Or Legal Secretary – this applies to them too. Talk about CST model if presented to non-RW audience.
If you dress professionally and appropriately, your attorneys and co-workers will take you more seriously. Your attorneys will not hesitate before introducing you to clients. Clients will feel confident their sensitive legal matters are being handled professionally. It may seem petty but what you wear is important in the legal field – clients need us to instill confidence in our abilities and the attorneys we work for are somehow comforted by the fact that they know we will be appropriately dressed on any given day. That’s why RW has a no jeans policy. And it may seem like common sense but you would be surprised at how many people out there don’t think about all aspects of personal hygiene. Showering/bathing, washing our hair, wearing deodorant are some of the obvious things – but brushing teeth, washing hands – not always practiced regularly (yuck, I know). Smell yourself and ask yourself whether you’d want to work near someone who smells like you. If you are an excellent assistant but have bad breath – people will avoid talking to you. I don’t know how many times I’ve used the restroom and heard someone flush and leave without washing their hands – gross. If I happen to know who was in there, I avoid shaking hands with them and I avoid touching anything I know they have touched. They may be a very good assistant but if they don’t wash their hands after using the restroom, I’m too grossed out to care what their skills are. Hygiene matters.
Who instills more confidence? Mimi? Or this professionally dressed woman. Ignore what you know about the Mimi character and just evaluate her wardrobe and make-up. Who would you feel more comfortable with when assigning a complicated task? I don’t advocated judging a person’s abilities based on appearance but it is one of the unfortunate realities of human nature. If you want to be taken seriously, the first detail you need to pay attention to is your appearance. Dress the part. Example: I was interviewing candidates for an assistant position 12 or 13 years ago (so not at RW). One candidate in particular stands out in my mind. I knew as soon as she walked in the door that I would not hire her. She was wearing an oversized sweater and pants that were too short. Her hair was a mess and her coat was too large and partially hanging off her shoulder. She sat in the reception area waiting for me and dropped her bag which was open so stuff spilled everywhere and she had to fumble around and pick up the mess. I could tell even before I talked to her that she was disorganized and didn’t care about her appearance. There were many other things during the course of the interview that gave me pause and confirmed my initial impression but this tells you how important your appearance can be.
Who would make a better representative, Pig Pen? Or Charlie Brown? Charlie Brown may not be the most attractive peanuts character, but he is clean cut and trustworthy. Your appearance and hygiene matter. As an aside – you should welcome comments from others that help you improve the way you look. For instance, if I have food in my teeth, I want someone to tell me so I don’t walk around all day talking to people with food in my teeth – that is a distraction. If I have food in my teeth, all people are thinking about while I’m talking is that I have spinach in my teeth – they will walk away from the conversation without really hearing what I have to say. It’s embarrassing too – I have a pocket mirror at my desk that I can look in to make sure I don’t have food between my teeth after I eat.
Prolific use of profanity is unprofessional and unattractive. It sends the message to the hearer that you are too lazy to use the proper terminology or that you don’t have the vocabulary to speak without using profanity. And even if your language is clean, if your conversation is always negative, you will develop an equally negative reputation. And Smile! You will be more successful if you are pleasant to work with and meet challenges with a smile. You will be more approachable and attorneys and staff will feel more comfortable with you. Smiling makes you approachable – do it even when you don’t feel like smiling. Realize that no one around you knows what’s going on in your personal life and they shouldn’t have to walk on egg shells around you. If they feel comfortable with you, they will trust you. If you want people to trust you, do not participate in office gossip. Those you talk to will certainly not trust you to keep confidences. If the attorneys you work for discover you are in the middle of all the latest office gossip sessions, they will not trust you with sensitive topics. Additionally, it sends the message that you don’t have enough work to do – or that you are not doing the work you were assigned. Gossip hurts others and it hurts your reputation – just avoid it altogether. Remember, if someone talks to you about others, you can be sure that they wouldn’t hesitate to talk to others about you. We’ve all been guilty of gossip but just be careful who and what you talk about – you may be sending a message that you can’t be trusted and that message gets around. If you want the trust and respect of the attorneys and staff around you – especially those on your team – you must act in a trustworthy and respectable manner. Act the Part.
You must treat everyone around you with the respect they deserve as human beings. Assume they deserve respect and treat them accordingly. They will in turn respect you and will be more likely to help you when you need it most. The attorneys will be impressed with your ability to let their occasional rudeness roll off your back and will give you good reviews. Other EAs and support staff will appreciate the kindness and respect you show toward them and will treat you the same way – you need them all to be willing to help you in a pinch. And HR may not be our favorite department – mainly because we fear what they can do to us - but you need them to like you so be nice and treat them with respect. We all know what it feels like to be dumped on by our superiors – don’t do that to your subordinates, even when you’re under pressure or having a bad day.
Pay attention to detail and avoid making mistakes. Try not to make many mistakes but you ARE going to make some - admit them when you make them, forgive yourself, learn from your mistakes and move on. When you make mistakes – admit that you made a mistake and do not try to blame your mistake on others. Own up to it and take the heat – it will be painful and you will feel a pit of fear in your stomach – but it will make you a more trusted and respected assistant. This is how you develop leadership skills – it is a good example for your assistant too. An example I have used as a training tool for my Admin Assistant is a huge mistake I made. I filed a Jury Demand in Snohomish County Superior Court and because I was so busy, I forgot to request a check and pay the fee. The Jury Demand was returned to me in the mail. So I quickly requested a check and sent it back to the court for filing. In the meantime, the court set the case for a non-jury trial and the attorney got the notice of trial setting and questioned me about it. I had forgotten the circumstances of this particular matter and checked the file. I soon realized that I had created the problem – the Jury Demand had been initially filed in time for the trial setting but because I had not paid the fee, they had taken it off the docket and sent it back to me in the mail. By the time it was returned with the required fee, it had already been set for trial. Now, I had been super busy and could have made a lot of excuses but the fact of the matter is that it was inexcusable. I was experienced enough to know that a Jury Demand required a fee and that if the fee wasn’t paid, it would be rejected. I called the court to find out what could be done and ultimately had to swallow the lump in my throat and confess my blunder to the attorney. I knew it was a mistake I could be fired for and I knew the attorney had every right to be angry with me. I braced myself for a lecture that never came – he was very kind and understanding and appreciated the fact that I had admitted my mistake – we worked together to do what we could to remedy it. It’s a good example to use as a training tool because it sends the message that I know I’m not perfect and can admit my mistakes. It would have been easy enough for me to blame my assistant to take the heat off myself but I didn’t do that because it would have been wrong. And hopefully it sends the message to my assistant that I don’t expect perfection from them but that I do expect them to own up to their mistakes and take responsibility for learning from them. It is important to be detail oriented and this includes being punctual. Don’t come to work late, don’t come back late from lunch. Reliability is more than just being punctual. Don’t use your sick time unless you are truly sick. The attorneys need to know that they can rely on you to not only be at work on time, but to be at work . They need to be able to rely on your work product – especially when they are busy and don’t have time to review your work. They need you to prove to them that you are capable of performing your duties in a prompt and reliable manner.
It is important for you to learn your job and perform it well. Equally important is for you to learn what everyone else does in the firm. If you want to stand out as a valuable employee, pay attention to how things work, how people relate to each other, who does what. Don’t keep your head down and do only your own job – you will be better respected if you respect the work that others around you do. Examples: When an e-mail was sent around to a few of us that use our firm’s AMEX card asking if any of us could claim a mystery charge on the card, I responded to let the accounts payable person know that the accounting manager had just that month come to one of our meetings and given out the AMEX number to all EAs and AAs so he should open the question up to all EAs and AAs because I doubted the charge was made by one of the people that use the AMEX card regularly because we certainly would be familiar enough with the procedures to let him know it had been used and what the c/m# was that was to be billed for the charge. I was the only one who had let him know this information – he VERY much appreciated the information and proceeded to send an e-mail to all support staff asking about the mystery charge. I made points with the accounts payable person and he cuts me slack when I am late getting something to him (which I try not to do very often). Also, an e-mail went to all EAs and AAs asking if we had ordered a CLE publication for one of our attorneys. I responded that I thought it could have been ordered by our firm’s library if they didn’t get a response from any of the EAs or AAs – lo and behold, the library HAD ordered it and the librarian thanked me for being aware of what’s going on around me. I am the go-to person for our librarian – she even asks me questions about how to use iTunes at home. Receptionists are good people to befriend. Our receptionists send all the menus from new catering companies that are dropped off at our firm to me because I have made friends with them and they know I order lots of food for meetings and am always looking for new places to order from. And when I’m in Support Services and a delivery to my floor comes in, I volunteer to take it upstairs for them – they appreciate the help because they are often short staffed and in turn, if I need them to come to my desk to pick up a delivery or FedEx on short notice, they are more willing to accommodate me. I’ve made friends with our IT people, our Word Processing people, our Accounting people, our librarians, our receptionists, etc. I have done this so that I have their support when I really need it – and they make helping me a priority because they know I make helping THEM a priority. And when you have down time, offer to assist others – you will need them some day and so volunteer to do even the ugly tasks and it will pay dividends in the end.
Once you have accomplished all of this, you will have the respect of your assistant and the attorneys around you and you will be capable of leading a successful CST. As an added bonus, Attorneys will go to bat for you if you are an excellent assistant. Be the kind of assistant that is worth protecting. Attorneys put their own reputations on the line when they protect their assistants – make sure you merit the confidence they put in you.
Be a sponge – soak up as much information as you can. This is going the extra mile but it will help you perform your job with greater skill. It’s obviously not required, but if you are serious about being a good leader and sticking with the legal field, educate yourself. If you know what’s coming down the pike, you can prepare yourself and be ahead of the game. This will give you an edge over the competition and will make you indispensable to the firm. And check with your firm to find out if they will sponsor you to attend seminars or other educational events. Our firm even paid for my PLS certification and regularly sponsors my attendance at CLEs. I subscribe to several newsbriefs that apply to the legal industry, the airline industry, the HR field, leadership newsbriefs, etc. I look at the headlines and sometimes share articles about our clients with the attorneys. Sometimes I forward articles to other EAs to help them with training or supervisory skills. Sometimes I find good articles that are useful for the professional development of AAs in our firm. Other times I find articles that I am interested in just for the sake of advancing my knowledge in some area. I am always looking for information on more efficient ways of doing things. I worked to get my PLS certification as well – at the very least, studying for the exam will stretch you and will help you increase your skills and knowledge base. I have a mental block on two or three grammar rules. I learn the rules and promptly forget them. I need reminders all the time – affect/effect, etc. I now have, saved on my desktop, an article (that I got from one of those newsbriefs and shared with the other EAs and AAs in our office) that discusses these grammar rules saved on my desktop that I can refer to when I forget the rules and need a quick refresher course. Turns out that many people struggle with the same grammar rules I do as evidenced by the article written about the rules I am stumped by frequently. It feels good to know that I’m not the only one out there that can’t get those rules drilled into my brain.
To handle a larger workload you have to learn to delegate. You have to realize that you can’t do it all yourself – enlist the help of your assistant, word processing, IT, the librarians, etc. But you also need to make sure you don’t delegate ALL your work. It’s a delicate balance that you have to reach. But the resources at your firm are there to help you – don’t forget about them when you are insanely busy – and don’t be so arrogant as to think you are the only one who can do a project well. If you have projects assigned to you that you don’t know how to do – find out how to do them. Roll up your sleeves and get in and figure it out – research the problem, find someone who has done it before and ask them about it. Not knowing how to do something is no excuse for pawning it off on someone else. Know when to delegate and when to do it yourself. It is important for you to know and follow the court rules – your attorneys depend on your knowledge and experience. And never be afraid to ask questions if you don’t know how to do something or can’t find something – many people are afraid to ask questions because they think it makes them look stupid. The person who looks stupid is the one who tries to wing it without asking questions when they don’t know how to do a project. It’s worse to do a project poorly than to admit you don’t know how to do a project and get some help and/or direction. No one can know how to do EVERYTHING – be humble enough to admit your limitations and get help. You can learn something from everyone you encounter. The most junior person at the firm knows SOMETHING you don’t – try to learn all you can from everyone you can.
Create instructions for procedures you perform regularly and need your AA to perform without much direction when you are busy. Then, create a notebook of instructions and procedures to have handy for anyone who might be assisting you. Training will be easier and you can’t possibly remember how to do every single thing – you will need to refer to your instructions too. Include instructions given to you by others as well – tasks you rarely perform but that have detailed instructions should be clearly outlined in a document so you don’t have to re-create the wheel every time. Solicit information from others. It’s possible someone else has created instructions for the task you need to know how to do. Make allies and make it known to them that you are open to direction. People will then keep you in the loop when creating instructions and you can add them to your notebook and training tools. In turn, share what instructions you put together – they will remember you when they have instructions they create and will be more likely to share them with you if you share yours with them.
I can’t stress enough how important it is to be organized. One of my attorneys told me once that I was the most organized person he knew and he asked me to help get him organized. You will be able to find things easier and things will not slip through the cracks if you are well organized. Prioritization is equally important – become excellent at prioritizing your tasks or you will not survive the insanity of the legal field. Use every available organizational tool at your disposal.
Our jobs are inherently stressful. We manage a large workload and we are frequently under pressure. We have deadlines to meet, large projects to juggle and competing demands from multiple attorneys. But there is no excuse for taking our frustrations out on those around us. Direct your frustration at the project at hand and do not let it spill out on unsuspecting attorneys or staff that approach you. If an attorney asks you to work on a project when you are already swamped and know you can’t possibly get it done – be nice, ask questions about when the project is due, etc., let them know that you are under the gun but that you will work to fit it in or find someone else to get the project done – do it with a smile and then delegate what you can and re-prioritize your workload if necessary. You will survive this crisis – but you’ll survive it with no aftermath to clean up if you are decent to and respectful of those around you. Get up and take a quick walk around the floor to clear your head if you feel yourself about to boil out of control before someone walks up to your desk – deal with your frustration BEFORE it gets to the boiling point.
If you train your assistant well, are approachable and encouraging, you will find your job much easier. You can handle stressful situations if you have a well-trained assistant as an ally. They will save you and will be very loyal. If you can create a sense of excitement in your assistant – get them excited about their job and help them to feel a sense of pride in their work – they will be more likely to stick with the legal field and will be more engaged in the day-to-day grind. You will be doing yourself, your assistant, your whole team and the firm a favor if you can get excited about your own job and spread that excitement to your assistant.
This is slide #16 but Communication is absolutely essential and is the key to a successful CST. Communicate with your attorneys, with your assistant, with other departments and CSTs and with HR. The attorneys on your team only know what they are working on and asking you to do for them. If you are doing a large project for one attorney, communicate that to your whole team so they know they need to give you notice before giving you a large project and so they know what your workload looks like. They will feel more confident in your ability to juggle multiple projects and to prioritize appropriately if they receive regular communication from you evidencing your prioritization skills. I find that if I send an e-mail out to our team (and I’ve had IT set up an e-mail group for my team – another organizational tool that will save you time) letting them know about some deadlines I am facing and asking them to be flexible and to give me more lead time when assigning projects than usual, I get a fantastic response – the attorneys cut me more slack than I need and I actually usually end up asking them to give me more work because they are so wanting to reduce my stress that they hold back too much in anticipation of my heavy workload. Again, I know it’s difficult for us to think of HR as a department that needs to be kept informed. But they really do – it’s hard for them to keep track of what’s going on with everyone and it is impossible for HR to know what is going on with your team if you don’t tell them – don’t expect them to read your mind. If you have issues or important developments they should know about – TELL THEM!
Don’t let your job stress you out. Laugh every day. Enjoy what you do. If you have a smile on your face and can find humor in stressful situations, you will gain the respect and loyalty of those around you and will make your attorneys and others comfortable with you. I read Snoopy cartoons and have several of them posted at my desk. I have pictures of my daughter on my desktop wallpaper (I change them out regularly) – they are pictures that make me laugh. I enjoy my job – even when it gets crazy. And that makes me smile – every day. I take to heart a wise saying from my Father-In-Law (a marriage and family counselor) – “You can be happy or miserable doing anything, the choice is yours.” And it IS a choice – I have turned many ugly, stressful working situations around in my own mind and made myself be happy regardless of the circumstances and it DOES work, you just have to be willing to adjust your attitude and it takes a concerted effort – but it can be done and I choose to be happy. Our lives are more than work – don’t be a workaholic, it will make you crazy.
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