called "success"? - David Maister¹

Congratulations! You've worked very hard and made many sacrifices in order to grab this brass ring. If you're a woman, you've joined a very select sorority - although 40 percent of those entering law school since the 1980s have been women, only about 15 percent of law firm partners are women.

So much of an associate's work life involves doing whatever project is assigned and learning to practice law and worrying about evaluations, there's little time for career and life planning. You may have needed the past few years of experience to help clarify your values, interests, and talents. But becoming a partner in your firm is a wonderful opportunity to reassess your goals and redirect your actions accordingly.

Unfortunately, few new partners take advantage of this moment. Most become concerned with their firm's performance criteria and the pressure to become rainmakers instead of reevaluating their own definition of success.

An attorney who'd recently attained partner status asked me how to balance the needs of her two young children, her new responsibilities managing clients and projects, and the pressure she felt to become a rainmaker.

"What do you want to do now?," I asked her.

It's easy to neglect reassessing your goals when you've just accomplished what you'd thought you most wanted. If you change your mind, will all the lost weekends and holidays you spent toiling at your work be wasted? Absolutely not. Whatever you decide to do next, you've demonstrated a number of important things to yourself:

• You have the ability to practice law well.
• You have the interpersonal skills necessary for establishing and maintaining relationships with clients.
• You have self-management, organizational, and planning proficiency.

Certainly, no one can reasonably question your commitment, dedication, or fortitude.

When I first began coaching women lawyers, I asked many who had been successful to identify behaviors critical for achievement in the legal profession. Too many of these lawyers answered: "I just don't have a life."

This answer is simply unacceptable, for both women and men.

The alternative, then, is to work at taking control of your life and your career.

Take Control

Here are seven steps to take control of your new partnership and your life:

1) Clarify your life roles and goals in each area. Consider your roles as attorney, parent, partner, child of aging parent, friend, community member, and so on. What are your goals in each of these roles? What would you have to do in order to accomplish these goals? What are some action steps you can take within the next three years to move you toward your goals?

2) Define success for yourself. Your firm will define success in terms of the profitability of the business you bring in. But lawyers are most successful - that is, profitable - when they're providing service to clients they truly like and respect about matters they value.

If you have no sources of satisfaction other than work, your office will be a place to hide from the emptiness in your life. You're far more likely to be successful in your career if you have close and satisfying relationships outside of work. If you're a parent, your definition of success probably includes establishing a certain kind of relationship with your children or enabling them to achieve selfconfidence, security, and selfsufficiency.

There is no definition of success you "should" have. Just be sure the definition you use is your own.

3) Determine the kind of work about which you can be passionate. Enthusiasm, interest, and passion are essential for success in your practice. The reasons for this are simple: excellent professional work requires focus, and without genuine interest, sustained focus is nearly impossible. Excellent client service requires that you genuinely care about your clients and their needs. And clients who experience your genuine interest in their business or personal goals are loyal clients.

It's really a winwin situation: do what you love and you'll do it successfully.

4) Specify the kinds of work and clients that are most fulfilling for you. Review the work you've done during the past several years. With which clients did you most enjoy working? What types of matters fascinated you most? Which projects gave you the greatest sense of pride and satisfaction? Your answers provide the basis for your client development plan.

5) You're a free agent - do what you love regardless of your firm's approach to business development. Even if your firm focuses on the quantity of work and new business rather than the quality of professionalism and how good the new business is, you can still take control of your own business development.

Marketing to people you like about issues that fascinate you will most likely generate the kind of revenue that will satisfy your firm and lead the other partners to pat themselves on the back for making you partner.

However, if you've outgrown the kind of work you've been doing and your firm cannot support a practice consistent with your interests, you'll have a problem aligning your goals with those of your firm.

Similarly, the quality of client service is affected at every point of contact between firm and client. You'll need to be able to count on your firm to support you by demonstrating concern for clients at every contact point. If this support is unavailable in your firm, you may need to consider a lateral move.

6) Remember that the essence of marketing is relationship building. Marketing is neither advertising nor selling. Far from being outside of women's behavioral norms, business development relies on the skills most women have been refining throughout their lives.

"Being good at business development involves nothing more than a sincere interest in clients and their problems, and a willingness to go out and spend the time being helpful to them."² Don't sell - help. You know how to do this.

7) Plan your career with your whole life in mind. Use the action steps you detailed in step #1 to fill in your monthly, weekly, and daily planner. You can undo all your good intentions by failing to make a specific implementation plan.

Schedule time for your family, time to take care of your personal needs, and time for client development, along with the appointments you typically schedule.

If you're doing work about which you're passionate, with people you enjoy, your schedule will be filled with activities that bring you personal and professional satisfaction - and you'll be accomplishing what you've defined as success.

¹ Maister, David H., True Professionalism, New York, NY: The Free Press, 1997, at 31.

² Id., at 28.

Wisconsin Lawyer