What kind of leadership do lawyers need?
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Recent studies in the legal industry have shown that today's lawyer needs appropriate tools to validate his leadership within his practice or setting
The success of the lawyer depends not only on the practice and his technical expertise, but also his skills as a leader to transform his practice into an innovative environment that meets the needs of our current society where the client is increasingly demanding. A lawyer leader who recognizes his own needs can inspire other professionals to do the same.
The senior attorney can make optimal use of his leadership skills to clarify and align the strategy of his practice and to achieve the desired results in collaboration with his partners.
The basic principle of transformational leadership is simple. You look beyond the tasks on the table and shift the focus to the people who perform them. You increase the motivation of the other and the overall productivity. Below are three steps that can help you become a transformational leader.
1. Intrinsic motivation
An important lesson is that as a transformational leader you have to stimulate the internal motivation of the other, rather than external motivation. The other goes from "having to" do the task to "wanting" to do the task. The person who experiences autonomy gets more pleasure from doing the task, is more creative, more productive and more involved in the process. To address internal motivation, it is important that you, as a leader, look beyond what you want from the other and ask about their needs. You create a meaningful connection with the other and build greater support for innovative ideas.
2. Autonomy
After you have determined what the other wants to accomplish, think about how it can be accomplished within the existing range of tasks. Perhaps the other person wants to gain more experience in a different field or specialization and together they come to the conclusion that they can participate in a different department once a week. Because the other person can have a say in the goals you set together, your level of autonomy will increase. Autonomy is one of the most important factors for productivity, motivation and happiness. The sense of autonomy is even more important to people than an external reward, such as a higher salary. In addition, with a greater sense of autonomy, it guarantees a greater connection, trust and mutual participation.
3. Trust
After goals have been set, it is important as a leader to radiate trust to others. Be a role model for the others around you and try to work from your own internal motivation. As a transformational leader you want the people around you to reach their full potential in addition to yourself.
4. The term leadership often refers to people who fulfill a managerial position:
Team leaders, managers, directors, etc. At the core, however, everyone is a leader, namely about themselves. We also call the way in which you direct yourself personal leadership.
If you want to develop your personal leadership, you basically need four things:
1. Awareness
2. Self-observation
3. Motivation
4. Self-management
Photo: Freepik
Awareness
In the first instance it is important to increase your awareness. This means that you are aware of yourself, your feelings and your thoughts. Important in this is the realization that you are not your thoughts and feelings. The moment you have sufficient awareness, you also dare to look at yourself and your environment.
Self-observation
Once you have developed your self-awareness, you are also able to observe yourself better. It is very important for personal leadership to be able to observe yourself. In personal leadership you learn to start by focusing attention on yourself. How do I feel, what do I think and what do I actually think? These are questions that you can learn to answer better and better through continuous self-observation.
Self-motivation
When you have mastered the previous two steps, you can start setting better goals for yourself. Because you have consciously formulated these goals and experience them as important, your intrinsic motivation will be increased. However, change is always difficult and time consuming, so it is very important that you keep motivating yourself to achieve your goals. For example, write for yourself why you think something is important.
Self-management
If you master the previous steps sufficiently then self-management comes into the picture. Self-management are all actions you take to achieve the newly set goals. For example, if you have planned to run more and you put your shoes in front of the door in the evening so that you remind yourself that you want to run the next morning, then that is self-management.
"21st century leaders must not only be better than their 20th century peers, but also be able to inspire and emotionally transform society."
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