lawyers as tribal leaders: the anatomy of a movement
At this very moment (and now …. and now), thousands of lawyers are wondering where to go and what to do next.
You’ve been laid off.
You just graduated law school and can’t find a job.
You’re an associate in a firm where morale is at rock bottom and you never see daylight.
Finances, family obligations, pride and other real and imagined forces compel you to take some sort of action.
So, you weigh your options: You can network (on social sites and old school). You can identify and build your personal brand. You can go solo and start your own practice. Or, harnessing you interests, passions, concerns and lawyer skills, you can lead a tribe and create a movement.
According to thinkers/experts like Seth Godin and Spike Jones, most of us – yes, including most of us lawyers - yearn to connect around common interests, goals and passions. People sharing this kind of common bond form a single, but scattered, tribe. Tribes are everywhere.
And, today, leadership is about recognizing a tribe (either because you’re in it or committed to its goals) and helping its members satisfy their desperation to connect. You don’t have to reach out to thousands of people at once. You just need to make the initial connection to a small group (Godin calls them the True Believers) and the next group will follow, and so on, bit by bit, until you have a genuine movement.
So …
If you’re a lawyer who’s navigated the difficult road to adopting a child overseas and are passionate about helping others involved in that journey, there’s a tribe for you to lead in your personal and professional capacities.
If you’re a cycling enthusiast who’s seen one too many preventable accidents that caused major injuries, there’s a tribe for you to organize and lead by engaging your legal skill set and other talents.
If you’re a lawyer who loves animals and believe that they deserve to be treated humanely in life and after, you have a tribe that’s waiting for your leadership and the positive change that can come from it.
Whether you lead your tribe as a solo practitioner, a partner in a boutique firm or a biglaw associate, the opportunity is there to challenge the status quo, build a culture and forge a career path that’s rewarding on many levels.
If you want to learn more about tribal leadership and igniting a movement, you can watch Seth Godin’s TED conference talk and read his interview with Brian Clark of Copyblogger.
Later this month, I’ll post on the dialogue I recently had with Spike Jones as part of my Legal Sanity Mentor series on redesigning legal services around the client experience. In the interim, you can read the ChangeThis Manifesto his company, Brains on Fire, just published on Igniting Word of Mouth Movements and this follow-up post.
