The world seems to be creaking on its tectonic plates, causing earthquakes across the globe.
To name but a few key crises.
Most obviously the conflict in Ukraine, which has thrown many countries into energy crisis.
Just this week Putin has upped the ante by threatening the use of nuclear weapons. The decision to trigger plebiscites in Russian-held territories in the east of Ukraine smacks of 1938 and is frightening.
Climate change. This summer in Europe has seen temperatures soar to historic highs and forest fires have raged in a number of countries.
Financial crisis. The war in Ukraine has caused inflation to rocket in many countries and the Fed and the Bank of England have both been raising interest rates rapidly to try to counteract inflation. Inflation, of course, often sparks political and social unrest. Here in the UK, use of food banks is at unprecedented levels and talk is of families having to choose between eating and heating.
All in all, a far from benign picture and one that will inevitably affect corporate counsel.
In this issue I start a series on leadership through crisis, in which I am inviting several senior in-house counsel (current and ex) to talk about the demands placed on senior in-house lawyers during crises, and how best to respond to these demands. If you would like to contribute to this series, please let me know.
I will introduce the series in this issue and next week David Moskowitz (former Deputy General Counsel of Wells Fargo) will set out his views on the best leadership response to crisis.
As always, please comment and contribute to the debate by posting direct on Practical Counsel. Also, please write in with your unique people issues to me (practicalcounsel@substack.com) - I unequivocally undertake never to reveal your identity and will change key details of your situation so as to preserve your confidentiality and anonymity (unless you don’t want this). I also undertake to write to you personally with my own thoughts and comments on your situation and am always happy to follow up with a call on Zoom or similar.
‘Dear Jonathan’ and Jonathan’s Reply
Email from Petra to Jonathan
Dear Jonathan
I enjoyed your summer series looking at role models from popular culture. And I also enjoyed your tribute to the late Queen.
I’m glad that you’re shifting to the topic of leadership through crisis.
I’m General Counsel of a manufacturing business in Germany. As you can imagine the energy crisis is causing us real concern. Not only are energy prices going through the roof – but we face the threat of business interruption during the winter as we might be forced to stop production as part of our Government’s energy saving measures.
I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts about leadership through crisis – and also those of other senior in-house lawyers.
Best wishes
Petra
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Email from Jonathan to Petra
Dear Petra
Many thanks for your email. These are indeed worrying times, perhaps even more so in Germany than in the UK, given Germany’s heavy reliance on Russian gas.
I’m going to share a few of my own thoughts about leadership through crisis, but primarily by way of introduction to a series of pieces by other in-house lawyers who have lead through a variety of crises.
My first thought is about maintaining calm and leading others through projecting optimism.
“If you can keep you head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you …”
Thus, the first two lines of Rudyard Kipling’s most famous poem “If”.
I think those words are as true now as when they were written by Kipling in the 1890s.
Most crises are cyclical and are rarely as bad as most feared. A key part of the senior in-house lawyer’s role is to retain a sense of calm while others are less level-headed and to advise the business dispassionately and objectively. It is hard, if not impossible, to lead effectively when you are in a state of panic.
But there is a world of difference between merely maintaining calm, and actively projecting optimism. The effective manager and adviser maintains calm – the inspirational leader projects optimism.
Great leaders inspire, and do so through radiating optimism. This doesn’t mean that they ignore difficulties, or downplay them. Part of Churchill’s wartime genius was, on the one hand, to speak realistically to his audience, but on the other to paint a picture of a better future.
In his famous speech after the Dunkirk evacuation, for example, Churchill said that:
“We must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of a victory. Wars are not won by evacuations … ”
Yet throughout the war, without hiding the challenges, he inspired his audience, painting for them an optimistic future, that victory would ultimately be theirs:
“I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny …”
The Centre for Creative Leadership (quoting from the work of Gene Klann) suggests four ways to stay cool in a crisis:
1. Thinking of today
2. Focusing on the positive
3. Getting grounded (suggestions include taking short private breaks, meditating etc)
4. Prioritising and focusing
And resilience (and courage) are one of seven higher order constructs suggested by Balasubramaniam & Fernandes in a recent paper about effective leadership in situations of crisis. The other six constructs are:
1. Compassion and care
2. Openness and communication
3. Adaptiveness
4. Decisivenss
5. Consultation and collaboration
6. Empowerment
I have focused above on maintaining calm and projecting optimism, but I would focus more generally on the importance of good communication as a key component of leading effectively through crisis.
The senior in-house lawyer’s role is both to carry his or her own team through the crisis, but also to advise and buoy the business – and to add maximum value throughout the crisis. Five actions suggested by Gene Klann to prepare and respond when leading through a crisis apply as well to senior in-house lawyers as to any other senior leader:
1. Seek credible information
2. Use the appropriate communication channels (as he puts it “Information is the oil that greases an organisation and keeps it running smoothly. This is especially true during a crisis”)
3. Explain what your organisation is doing about the crisis
4. Be present, visible and available
5. Dedicate resources for future crises
Petra, I am sure that contributors to this series of issues will share a variety of anecdotes about their personal responses to crisis - but I would be surprised if good communication isn’t a key thread running through those anecdotes.
Thank you for writing in, and good luck navigating the crisis facing your own business.
Best wishes
Jonathan
Key Takeaways
1. This is the first in a series of issues about leadership through crisis.
2. In this issue, Jonathan introduces the series and shares some initial thoughts about the best ways for senior in-house lawyers to show leadership during a crisis.
3. Key is maintaining calm and projecting optimism – but not at the expense of misinforming of downplaying key issues of concern.
4. Good communication is also of great importance – actively seeking out credible information and communicating that information through the appropriate channels.
And now …….
Contribute to the debate and write in with your comments and observations. Also write to Jonathan with any other people issues you face as an in-house lawyer.
Jonathan can be reached by email at practicalcounsel@substack.com
A note for you picky lawyers; and a plea for tolerance
I am a British lawyer by background and went to both school and University in the UK. So my English is British English. I have taken a conscious decision to write this newsletter in British English, but to try to avoid phrases that aren’t common outside the UK. Sometimes, though, I’ll use a phrase that isn’t commonly used outside the UK, without realising that it is a Britishism. I also endeavour to use the vernacular spellings of my contributors (e.g. to use US spellings for a US contributor), but won’t always get this right.
My plea is for you to tolerate the British spellings and grammar and the occasional Britishism. And to focus on the substance of the newsletter rather than the occasional (to you) annoying turn of phrase, bit of grammar or unorthodox spelling, or the occasional inconsistency in spelling as between, for example, UK and US ‘standard’ spellings.
Thank you and best wishes,
Jonathan Middleburgh