What I Wish I’d Known When I Started Out
A couple of weeks ago, I asked this question on LinkedIn:
“If you’re a senior female lawyer, can you let me know:
What is the one thing you wished you’d known earlier in your career?”
I received replies from many women across various roles and firms, and I am enormously grateful to those of you who took the time to reply. I have kept the replies anonymous as promised.
I have added my own thoughts at the end of the blog.
Did You Ask Nicely?
Studies have shown that there are social sanctions for women who ask for more money that do not apply for men. This is because women are breaking gender norms - the norms that they should be grateful for what they are given. For women of colour, the sanctions are stronger.
The advice given by some quarters to counteract this is to “ask nicely”. To adopt a friendly social style. To lean in and smile whilst asking in a friendly tone for what you want.
Smile, but not too much.
Do YOU Work Too Much?
Do you tie your worth to your productivity?
In the world of law, it can be tricky not to do this. Many of us have targets to meet which mean that every hour of our working day must be accounted for. Is it any wonder that so many of us are feeling burnt out?
Lessons From 20 Years in Law
A career in law isn’t for the faint-hearted.
If quitting had been an option, I suspect I may well have done so at various points in my career when it became too much. Having reached this stage, I see now how lucky I have been that quitting has never been an option for me – like most people, I don’t have a financial cushion to fall back on and need to work. If I quit, what would I do instead, that paid the same salary? And so, I persevered.
Five Tips for Boosting Charisma and Winning in Your Career
We can all think of charismatic people, those overflowing with charm who make everyone around them feel good. I’d always thought that those people just had a certain gene and were lucky to have been born with this magical power.
It turns out that I was wrong. The good news is that everyone has the ability to be charismatic. Charisma is a skill, like public speaking and driving a car. With practice, we can increase our charisma and, in so doing, obtain significantly better results in many key areas of our role, such as client meetings, advocacy, networking and team building. In so doing, we’ll increase our overall effectiveness as lawyers and attain higher levels of success.