May I Offer A Different Perspective

Developing the Next Generation of Rainmakers May I Offer a Different Perspective? That is a hard question to ask clients who always have an opinion on how things should be done,  and a hard question to ask your more senior colleague who is working on project with you. They will typically say yes, but watch their body language. Unless you are a great team, they will be defensive about their idea. I thought of this recently. I know two lawyers that for this blog I will call “Yin” and “Yang.” (Check the active link to understand why I chose those names.) Yin is a young, top notch equity partner I coached two years ago when he was an income partner. Yang is a young, income partner. I am coaching her now. They are working on an extremely complex project for a very demanding client who expects things to be turned around immediately, over night and over weekends. They are a great team for this project. Why are they a great team? Here are my thoughts: I know from experience it is not easy building a great team. It is not easy to be a senior lawyer and realize the younger lawyer working for you has a better idea. In my own practice, as soon as I was able to overcome needing to be “always right,” the quality of work of the team I built around me increased dramatically.     I practiced law for 37 years developing a national construction law practice representing some of the top highway and transportation construction contractors in the US.