Leadership
Continued from previous page ■ Everyone still needs to get work done, so as has always been the case, each person and especially leaders have to take steps to check in and assess/evaluate/support team members to achieve outputs or deliver advice and guidance to business. ■ This may mean greater emphasis on process, use of templates, capture of data to provide key performance indicators and more regular check ins with stakeholders, to get feedback and make sure work is aligned with their goals, allowing for ongoing calibration to adjust quickly and keep moving forward. ■ There is greater use of coaching through face-to-face video sessions to help instantly, rather than wait for an appraisal
The Pandemic and the “new” General Counsel
28 | LegalWomen
process, as work can easily hit a blocker and get stuck if not supported. ■ Easy to spot leader behaviours when all leaders are in place, not travelling. This has a levelling effect, as everyone has same opportunity for access and the leader has more opportunity to operate consistently across all teams in all geographies. ■ Video calls for everyone means no difference between being physically present and those on comms links. Less likely for loudest voice in the room to drown out others if leader handles meeting etiquette smoothly. ■ Clear when chair doesn’t control time, relevance or giving each person an opportunity to speak – shows up skills (or lack of skills) of chair. Rotating chair helps all attendees gain such skills and shows collegiate behaviours. ■
T
he pandemic brought into sharp focus our role as leaders within our companies. Suddenly GCs/CLOs were invited to various “war rooms” set up in companies all over the country as we scratched our heads together with our leadership, at the very unknown problem we had on our hands. The legal department was super popular. It was pulled into negotiations and disputes relating to scope reduction and early termination of services by our clients. We also had to contend with holding AGMs entirely remotely which was rather problematic for PLCs with hundreds of shareholders. I am sure that we will forever reminisce about that time when the Force Majeure clause became the most important clause in a contract. Alongside these discussions were the various relief measures introduced by the UK government to help companies, employees
