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Why Coaching and Mentoring Are Vital To Every Lawyer’s Career Planning

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“I wish I had a mentor.” I have heard that statement uttered by more lawyers over the past 18 years than any other except perhaps, “I hate billable hours!” That lawyers want more mentoring doesn’t surprise me. Mentoring and coaching are critical to every lawyer’s career development. In fact, after education, such support is widely held to be the second most significant factor in becoming a successful lawyer.

Law School Does Not Teach You How To Be A Lawyer

Mentoring is not just for young lawyers, either. The need for mentoring and coaching cuts across all stages of career, all practice areas, all environments, all sizes of law firms, in-house departments, genders, ages, races and geographic areas. From the minute we ventured forth from the halls of law school we heard, “Law school does not teach you how to be a lawyer.” Have you ever had one of those dreams where you show up for a final exam and realize you never attended that class and haven’t a clue about the exam? Starting out stone cold in the practice of law felt like that to me. Okay I’m here, now what do I do?

If mentoring is such a key building block in our professional career development, why do most lawyers report that they never received the mentoring and coaching they felt they needed?

When The Bottom Line Rules, Associates Lose

Simply stated, things are not the way they used to be in the legal profession. The modern practice of law with its current myopic focus on the bottom line leaves little time or incentive for developing truly impactful mentoring relationships among lawyers. This leads to a major gap in the acculturation of the vast majority of associates. The lawyers, the firm and clients suffer.

It was not like that in the “good old days.” When my father graduated from law school in the early 1950′s, he started with a firm and right away had a very experienced, successful mentor who was eager to show him the ropes, share his knowledge, give advice, introduce him to the “right” people, work with him and groom him to be a successful trial lawyer. That was common practice in those days.

This organic mentoring relationship has pretty much gone by the wayside. It exists only rarely, and hardly ever for women and minorities. When my brothers and I got out of law school in the 1980s, we each expected to be mentored as my father was. We were surprised and disappointed when that never happened. A large number of my law school classmates had the same negative experience.

Associates Must Take Matters Into Their Own Hands

What has been done to fix the problem? Law firms started various kinds of formal mentoring programs in the 1980s but these have had only marginal success. According to managers in major law firms I have interviewed, these programs that continue today are not meeting the need (even though the firm proudly touts them!) and associates are still not experiencing the relationship part of mentoring that is so critical to their development. The mentor they are assigned is either not fully invested in the concept of mentoring, or does not have the training to be good at it. In fact mentoring skills run contrary to a lawyer’s strengths. On the other side of the equation, young associates do not know how to look for mentoring experiences and instead wait passively for something that rarely happens.

Is there anything that I could have done differently coming out of law school? Is there anything that lawyers today can be doing for themselves while waiting for firms to implement better mentoring programs? Absolutely! Instead of waiting
for the ideal mentor to show up at your office door, you can take full responsibility for your career and seek out opportunities to be mentored. It’s the approach I share with the lawyers I coach in other aspects of career development – whether finding new jobs, alternative careers, or building bigger client bases.

Take Full Responsibility. Build A Network. Create A Plan

There are excellent mentors to be found, but you have to orient yourself three ways. First, you have to take full responsibility for your career and understand that your career development has always been and always will be up to you. Second, you need to shift from thinking of mentoring as something you get from one person. You need to have more than one mentor and think in terms of building a network of people you can turn to for a variety of things – a mentoring “board of advisors.” Third, you need to create and follow a strategic plan, much as you would when conducting a job search or targeting a new client. This is where the rubber meets the road and it takes time, focus and purpose.

You need to get clear about your personal goals for career and business development and create a career development plan. Temporarily at least, you need to stop thinking like a lawyer. Instead of driving yourself crazy obsessing about all the risks and potential downsides in every situation just try to relax and picture where you want to go with your career. Ask yourself: Who do I want to be in five years? Ten years? What kind of clients do I want to be serving? What kind of practice do I want to have? And what are the qualities and attributes of a successful person with that kind of career and practice?

Once you have a vision for your career, you can break it down into manageable, tactical pieces and set goals to get there. You can identify the steps you need to take at each stage, including the skills you need to have, the people you need to meet, the clients you need to have, and so on.

Find A Mentor Who Fits The Stage Of Your Career

There are some mentoring needs that most lawyers have in common. New lawyers need to focus on developing skills, competencies, professional identity, work/life balance and how to progress on the partnership track if that is what they want, or where to look for alternatives if they don’t want to be a partner. Lawyers who have practiced three to five years also need to learn about leadership, marketing, human resource management, and the financial realities of the law business.

Nor does lawyer development stop when you reach partnership. For experienced lawyers, it is important to find mentoring at transition points – redirecting one’s area of practice, changing employment, or even changing professions. For senior lawyers it can be about many of the same things as well as keeping up with technological changes.

Once you have your career plan in place, you can create a mentoring plan. I don’t mean look for one person to fill all your needs. As I said earlier, the odds of that happening are slim to none. Once you have identified the various areas in which
you need mentoring, you can identify the people who can help you. For example, if you have decided that one of your long-term goals is to be a well-known speaker, then you need to find a mentor who has contacts, influence, and may be able to teach you presentation skills. You would likely choose a different person to mentor you in managing competing work demands; one who is well organized and could show you practical techniques and strategies.

Good Mentoring And The Role Of Coaching

Aside from technical skills, what should you look for in a mentor? What I have found in my personal experiences on both the mentor/coach and protégé sides is that good mentors need to be able to play different roles at different times, depending on the situation. Sometimes they need to instruct and give guidance, sometimes they need to give constructive criticism, and sometimes they need to be more of a coach. Always they need to have patience, to care about the other person’s success, to be supportive, perceptive, a good listener and able to help protégés help themselves.

What I see missing from most formal mentoring relationships in firms is the coaching role, which most lawyers do not know how to play effectively. It requires dramatically different skills from the analytical, directive ones expected from a lawyer. It is more like the Socratic method that is used by first year law professors. The mentor asks the protégé questions that help her discover answers that are inside her already. The coach’s role is that of a sounding board, facilitator, counselor and awareness raiser. Often the coach says little to nothing. Instead, he asks questions to get a clear understanding of what the protégé thinks, wants, and needs. He listens closely to the answers and often asks more questions to help the protégé discover her own answers.

Instead of the mentor telling the protégé how to correct a difficult problem, handle an assignment, or rescuing her from a mistake, he leads her to think through a situation, tap into her own experience and knowledge, and find her own way. By investing a little time on the front end of this ‘coaching conversation’ the partner saves much more time going forward because the associate becomes increasingly more self-reliant, confident and less dependent on the partner. It’s much like the adage, ‘Pay me now or pay me later.’

There are two key reasons why the coaching role is so important to good mentoring. First, it leads to a deeper level of learning both for the person being mentored and for the mentor. Second, it also makes for a higher quality relationship characterized by mutual trust, respect and more open communication. Not a bad payoff for a few extra minutes of attention by the partner!

Since very few lawyers have intuitive coaching skills it may be difficult to find a mentor who also can play the coach role. However coaching skills can be taught and learned, and hopefully one day this type of training will be a regular part of formal mentoring programs. Meanwhile coaching skills can be found in people who may not otherwise be positioned to serve as your mentor. So you can have both, just not in the same person.

Now that you know what you want in a mentor, how are you going to articulate to a potential mentor what you offer? Be ready to talk about your specific goals and explain why this person has the skills and abilities to help you. You don’t even have to use the term mentor – just be precise about what you want him to do and why.

Mentors Come In All Shapes, Sizes And Philosophies

How do you find mentors? You start by networking to identify prospects, both in your firm or company and outside of it. Look at partners, co-workers, ex-bosses, and colleagues in other practices. Business and professional organizations,community groups, and personal interest groups are other sources. For a senior lawyer, a junior partner who is technologically savvy can be a mentor. Don’t assume it has to be someone senior to you – you can find mentoring opportunities everywhere. Talk to friends in the profession and find out who their resources are. Remember, non-lawyers can be great mentors and can teach important practice skills. If your goal is to be a better negotiator, look to business people and mediators as possible mentors. If you need to be better at analyzing complex financial data, seek out an accountant or financial advisor. In return, you can offer your experience and insight as a mentor to them.

Once you identify someone, take the initiative to build a personal relationship. You can take the indirect approach and find opportunities to get to know her better before asking her to assist you. You can also take the direct approach – ask her for ten minutes to talk and lay your cards on the table. Describe your goals, be clear about what you want, and estimate how much of her time it will take. Approach this person with the attitude that you are trying to emulate her, not asking to be taken care of. She is more likely to be willing to share what works for her rather than to help you do your work.

Demonstrate from the outset that you are someone worth investing time in. What I hear most mentors say they want to see in a potential protégé includes: ambition, integrity, determination, a positive attitude, good listening and interpersonal skills, and willingness to take responsibility for her own career. Emphasize your own responsibility in the relationship and be confident about your abilities and how they can help you become a better lawyer.

Lessons That Last A Lifetime

I have to admit that I did not practice what I’m preaching to you here when I entered the profession. Partly because I did not know how, but mainly because I knew early on that the practice of law was not for me. I have, however, followed this approach in my subsequent careers. When I stepped out of the practice in 1991 to start a company placing experienced contract lawyers, I immediately came up with a business plan and determined who I wanted on my personal Board of Advisors. I knew I had a lot to learn about networking, marketing, and all the other aspects of running a business. I began to develop close relationships with a few like-minded, experienced lawyers who believed in what I was doing, who could help pave the way in my networking efforts. I hired a business coach to work with me weekly in all aspects of business skill development.

I have continued to do this in my new career as a professional life coach. When I decided to transition into a coaching career, I sought out coaches I already knew and joined several coaching associations. By doing this I have established
wonderful relationships with coaches more experienced than I, to whom I turn for coaching when I need it. I now have another personal Board of Advisors. As I identify new competencies and situations for which I need mentoring, I seek out new mentors and will continue to do so the rest of my professional life.

About the author of this article: Anne H. Whitaker, vice president of Counsel On Call’s Atlanta office, has more than 20 years of combined experience in coaching, consulting, marketing, law and education. In 1991, she co-founded In-House Counsel, Inc., a pioneering contract attorney placement company in Atlanta. Prior to entering the business world, Ms. Whitaker practiced real estate law in private practice for five years.  She received her J.D., cum laude, from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1986, where she served on the editorial board of the Georgia Law Review.  She is a member of the State Bar of Georgia, the Atlanta Bar Association, Lawyers Club of Atlanta, and Georgia Association of Women Lawyers (GAWL) and has created, chaired and spoken at numerous seminars for lawyers on career development and transition. She provides career development coaching for lawyers, is founding member and co- chair of the Atlanta Bar Career Management Committee, and is a licensed provider of the Highlands Ability Battery and other career-related assessments.  To contact Ms. Whitaker, visit www.counseloncall.com.

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Diversity Officers Promote Inclusion And Retention

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On February 18, 2003, I became the country’s first Chief Diversity Officer at K & L (now K & L Gates), one of America’s Fortune 100 law firms. As a full-time management-level executive officer on diversity, I reported to the chairman of the management committee and attended all management meetings of the firm. The appointment was heralded by the Senior Vice President and General Counsel of PPG Industries, Inc., Jim Diggs as “groundbreaking.” The July/August 2003 Minority Corporate Counsel Association’s publication’s Diversity & the Bar featured the appointment in an article entitled, “Above the Cut: Law Firms Raise the Bar.” In short, my appointment signaled the start of a movement that placed diversity front and center for law firms around the country.

I had the unique opportunity to work directly with the managing partner and members of the management committee on a regular if not daily basis to forge the firm’s diversity mission. This degree of contact was necessary: without it, the firm could not have attempted to change its culture, as well as its demographic composition.

At the firm’s management meetings, diversity was always the first item of business. I worked with every office’s administrative partner on its office’s particular goals and objectives. I also worked with the chief officer for professional development and recruitment on acquiring a diverse workforce and then putting into play a comprehensive professional development program with a structured mentoring component. We hired two full-time lawyers, as professional development coordinators who, along with me, went to every office and worked with all the associates on their development plans and competencies for their yearly progress, encouraging them to grow as individuals within the firm. I also worked with a specialist on work/life balance issues.

We were also the first firm to hire a full-time Director of Professional and Personal Life Integration, with firm-wide responsibilities. We started a Wellness Program within the diversity initiative that was available to all employees to ensure a healthy, competent staff. Minority and women attorneys became increasingly engaged at K & L; they went on to hold management positions and became practice group heads and leaders in their respective communities.

Diversity Needs To Be Supported By Top Management

Large law firms all over the country now are hiring diversity professionals. Their ranks have swelled to such an extent that the Association of Law Firm Diversity Professionals (ALFDP) was founded in 2006. Its mission is to promote, retain and advance diversity in the legal profession. This year, ALFDP and the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA) sponsored a survey (conducted by The Flourishing Company, a national workplace consulting firm) to determine the roles and responsibilities of these professionals in promoting and accomplishing diversity initiatives. The survey not only included members of ALFDP, but also the Am-Law 200 firms.

The survey concluded that large law firms are turning to diversity professionals as the norm, rather than as the exception these days. The study also is the first to authoritatively establish that the best diversity method in practice today is creating leadership at the management level for sustained diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Evidence that diversity officers are effective in accomplishing inclusion and retention goals is supported in an article by Alexandra Kalev, Frank Dobbins and Erin Kelly, entitled Best Practices or Best Guesses? Assessing the Efficacy of Corporate Affirmative Action and Diversity Policies.1 The authors conclude that there are three generally accepted methods of obtaining diversity: establishing organizational responsibility for diversity, attempting to moderate bias in the workplace through training and feedback, and reducing the social isolation of minorities and women in the company.

Law firms have been following the corporate diversity model for the last 10 to 15 years because of corporate pressure to become more diverse and inclusive or lose business. This trend began in the 1990s when Charles Morgan, the former General Counsel of BellSouth, issued a Statement of Principles on Diversity, and continued when Rick Palamore, former general counsel to Sara Lee, issued his Call To Action. As a result, large law firms have almost universally accepted that the first step towards diversity is to create a diversity committee. The 2008 Law Firm Diversity Professional Survey showed that all but one respondent had a diversity committee and that this firm was creating a committee this year; it also indicated that 78% of those surveyed had a diversity professional, many of whom had been hired within the last several years.

Of the diversity professionals surveyed, almost 19% were practicing attorneys with their law firms, 44% were non-practicing attorneys within the firm and 34% were non-attorneys. Most of the diversity professionals were either members of their firms’ diversity committees, or the chairs of these committees.

Diversity Officers Encourage Change

Diversity professionals at these law firms perform a myriad of functions, including defining what diversity means to the culture of their firm, launching and coordinating the firm’s diversity mission and goals, promoting diversity programs, articulating both within and outside of the firm what the diversity program consists of, and maintaining the metrics and deliverables which reflect the firm’s progress towards diversity and inclusion. These professionals also act as liaisons to the firm’s management and as confidantes for the minority and female lawyers. They also facilitate relationships between individuals at the firm and the leading diversity organizations outside of the firm at the local, state and national levels.

The importance of the role of the Chief Diversity Officer has even filtered down to state and local bar groups as well. California appointed Ruthie Ashley as its first Chief Diversity Officer last year. Pennsylvania is considering creating the position of Chief Diversity Officer for its state bar. And the Los Angeles County Bar Association and the Bar Association of San Francisco have Diversity Directors, as does the City of New York Bar Association.

I believe that the best way to bring about diversity and inclusion is to hire a full time, management level executive to direct and implement a cultural change within the firm. At K & L, I had the opportunity to make diversity permeate the firm’s culture, creating a dynamic and enriched organization, where diversity was valued and not just tolerated as an add-on to the firm’s social fabric. The evidence is clear: without organizational accountability at the very top of the firm, no lasting or meaningful change will occur.

FOOTNOTE

1. Best Practices or Best Guesses? Assessing the Efficacy of Corporate Affirmative Action and Diversity Policies, by Alexandra Kalev, Frank Bobbin and Erin Kelly. American Sociological Review, 2006, Vol.71 (August:589-617)

A diversity consultant at Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates and Ellis, LLP, Mr. Cooper opens and maintains direct lines of communication with disparate groups within law firms to ensure that the interests and perspectives of all partners and employees are considered in firm decisions.

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Senior Male Mentors Help Women Lawyers Get Promoted To Shareholder

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What determines whether a woman attorney in a law firm at the senior associate, of counsel or non-equity partner level will be promoted to shareholder? Is it technical competence? No—she would not have made it this far if she hadn’t already been judged capable of excellent legal work. Even a book of business is necessary but not sufficient (unless it approaches $2 million). Some successful business developers have not been promoted whereas others with less business “of their own” become equity partners.

During my ten years of coaching women lawyers to achieve partnership, I’ve learned many secrets about how to cross this threshold. Women lawyers consistently say that exclusion from informal networks and lack of mentoring are among the most significant obstacles to career advancement. Firms have tried to address this by creating all varieties of mentoring programs: formally assigned mentor-mentee programs, mentoring circles and group mentoring are common. Still, the percentage of women partners in large law firms remains stalled.

I’ve written elsewhere about the multiple barriers to the advancement of women in their firms (See Lawyers Life Coach) From my perspective, one very significant reality is that having a mentor does not guarantee career progress. This is very troubling. As surprising as it may be to those firms that have paid consultants to design elaborate mentoring programs—to say nothing of the costs of the time invested in actual mentoring activities—it comes as an even greater shock to the woman lawyer who has been a dutiful mentee only to discover she is not being considered for promotion.

Not All Aspects Of Mentoring Lead To Career Success

Mentoring may serve many different functions. It can enhance an attorney’s career prospects by increasing her human capital, that is, helping her develop job-related knowledge, skills and abilities. Prior to the establishment of the current law school curriculum, this is how most lawyers were trained. Many of the woman lawyers I’ve coached over the years have found excellent mentors, either within or outside of their firms, to assist them in refining their analytical and writing skills. However, studies of mentoring in law firms indicate that this aspect of mentoring is insufficient to enable women to reach the highest levels of law-firm leadership.

Mentoring can also help integrate attorneys into the workplace. Lawyers whose mentors “show them the ropes,” by helping them negotiate the organization and providing insider information about organizational politics, benefit from this kind of support. Given the enormous work burdens and time constraints facing most senior attorneys, this mentoring function is now typically provided by more senior associates. Many firm mentoring programs assign “buddies” to new attorneys to help them more quickly and easily become integrated into the firm. However, there is no evidence that this kind of mentoring is significantly associated with career advancement or compensation.

Having A Sponsor Is Crucial

A third function of mentoring is that of increasing the protégé’s social capital. No less an expert that Robert J. Grey, Jr. (ABA President, 2004-2005) once told me that the most crucial ingredient for career advancement—especially for a woman or minority attorney—is having an advocate: someone with power who will watch the young attorney’s back and campaign for her behind the scene.

The mentee’s career benefits when her mentor provides a junior attorney access to his network, facilitates her participation in collaborative projects, promotes her to others thereby augmenting her visibility and credibility, protects and champions her behind the scenes, provides challenging and highly noticeable work assignments, brings her along on client meetings and ensures that she plays an active role, and by association signals her legitimacy to decision-makers. A mentor like this functions as a sponsor. Unfortunately, in my experience, I’ve found few law firm mentoring programs that focus on this critical role.

Yet having a sponsor makes all the difference in enabling women to advance to full equity partnership. Among the first questions I ask all the women law firm attorneys I coach is, “Do you have a sponsor?” If the answer is “no” then, assuming her goal is to advance, this becomes a top agenda item. Establishing mentoring relationships with high-level, powerful insiders is essential for women pursuing career advancement in the legal profession.

Studies of the relationship between mentoring and the career success of women in professional service firms, and law firms in particular, suggest that a senior male attorney is likely to most effectively fill this mentoring role. If for no other reason than the fact that the overwhelming majority of law firm partners and leaders are men, this is probably not very surprising. However, the gendered culture of law firms also influences the differential effects of male vs. female mentors for the careers of women attorneys. Success in most firms requires the ability to thrive in a highly competitive, aggressive, individualistic, “heroic” culture. Attributes stereotypically associated with masculine behavior are viewed as indicators of potential and “fit.” Decision-makers always have imperfect information about candidates for advancement. In the absence of sufficient, objective information to allow for a rational means of discriminating among aspiring attorneys, having a powerful male mentor signals to the predominantly male leadership that a woman lawyer possesses those sought-after competencies and qualities typically associated with her male peers.

I have often observed this male-sponsorship effect. Yet many women lawyers who hope to become firm shareholders don’t have a sponsor, a fact which constantly surprises me. Research indicates that women with senior male mentors are more likely to advance and to receive higher compensation. In contrast, the career attainment of male lawyers is not significantly affected by having a senior male mentor.

Furthermore, formal mentoring programs are unlikely to help women reap the benefit of this mentoring function. Rather, the voluntary selection of a protégé by a senior male signals to other firm leaders that she possesses those qualities believed to be requirements for success.

Interestingly, the assumption that women do not have access to such mentoring has not been entirely supported by recent research. At least at mid- to senior-associate levels, male and female lawyers may be equally likely to find senior men to mentor them. The disparity in the representation of men and women in the upper levels of law firms may well be occurring early in the career cycle. It seems likely that high attrition among women and women of color during their fourth and fifth years at firms is in part a response to their difficulty obtaining needed sponsorship. It is possible that senior men only mentor women who seem to be doing well beyond this crucial juncture. Further research is needed in order to determine the best way to guide young women with partnership ambitions. Should we advise them not to expect senior males to sponsor them during their early associate years or to more aggressively seek out such advocacy?

Women Need More Than Sponsors

Either way, women also need to know that while the sponsorship of a powerful senior male attorney is likely to facilitate career advancement, it does not appear to prepare women well for assuming the role and identity of partner, nor inspire the confidence and satisfaction it is supposed to bring. The lack of women at the highest levels leaves many new women partners without a clear picture of how to “act the part.” Without models for self-presentation, women can become less confident and more anxious. In addition, male mentors typically fail to provide a fourth function of mentoring: the “psychosocial” function, which includes social support, role-modeling and advice concerning role ambiguity and work-family conflict. Research indicates that this function is better served by women mentors.

Unfortunately, the scarcity of women partners can make finding this kind of mentoring even more difficult than obtaining career-advancement sponsorship from a man. In addition, many junior women do not identify with the work-family models offered by senior women. And senior women are often concerned about the risks to their own career of spending political capital on someone unproven. Work and family demands may also place much more burden on their time.

Peer mentoring can address this gap. Sometimes women can obtain this kind of role modeling and support through women’s bar groups or women lawyers’ leadership coaching groups. Since 2004, 6-10 women have been participating on a bi-monthly conference call that I facilitate. They receive coaching, support, advice, models and alternatives to assist them in developing their identity as leaders and their effectiveness in managing others. “Graduates” have gone on to lead practice groups, build satellite offices for their firms, and increase their leadership responsibilities in corporate legal departments. Every one either had already developed a mentoring relationship with a senior male sponsor or used the help of the group to do so. And having grabbed the brass ring, their peers in the coaching group helped them take on and feel confident in their new leadership identity.

1. Ramaswami, A. (2008) The Interactive Effects of Gender and Mentoring on Career Attainment: Do Female Lawyers Need Good Counsel? Submitted for publication.

2. Robert J. Grey Jr. personal communication.

3. Ibarra, H. (1997) Paving an Alternative Route: Gender Differences in Managerial Networks. Social Psychology Quarterly, Vol. 60, No. 1, 91-102

4. Schipani, C. A., Dworkin, T. M., Kwolek-Folland, A. & Maurer, V. G. (2008) Pathways for Women to Obtain Positions of Organizational Leadership: The Significance of Mentoring and Networking. Ross School of Business Working Paper No. 117.

5. Tharenou, P. (2005) Does Mentor Support Increase Women’s Career Advancement More than Men’s? The Differential Effects of Career and Psychosocial Support. Australian Journal of Management, Vol. 30, No. 1, 77-108. ↩

6. Ramaswami, A. (2008) Ibid.

7. Ramaswami, A. (2008) Ibid.

8. Ibarra, H. & Petriglieri, J. (2007) Impossible Selves: Image Strategies and Identity Threat in Professional Women’s Career Transitions. INSEAD Faculty and Research Working Paper.

9. Wallace, J. E. (2001) The Benefits of Mentoring for Female Lawyers. Journal of Vocational Behavior, Vol. 58, 366-391.

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When Is Coaching Really Coaching?

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Coaching has become a buzzword in the last five years. Lawyers hire coaches to help with everything from business development and leadership to time management and life balance. Many law firms have jumped on the bandwagon as well, forming coaching committees designed to provide internal “coaching” for their lawyers. However, as coaching has become more popular and widely accepted, the lines between coaching and other disciplines have become blurred. When is a relationship between two individuals coaching, and when is it something else entirely, such as mentoring, consulting or counseling?

Coaching, according to the International Coach Federation (ICF), involves “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. Coaches help people improve their performances and enhance the quality of their lives.” In addition, professional coaches are “trained to listen, to observe and to customize their approach to individual client needs. They seek to elicit solutions and strategies from the client; they believe the client is naturally creative and resourceful.” At the core, a coach provides support “to enhance the skills, resources, and creativity that the client already has.” In other words, true coaches don’t provide the answers; they provide the questions and the framework to elicit answers from the client.

Although some lawyers may prefer to work with a coach who is also a lawyer, in reality, coaches who are experts in the art and science of coaching can coach anyone in any field.

It is important to remember that coaches draw out their clients’ innate wisdom by asking targeted questions and facilitating directed thinking not by relating the situation to their own experience. Coaches help clients achieve change and results by serving as confidential, neutral partners who are objective and non-judgmental. Through their specialized training, coaches learn specific competencies including becoming experts at listening contextually for what is said and done and what is not being said and done.

Now let’s see how coaching differs from mentoring, consulting and counseling. It’s important to respect the differences. If we don’t, we not only diminish the true value of coaching, but we create false expectations as well.

A Coach Is Not A Mentor

According to Merriam-Webster, a mentor is a trusted counselor or guide. YourDictionary.com defines a mentor as a wise, loyal advisor and lists “teacher” or “coach” as alternate definitions. No wonder we confuse coaching and mentoring!

Traditionally, in the law firm environment, a mentor has been someone who advises and guides others based on her own knowledge and experience. Because the mentor has already traveled down a certain path, she can advise you on what to expect as you walk down that path, including the benefits and pitfalls you will experience. A mentor will frequently provide advice or will teach the “mentee” about a certain subject matter or course of action. And although a mentor may ask open-ended questions (a hallmark skill of coaching), the mentor will generally not be trained as a coach and will feel that her primary role is to give advice.

There is no question that mentoring can be extremely valuable, particularly to younger associates in a law firm. However, mentoring differs from coaching in two important ways.

First, coaches are supposed to be objective, and to advise from an impartial perspective. In contrast, a mentor speaks from the perspective of his own experience. As a member or employee of the same law firm, it is actually impossible for the mentor to be truly objective or unattached.

In addition, mentors typically receive little or no training on how to fulfill their roles. They are simply expected to advise and teach from their personal experience and to create relationships with the people they mentor. True coaching, on the other hand, requires training to learn and practice certain core skills that are intrinsic to the coaching relationship, such as how to ask open-ended, powerful questions; how to listen, and to provide structure for accountability.

A Coach Is Not A Consultant Or A Counselor

It is equally important to make a distinction between coaching and two other disciplines: consulting and counseling.

As noted above, coaches do not need to have expertise in a field to help someone in that field. The hallmark of consultants, however, is that they have experience and expertise in a specific subject area. They are then hired to analyze and address a particular issue and to give advice about what needs to be done to remedy a problem or change a situation. They may use coaching skills in their work but only as a tool to complement their other professional skills.

Coaching is also quite different from counseling or therapy. Generally, the therapist-client relationship is based upon the medical model which assumes that the client/patient needs to be diagnosed, treated and/or cured. Coaching operates from the premise that each client is whole and may desire guidance but does not need to be fixed. Therapy also tends to address the current issue by reviewing past factors. Coaching begins with the present and helps the client move forward toward a more fulfilling life consistent with his or her values and vision.

Which Helping Professional Is Right For You?

Let’s examine these different roles by discussing an example from real life. Jane, a third-year associate, has been having a difficult time communicating with Mike, the partner she works with most closely. How might a coach, mentor, consultant and counselor uniquely help her?

Jane’s trained and credentialed coach might ask: “What are the hallmarks of good communication? Whose communication style do you admire? What are the key components of that person’s style? What do you want Mike to hear? What works in your communication with Mike? What doesn’t?” By asking these directed questions, figuring out the answers, and creating a way for Jane to be held accountable, Jane and her coach will develop a personalized roadmap so that she can better communicate with Mike.

Jane also consults Sherry, her mentor a junior level partner in her firm. Based on her experience with Mike, Sherry advises Jane that very direct, to-the-point email communication works best with him. She also suggests that Jane invite Mike to lunch and ask him questions about some of the clients she serves. This type of conversation, Sherry counsels Jane, will help boost Mike’s confidence in Jane and create a stronger relationship between them.

Jane also hires a communication consultant. Drawing on his expertise, he teaches Jane some of the fundamentals of good communication. He then advises her on how to use those skills in her situation with Mike.

Finally, Jane visits a counselor or therapist, who asks if Jane has always had communication issues, or issues with male authority figures. They then discuss ways Jane can change her future behavior so that it does not mirror her past.

As you can see, coaches, mentors, consultants and counselors all have unique and valuable approaches, and would treat the same dilemma very differently. Each may use coaching skills as a tool but only the trained coach will fully embody the coaching perspective. It is important for the integrity of each of these roles and professions that coaching be called coaching only when it truly meets the definition.

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How Coaching And Mentoring Leverage Leadership Talent

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“What you do with your billable time is revenue. What you do with your non-billable time is your future.”

- David Maister

In The Odyssey, when Odysseus left for his journeys he entrusted the care, education, and guidance of his son Telemachus to Mentor, a loyal advisor and teacher. Today, mentoring in the legal profession allows more experienced attorneys to help less experienced attorneys grow in their profession.

Coaching has become a necessary leadership competency for lawyers. Mentoring is equally important. Having one or more mentors can dramatically improve your career path in the law firm environment. In our busy world, lawyers seeking coaching or mentoring need to be proactive and self-managing. It is best to develop relationships with multiple advisors who can help you grow in your chosen profession.

Coaching and mentoring offer a tremendous opportunity to leverage leadership talent and resources; both can steer a law firm toward sustainable success. These essential leadership development practices can help law firms retain legal talent and fill their leadership pipeline. Unfortunately, the dynamic of relentlessly focusing on billable hours creates a conflict between a lawyer”s generous impulse to mentor and the increased pressure he feels to add revenue to the bottom line.

As Steve Joiner, managing partner of the Rose Law Firm comments, “Our Mentoring Program takes a lot of effort but it has been very worthwhile. I can only think of one associate that was arguably ëturned around” by the program but the program undoubtedly has resulted in identifying and forcing us to deal with problem areas much earlier than we did before implementing this program.”

How do you develop lawyers as leaders who both mentor and coach? How can you optimize their talents and potential? Which best practice coaching competencies produce lasting results that drive business performance?

Practice “In the Moment” Coaching And Mentoring

“In the moment” coaching and mentoring might relieve some of the time pressure lawyers experience and tap into their deeper purpose and values. Meaningful coaching or mentoring conversations can occur in a “just-in-time” minute or two providing tremendous value to both parties.

Because many lawyers tend to have an authoritative and directive leadership style, a great deal of mentoring at law firms might take this expert approach. However, lawyers can learn a more relaxed coaching approach, which is more non-directive and benevolent. Whether used for coaching or mentoring, this style is based on inquiry: the coach or mentor asks powerful questions, which allow the other person to discover his or her own answers. Coaching focuses on developing an authentic trusting relationship which is mutually beneficial and highly supportive. Instead of focusing on what”s wrong, this style leverages strengths.

The lawyers I have coached in this approach discover that mentoring or coaching other lawyers makes them feel happy and personally fulfilled. They become fully engaged in their work and life, and experience a deep sense of purpose and joy.

Take The Coaching Approach To Mentoring

In the high-pressure world of today”s law practice, the need for mentoring is more important than ever. Law firms can facilitate the mentoring process by creating a culture in which all lawyers are expected to teach and to learn from one another. Unfortunately, many experienced attorneys feel so much pressure to be rainmakers that this becomes a higher priority than the mentoring role. To compensate for this, attorneys can become inventive and use some of the social media sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, Second Life and Twitter) to alleviate some of the time pressure that has compromised the success of many mentor programs.

The most successful mentors are also coaches. Coaching requires different competencies from the analytical and directive ones expected from a lawyer. Using the Socratic Method, mentors ask powerful questions that help a mentee discover answers and resources that were previously buried. These skills often don”t come naturally to lawyers, but they can be learned. And many lawyers are glad to learn them, enjoying the change of pace.

Being able to empathize is a foundational skill for a coach. Empathy can be defined as the ability to see things from the other person”s point of view and to read other people. It starts with self-awareness: understanding your own emotions is essential to understanding the feelings of others. It is also crucial for effective communication and leadership.

Mentors who take the coaching approach ask questions and actively listen to the answers, sometimes asking deeper questions to help the mentee discover her own answers.

The Legal World Embraces Coaching, A New Paradigm

Coaching is no longer reserved for difficult leaders and lawyers. It is more frequently sought by top performers whose firms value their business and legal growth potential. Today”s managing partners recognize the importance of enabling leaders to achieve critical business objectives in the shortest possible time, and are hiring coaches to accelerate development.

Before a coach begins to work with law firm leaders, they must first correctly identify the client as the company or law firm. Next, ground rules have to be clarified, especially in these areas:

1. Confidentiality, expectations and commitment: The coach must be clear about what will be shared with the leader”s boss and what will be kept confidential. Aligning coaching with the strategic goals of the firm is crucial, as coaching isn”t merely an exercise in personal improvement.

2. Reporting relationships: There must be clarity among the three key participants the firm”s contact (boss or HR representative), the coach and the leader being coached.

3. Methods of information gathering: Key stakeholders, team members, direct reports and others involved will be contacted by both the coach and the leader being coached.

4. Making judgments, setting objectives and monitoring progress: The coach helps the leader and key stakeholders maintain objectivity. Coaches must focus on one or two behaviors, without judgment, and facilitate honest sharing about progress.

5. How, why and when the coaching will end: Coaching parameters must be set at the beginning of the engagement, with milestones for assessing progress and a completion date (usually 12 to 18 months).

Once the ground rules have been established, they cannot be bent along the way. The coaching relationship requires discipline and boundaries for progress to occur.

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Use Coaching To Expand Your Law Firm’s Potential

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For over two decades lawyers have recognized the need for formalized mentoring systems so that the wisdom and guidance of elder lawyers can be systematically imparted to younger lawyers. Mentoring is happening within law firms and through bar associations. Mentoring is great: it is emotionally and professionally supportive; it enhances integration, cultural diversity, and collegiality; it promotes the values of the profession; and it can lead to long-lasting, rewarding relationships.

But mentoring is not coaching. At its core, mentoring is person- focused. It is about supporting associate participation and career advancement. Coaching is job-focused. It is about improving associate performance and developing skills. Mentors advise; coaches instruct. Both are equally valuable. The big difference between the two is that mentoring frequently happens in the practice of law while coaching does not.

Coaching can be used to improve performance in just about every aspect of the practice of law: writing, analysis, oral advocacy, time management, leadership, and business development. Coaching is time- and attention-intensive, but the investment of both rewards the coach and the associate. Coaching can be used to correct or enhance performance, or both. Firms often turn to coaching to “fix” a problem. For example, an associate with excellent overall performance may have a specific deficit—writing, organization, communication—that needs to be improved in order to meet firm expectations. In baseball, imagine a Golden Glove shortstop who hits under .200 year after year. Although his manager values the player’s fielding skills, the team needs the player to hit more effectively to be of full value to the team so they hire a batting coach.

But firms can also use coaching more strategically to maximize the performance of talented attorneys who are already doing well. In this scenario, incremental improvement can be very profitable in terms of increased efficiency, increased productivity, and higher quality work at higher rates. Think about the baseball manager who brings in skill-specific coaches to improve his shortstop’s batting average from .300 to .325, make him a smarter base runner, and decrease the number of fielding errors by 50%. That’s how All-Stars are made. Do that with enough players and you’ll have a winning team.

To correct performance, firms often bring in outside coaches who have specific subject-matter expertise and well-developed coaching skills. Sometimes, an outside expert is the way to go. But this is not always the most cost-effective approach. Firms that want to use coaching to strategically enhance performance would benefit greatly by incorporating coaching into the roles and responsibilities of senior attorneys. Of course, coaching is itself a skill that, like any other, must be consciously and continuously developed.

A coach begins by assessing lawyer performance, then uses that assessment to identify specific performance objectives, and finally provides step-by-step instruction and evaluation to achieve those objectives.

Begin With An Initial Assessment To Identify Performance Objectives

If you are interested in coaching a colleague, the most important thing to remember is that you have to begin with who, what and where that individual is now. You have to understand the person’s individual history, knowledge, and experience as well as his or her inherent characteristics and talents. First, find out how others view the individual’s performance by reviewing evaluations and interviewing supervisors and peers. Ask questions that get beyond general descriptions like, “He’s a weak writer” or, “She’s not a persuasive speaker.”

Second, look at any objective data: time sheets, realization rates, billing rates, and work assignments. Third, if possible, conduct your own assessment of the individual’s performance by reviewing work she has written, observing her give a presentation, or running her through a role-play or sample scenario. Finally, walk the individual through a self-evaluation. Most people know their own weaknesses: they know what makes them struggle, and what makes them uncomfortable. At the end of this process, you should have a list of specific deficits or performance concerns that the individual needs to work on.

Because coaching is performance-based, you have to know the expected or desired level of performance. Many law firms have articulated their performance standards as benchmarks or core competencies. If the firm has not expressed these standards, use the interviewing process and your own experiences to articulate what performance is expected or desired. You and the associate both need to understand the goal and how performance will be measured.

Next, work with the individual to set performance goals. Here, you play the coach as motivator. The best coaches help lawyers envision the practitioners they might become. The performance goals should be well-defined and designed to move that particular person to the next level of expected or desired performance.

By comparing the desired performance with the actual performance, you should discover the performance gap.

Fix The Performance Gap In Four Steps

Coaching, which is both practical and experiential, begins after the performance gap is identified.

Step One: Identify the functional problem. To do this, you have to break down and examine the mechanics of the actual and the desired performance.

For example, in baseball, a batting coach working with our shortstop will look at the position of the hands, arms, and elbows; the angle of the bat; the distance from the plate; the balance of weight over the feet; the stance; the visual focus; the hand speed; the cut of the bat through the air; and the follow through. Similarly, a coach working with an attorney on legal writing will look at the person’s knowledge of the law, ability to find and understand the law and to gather and understand the facts, use of authority, expression of the facts, articulation of reasoning, as well as the more obvious details of organization, headings, citation format, sentence structure, word usage, grammar, and proofing.

Once you have identified all of the functional components of the performance gap, prioritize the order in which they will be addressed. Anyone who has ever taken golf lessons knows that it is impossible to fix an incorrect grip, stance, swing, and follow through all at the same time.

Step Two: Show and instruct. Having identified the functional problem(s), describe the problem(s) to the individual. He needs to know what needs to be changed, why, and what the new result will look like. Then, tell him how to change it. Even better, show him how to change it. Following your list of priorities, do this for only one or two functional components at a time.

Step Three: Practice, feedback, practice, feedback. Coaching provides high quality feedback that supports the development of skills. True performance improvement takes time and repetition. Just telling a person she is doing something wrong and telling her how to do it right is not enough to create change. The individual must have opportunities to practice what you teach her. As she practices, you need to keep giving her feedback on what is working and what is not. You also need to solicit her input. Does she understand the instruction? Does she understand how to apply it? Is it comfortable? Does it make sense? Does she think it is working? To enhance the coaching relationship, you need to know what the associate perceives as challenges or obstacles to her improvement, and to engage her in the process.

Step Four: Assess and refine. After the individual has had time to work on his performance, step back and assess. Has the performance gap been closed? Is the individual’s performance meeting or exceeding the desired level of performance? If so, great! If not, figure out why. Go back through Step One. Did you correctly identify the functional components of the performance problem? Did you correctly prioritize them? Then, go back over Step Two. Was the change that you suggested the right change? Did the individual really understand what you wanted him to do? Was he committed to making the change? If not, why not? Is there a different correction that you can suggest, or a different way to explain it? Once you have shifted the instruction, go through Step Three again.

Repeat these four steps until the desired performance is achieved. Once the performance has improved, move on to the next performance goal.

Coaching Has Reciprocal Benefits

Coaching is a strategic tool that maximizes a lawyer’s potential in ways that benefit both the individual attorney and the firm. For the individual attorney, coaching increases competence, facilitates the acquisition of new skills, builds confidence and identifies solutions to specific lawyering skills problems. For the firm, coaching improves relationships, demonstrates commitment to associates, allows more efficient use of attorney talents, and leverages experience for increased productivity and profitability.

From a purely selfish point of view, the benefits to you, as coach, are perhaps the greatest. Coaching can make a good lawyer great. Guiding someone else to a level of true excellence is one of the most satisfying professional experiences imaginable. For every Derek Jeter, Roger Staubach, and Mary Lou Retton, there was a Joe Torre, Tom Landry, and Bela Karolyi. But each of those coaches also coached a slew of other players who excelled at their sport thanks to coaching. Even more importantly, in the process of analyzing and improving performance, great coaches make lasting contributions to their fields in terms of strategies, techniques and standards. This is true in sports and it is true in law. That great coach could be you.

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