Irma Becerra, Forbes; Compassion Is A Vital Leadership Skill
"Compassion In Action
First, compassionate leadership involves trying to walk in the shoes of others, be it your employees or your clients, in order to better understand what they are experiencing at a much deeper level."
CHRIS RAMIREZ, Politico; Head of nation’s largest 4-year university system resigns under fire
"Three weeks before Castro was named chancellor in September 2020, Castro and Lamas entered a settlement agreement that barred Lamas from working for CSU. In return, Lamas was guaranteed $260,000, full benefits and a letter of recommendation from Castro to any other college jobs Lamas applied for, USA Today reported.
Castro apologized in an open letter to students and faculty at Cal State, saying he regretted offering Lamas the letter of recommendation. He added that Lamas was removed from campus immediately after a formal Title IX claim was filed against Lamas in 2019.
A growing number of faculty and state lawmakers had been calling for an investigation, outraged at the report.
Such behavior happens “all the time,” CFA North Associate Vice President Meghan O’Donnell said in an interview Thursday. “It’s important for us to recognize that this is systemic,” she said, “and part of the problem is the fact that we have very little transparency or public input into the hiring of these senior level administrators.”...
The CSU also announced it will begin an initiative to “bring CSU to the forefront of Title IX innovation, accountability and response.”"
Bruce Weinstein, Forbes; Why These Successful Professionals Have Devoted Their Careers To Ethics
"What would prompt someone to devote their career to the field of ethics? I asked eight ethics professionals from five countries this question. Here are their responses, followed by my own brief reflections."
Answer From Craig N. Sawchuk, Ph.D., L.P., Mayo Clinic; Fear of public speaking: How can I overcome it?
"Fear of public speaking is a common form of anxiety. It can range from slight nervousness to paralyzing fear and panic. Many people with this fear avoid public speaking situations altogether, or they suffer through them with shaking hands and a quavering voice. But with preparation and persistence, you can overcome your fear.
These steps may help:
Sanhita SinhaRoy , American Libraries; Defenders of Patron Privacy
"When the FBI approached George Christian in 2005 with a national security letter (NSL) and lifetime gag order, the then–executive director of the Library Connection—a Connecticut library consortium—convened a meeting with the organization’s executive committee. The NSL would have forced them to turn over customer information without a judge’s order or a grand jury subpoena. They refused to comply and later came to be known as the Connecticut Four.
With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), they challenged the climate of surveillance and government overreach that followed the September 11 attacks, showing the nation that librarians would stand by the rights of patrons and civil liberties.
Here, the four share their memories of the experience and its resonance today with American Libraries.They are Christian, retired executive director of Library Connection; Barbara Bailey, director of Welles-Turner Memorial Library in Glastonbury, Connecticut; Peter Chase, retired director of Plainville (Conn.) Public Library; and Janet Nocek, director of Portland (Conn.) Library."
Brad Stulberg, The New York Times; You’ve Done Self Care. You’ve Languished. Now Try This.
"If you don’t know where to begin, a good place to start is by reflecting on what matters to you most, what provides you with a sense of well-being and groundedness. Then ask yourself how to apply that activation energy strategically. What actions will give you the oomph you need? For example, if improving your fitness would make you feel better, you might start with 30 minutes of daily movement. If creativity is what you’re missing, writing for an hour three days per week could restart that engine. If you lack loving connection, try planning an adventure (that feels safe) with your family or friends, or even schedule time for physical intimacy with a partner. You may not feel like getting started, but get started anyway, then see what happens. Your doing influences your being.
This isn’t to suggest that you beat yourself up or give yourself a drill-sergeant lecture every morning. Indeed, a key step in the strategy is accepting its imperfections. Many of us are operating in less-than-ideal circumstances — dealing with illness, financial stress, work anxiety, a lack of child care. Overcoming the inertia of languishing requires fierce self-discipline — and a fierce compassion for oneself. You may think of these two qualities as opposites, but they are not. Research shows that being kind to yourself during hardships and challenges can increase resilience and strength.
A mantra I use in my own life is, “This is what’s happening right now. I’m doing the best that I can. Just get going, and see what happens.” I remind myself that sometimes the kindest thing I can do for myself is also the hardest thing to do — and that what seems hard today might just make tomorrow feel a bit easier."
Martin Austermuhle, NPR ; DCPL to rework its policy for naming spaces after donors
"The director of the D.C. Public Library told the D.C. Council on Wednesday that he plans to rework the policy that allows DCPL to unilaterally name interior places and spaces after donors. DCPL Director Richard Reyes-Gavilan also apologized for a recent dustup over his recommendation to name an auditorium in the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos...
In 2019, the board approved a "Naming Policy for D.C. Public Library Spaces and Programs" that spells out when interior and exterior spaces of libraries can be named after specific people, notably staff members or distinguished people who offered "extraordinary service" to the library system, or donors "who have made a significant financial contribution to the library." The policy does call for a "due diligence review" of any proposed renaming, including "whether the name is and will continue to be a positive reflection on the library.""
Curt Nickisch, HBR IdeaCast, Episode 840; The Positives—and Perils—of Storytelling
"JONATHAN GOTTSCHALL: Ever since I published The Storytelling Animal, I became part sort of on the edges of what I’ve called the storytelling industrial complex – keynoters and book writers and consultants who’ve traveled around the country and are giving lessons to businesses and other big organizations about how to tell more persuasive stories, more memorable stories, more contagious stories. And I’ve also been spreading the good news that stories are a good thing. They’re good in the sense that they do good in the world. And they’re good in the sense that they also happen to make good business. And I’ve become increasingly troubled by the overstatements or the things left out of the messaging.
So the first thing is that stories aren’t good. They just aren’t. Stories are just powerful. I think it’s better to think of the force of storytelling as a mercenary that sells itself just as eagerly to the bad guys.
The other thing about storytelling is as soon as you’re telling a story, you’re in an ethically fraught situation, because basically what you’re doing is you’re trying to use a form of messaging that’s not quite explicit. Storytelling is always sort of indirect. And that’s the power of storytelling, and so people don’t get as skeptical and they don’t get as suspicious.
In my years in the storytelling industrial complex and attending conferences and reading other people’s books, I’d noted quite frequently that the power of storytelling was often likened to a Trojan horse. And this is a pretty good analogy for how stories work. The idea is that you have this beautiful structure, this thing we all love. The Trojan horse is this beautiful work of art, but it’s smuggling in something else. It’s smuggling in a message."
Forbes; 16 Tips To Transform Employee Performance Evaluations In 2022
"As hybrid and remote work solutions continue to become the new norm throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond, many business leaders are rethinking how to adjust what used to be an in-person employee annual review process now that there are more people working from home on a regular basis.
In December 2021, Psychology Today reported that organizations are now more likely to implement systematic, frequent (rather than annual), and shorter reviews that are focused on productive feedback, guidance and coaching to help their staff members make better decisions.
Depending on how your department managers choose to conduct their employee performance evaluations, a streamlined approach may be a better fit and beneficial for all parties involved. Below are 16 ideas that Forbes Human Resources Council members have put in place to transform employee evaluations in their organizations."
Deirdre Walsh, NPR ; Congress approves bill to end forced arbitration in sexual assault cases
"The Senate approved legislation banning the practice of using clauses in employment contracts that force victims of sexual assault and harassment to pursue their cases in forced arbitration, which shields accused perpetrators.
Sen. Kirstin Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., introduced the bill five years ago and lawmakers negotiated with business leaders to get support for the bill. In a sign of the overwhelming support for the measure, it was approved by voice vote in the chamber.
The bill, called the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act, was passed with a large bipartisan vote by the House of Representatives on Monday and heads to President Biden's desk for his signature.
The bill gives individuals a choice between going to court or going to arbitration to resolve allegations in cases related to sexual harassment or assault. The measure is also retroactive — invalidating any existing forced arbitration clauses in ongoing cases that could make it difficult for any survivors to litigate cases against their employers.""
MARTIN AUSTERMUHLE, NPR ; After backlash, Jeff Bezos suggests naming library auditorium for Toni Morrison
"Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has asked the D.C. Public Library to name an auditorium in the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library after famed late Black author Toni Morrison, instead of after him.
The request — first reported by The Washington Post — is an apparent response to growing criticism over last week's decision by library trustees to name it after Bezos in recognition of a $2.7 million donation he made to a childhood literacy program."
Cianna Reeves, WJTV; Ridgeland leaders respond to library controversy
"It’s been a week since the Ridgeland Public Library announced that the city was withholding more than $100,000 in funding due to a display of books featuring LGBT content.
At the City’s board meeting on Tuesday, the City’s attorney read a statement from Mayor Gene McGee and the City’s Board of Aldermen...
The Library System said that they aim to provide a diversity of viewpoints including political, social, and religious topics."
Emma Roth, The Verge; Two members of Google’s Ethical AI group leave to join Timnit Gebru’s nonprofit
"Two members of Google’s Ethical AI group have announced their departures from the company, according to a report from Bloomberg. Senior researcher Alex Hanna, and software engineer Dylan Baker, will join Timnit Gebru’s nonprofit research institute, Distributed AI Research (DAIR)...
In a post announcing her resignation on Medium, Hanna criticizes the “toxic” work environment at Google, and draws attention to a lack of representation of Black women at the company."
Zahira Jaser, Dimitra Petrakaki, Rachel Starr, and Ernesto Oyarbide-Magaña, Harvard Business Review (HBR) ; Where Automated Job Interviews Fall Short
"The use of artificial intelligence in HR processes is a new, and likely unstoppable, trend. In recruitment, up to 86% of employers use job interviews mediated by technology, a growing portion of which are automated video interviews (AVIs).
AVIs involve job candidates being interviewed by an artificial intelligence, which requires them to record themselves on an interview platform, answering questions under time pressure. The video is then submitted through the AI developer platform, which processes the data of the candidate — this can be visual (e.g. smiles), verbal (e.g. key words used), and/or vocal (e.g. the tone of voice). In some cases, the platform then passes a report with an interpretation of the job candidate’s performance to the employer.
The technologies used for these videos present issues in reliably capturing a candidate’s characteristics. There is also strong evidence that these technologies can contain bias that can exclude some categories of job-seekers. The Berkeley Haas Center for Equity, Gender, and Leadership reports that 44% of AI systems are embedded with gender bias, with about 26% displaying both gender and race bias. For example, facial recognition algorithms have a 35% higher detection error for recognizing the gender of women of color, compared to men with lighter skin.
But as developers work to remove biases and increase reliability, we still know very little on how AVIs (or other types of interviews involving artificial intelligence) are experienced by different categories of job candidates themselves, and how these experiences affect them, this is where our research focused. Without this knowledge, employers and managers can’t fully understand the impact these technologies are having on their talent pool or on different group of workers (e.g., age, ethnicity, and social background). As a result, organizations are ill-equipped to discern whether the platforms they turn to are truly helping them hire candidates that align with their goals. We seek to explore whether employers are alienating promising candidates — and potentially entire categories of job seekers by default — because of varying experiences of the technology."
Kellie Murray, The Oracle; Strategic plan focuses on creating diverse community, student success
"The USF Strategic Planning Steering Committee’s five-year plan, to be applied across all campuses, is driven by encouraging student and faculty success, increasing partnerships and diversity in the university community and a strong financial base.
Interim President Rhea Law presented the strategic plan, “In Pursuit of Excellence,” on Jan. 25 to the Florida Board of Governors (BOG), seeking and successfully obtaining unanimous approval. It is set to be implemented July 1.
The plan consists of five main goals, 22 objectives, 68 measures of success and 131 granular measurements which are set to be completed by 2027, according to Co-Chair of the Strategic Planning Steering Committee Pritish Mukherjee."
JESSICA STILLMAN, Inc.; Humility Is an Undersung Leadership Skill. Adam Grant Says These 2 Interview Questions Screen for It
Lisa Peet, Library Journal; Collective Support: LJ’s 2022 Librarians of the Year
"Each January, Library Journal bestows its Librarian of the Year award on a North American library professional or team whose work embodies the best of the profession’s mission. These have ranged from academic to public to special librarians, and from directors and state librarians to patron-facing staff, but all have demonstrated accomplishments that reflect their commitment to free access to information, service to all areas and constituencies, and strengthening the library role in the community.
The past year has asked much from library workers across the country, among many others. COVID-19 continued to create unprecedented challenges, requiring library staff to balance patron and student needs with their own safety and that of their colleagues and loved ones...
For all of the above and countless other reasons, the winner of LJ’s 2022 Librarian of the Year award, sponsored by Baker & Taylor, is all library staff. It’s you, reading this. It’s your colleague behind the front desk, the volunteer shelving books, the outreach worker in the bookmobile, the tech staff member setting someone up with their first email account, the instructional librarian helping a first-year student navigate college resources, the school librarian fighting to keep Lawn Boy and Ruby Bridges Goes to School on the shelves for students eager to see the diversity of their world reflected in their reading, the medical librarian wrangling pandemic research to support colleagues saving lives. Congratulations. You’ve earned it.
Fittingly, the idea was inspired by a library staffer."
Duquesne University; Systemwide Interventions to Reduce Stress Among LGBTAQI+ Individuals
The upcoming Père Jacques Laval C.S.Sp., Global Public Health Speaker Series event will offer an overview of the minority stress model, focusing on its use in designing systemwide interventions in health care and education to reduce negative stress among LGBTAQI+ people.
The online event will be held Tuesday, Feb. 16, from noon to 2 p.m. via Zoom. It will feature keynote speaker Associate Pharmacy Professor Dr. Kyle Wilby from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Wilby's educational research focuses on program evaluation, diversity and inclusion within education systems, assessor cognition, strategic planning and optimizing students' learning environments. He also is an active researcher in LGBTQ2+ health and cultural safety training for health care professionals.
RSVP online by Monday, Feb. 15. The event is free and open to the public. A Zoom link will be emailed to registrants the morning of the event.
For more information, call 412.396.2651 or email the Center for African Studies.
The Père Jacques Laval C.S.Sp., Global Public Health Speaker Series is co-sponsored by the Center for African Studies, the Bayer School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, the School of Nursing, the proposed College of Osteopathic Medicine, the School of Pharmacy and the John G. Rangos School of Health Sciences.
Terra Dankowski, American Libraries; Burrowed in Books
What does Phil mean to the community? How many years has he been living at the library, and has his celebrity helped raise its profile?
Phil means a lot to many different people in Punxsutawney. He means pride, tradition, local history, and community. [He’s] a symbol for western Pennsylvania. He’s been here at this address since the 1970s.
We get people year-round, from all over the world, who come to see Phil. It’s on their bucket list, so they’ll come and talk to us about what Phil means to them. One was a woman from the South, and she came with her father. They host Groundhog Day parties because everyone has Christmas parties, everyone has Super Bowl parties, so they host the groundhog party every year. After 15 years she finally had a chance to make it up here and meet Phil, so it was an awesome conversation to have.
[People] not only come to look at Phil, but because we’re a library, people like to see what we have to offer. We’re located next to what is called Barclay Square [at the center of town], so our library gets a lot of foot traffic."
On Being with Krista Tippett; Remembering Thich Nhat Hanh, Brother Thay
"Tippett: I wonder if you can think of, say, a situation where you think you might have done something differently than you would have before, a concrete way in which it changed your action or reaction in some way.
Ward: When my mother passed away, about seven years ago, I was actually on vacation with my wife and some friends in Costa Rica. And I was in a small village that only had two telephones, one private, one public; the public one did not work. This was around Christmastime. So when I was finally able to get a phone and call, I found out my mother died. And so I went — took three days to get back to Cleveland, where she was, and by that time, she was already buried. And my father was overwhelmed with grief. And he was so overwhelmed with grief that after the burial, he went home and he shut the door and he wouldn’t let any of the children in the house.
So I started sending him flowers and love letters over six months’ time. And I would go visit, and I’d sit outside the house and bring my flowers and put them on the porch — and this is after flying from Idaho or wherever I was — and I knew he was in there, and I’d leave them, and then I’d go on and visit my sister, you know, etc., etc. And finally he opened the door, which was, to me, opening the door to himself. And so now we’re in a totally different environment and a different situation. And I’m certain that without the practice, that is not how I would have responded to an experience of “rejection.”
I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. If I’d have been operating out of that mindset of my youth, I would’ve just said, you know, Forget you. And instead, I was able to understand what was happening to my father. I could see and feel his suffering, his tremendous heartbreak. I knew that he didn’t have any training in dealing with emotion — none. And I knew that in my family, my mother was the emotional intelligence, and that when she passed away, he had no skills, no capacity to handle the huge ocean of grief he found himself in. So my practice was to communicate to him that I was there for him, that I supported him, and that I loved him, but my practice also was to hold compassion for him and myself and my family so that we could all go through our grieving process peacefully, and at our own pace...
Tippett: A cynic would say, well, he can give these beautiful teachings about ending violence, and then there are these individuals who come to a retreat like this, who are clearly taking this seriously and taking this back to their lives, but they’re just drops in the ocean.
Ward: That is true. I am a drop in the ocean; but I’m also the ocean. I’m a drop in America, but I’m also America. Every pain, every confusion, every good and every bad and every ugly of America is in me. And as I’m able to transform myself and heal myself and take care of myself, I’m very conscious that I’m healing and transforming and taking care of America. Particularly I’m saying this for American cynics — [laughs] but this is also true globally. And so as we’re able, however small, however slowly, it’s for real.
Tippett: Larry Ward co-founded The Lotus Institute, a meditation center devoted to the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh. In 2020 he published a new book, America’s Racial Karma: An Invitation to Heal."
JUSTIN BARISO , Inc.; After a Historic Game, Patrick Mahomes Desperately Wanted to Speak With One Person. It's a Lesson in Emotional Intelligence
"Feeling Empathy vs. Showing Empathy
As you can see, compassionate empathy is the only one of the three that is active. Compassionate empathy moves a person to actually do something about what they've discovered. And while it may be the most challenging of the three to demonstrate, it's also the most rewarding.
But you might wonder, what would have motivated Mahomes to make such an effort to speak to a fierce competitor?
Rewind back to 2019, when Tom Brady and the Patriots defeated Mahomes and the Chiefs in a very similar fashion. After the game, Brady made a special effort to speak to Mahomes, to share an encouraging word and to help Mahomes keep his chin up.
"He said that he loved the way that I played," Mahomes once revealed in an interview with Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon. "It was awesome for him to do that and to show that class at such an exciting moment."
This is why we say empathy begets empathy.
When a person feels understood, they're more likely to try to reciprocate that effort. Or, as Mahomes demonstrates, to pay that empathy forward.
And the more you exercise your empathy muscle, the stronger it gets. For Mahomes, it will become only easier to show empathy the next time--to his wife, his family, his teammates, his coach, his friends, his competitors.
The result? You earn the respect of others, and are able to build stronger, deeper, more loyal relationships.
So, the next time you see someone suffering through something you've experienced, resist the urge to brush them aside. Instead, take a page out of Mahomes's playbook, and show some empathy.
It'll make you, and the people around you, that much better."
Ted Gioia, The Atlantic ; Is Old Music Killing New Music?
"A series of unfortunate events are conspiring to marginalize new music. The pandemic is one of these ugly facts, but hardly the only contributor to the growing crisis.
Consider these other trends:...
When a new song overcomes these obstacles and actually becomes a hit, the risk of copyright lawsuits is greater than ever before. The risks have increased enormously since the “Blurred Lines” jury decision of 2015, and the result is that additional cash gets transferred from today’s musicians to old (or deceased) artists.
Adding to the nightmare, dead musicians are now coming back to life in virtual form—via holograms and “deepfake” music—making it all the harder for young, living artists to compete in the marketplace...
I learned the danger of excessive caution long ago, when I consulted for huge Fortune 500 companies. The single biggest problem I encountered—shared by virtually every large company I analyzed—was investing too much of their time and money into defending old ways of doing business, rather than building new ones. We even had a proprietary tool for quantifying this misallocation of resources that spelled out the mistakes in precise dollars and cents.
Senior management hated hearing this, and always insisted that defending the old business units was their safest bet. After I encountered this embedded mindset again and again and saw its consequences, I reached the painful conclusion that the safest path is usually the most dangerous. If you pursue a strategy—whether in business or your personal life—that avoids all risk, you might flourish in the short run, but you flounder over the long term. That’s what is now happening in the music business.
Even so, I refuse to accept that we are in some grim endgame, witnessing the death throes of new music."
Nick Judin Mississippi Free Press; Ridgeland Mayor Demands LGBTQ+ Book Purge, Threatens Library Funding
"Ridgeland Mayor Gene McGee is withholding $110,000 of funding from the Madison County Library System allegedly on the basis of his personal religious beliefs, with library officials stating that he has demanded that the system initiate a purge of LGBTQ+ books before his office releases the money.
Tonja Johnson, executive director for the Madison County Library System, told the Mississippi Free Press in an afternoon interview that she first reached out to Mayor McGee after failing to receive the City of Ridgeland’s first quarterly payment of 2022.
Johnson said the mayor informed her that no payment was forthcoming. “He explained his opposition to what he called ‘homosexual materials’ in the library, that it went against his Christian beliefs, and that he would not release the money as the long as the materials were there,” the library director said.
The director then explained to the mayor that the library system, as a public entity, was not a religious institution. “I explained that we are a public library and we serve the entire community. I told him our collection reflects the diversity of our community,” Johnson said."
Francesca Di Meglio , HR Exchange Network; Q&A: How Empathy Makes for Effective Leadership
"The next generation of leaders must have empathy. Life is hard, and the pandemic made it harder. So, kindness and heart are becoming more important than even practical skills like accounting. Many employees are facing tremendous pressure, and now HR leaders are responding. Mental health and wellness are top priorities of organizations aiming to recruit and retain top talent.
As a result of this shift, employers are recognizing the need for softer skills in hires. Recently, Maria Leggett, director of Education at MHI in Charlotte, North Carolina, spoke to HR Exchange Network about the importance of empathy in leadership. Leggett will be hosting a session at the online event HR and the Future of Work, which takes place February 22 to 24, 2022.
HREN: Why is empathy vital to leadership? Why has it come to the forefront now?
ML: There is room for kindness. Now more than ever, we need kindness in the workplace. With the talent shortage and remote work, employees have more and more career options. As a result, managers need to be more people-focused and incorporate empathy and kindness into their leadership approach.
Empathy is about understanding. Having compassion allows us to see different points of view and perspectives. Employees want to be more than just "seen." They want their managers to know that they work hard and accomplish a lot while having a life outside of work. When managers connect and collaborate with their teams effectively, they learn more about their strengths and skills and get the most out of their interactions with their teams. Empathy helps facilitate that.
HREN: How do you teach or help managers to be empathetic?
ML: Slow down, ask questions, listen more, and be authentic. When people hear more and talk less, they can be open to different perspectives and respond more appropriately to situations. While managers may have to deliver feedback that is not always positive, people are more likely to receive the input when delivered with empathy and genuine authenticity.
COVID has allowed people to be more authentic as they worked out of their homes, allowing people to see a personal side and providing people space to be their whole self. That won’t change when things get back to a more stable state. COVID has demonstrated that people can still show up and accomplish great work, even with a chaotic personal life. No one has time for someone to be micro-managing, uncompromising, and lacking empathy. Empathy is changing the fabric of our work culture."
Catherine Kemnitz, Law.com; Why Legal Department Mission Statements Are Mission Critical During the Great ‘Reflection’
It’s been termed the Great Resignation but as a colleague of mine likes to say, it should really be called the Great Reflection. We’re not seeing lawyers question whether they should be practicing law, but rather reflecting on how, why, and for whom they practice it.
"So when Axiom, in collaboration with Wakefield Research, conducted a survey of 220 legal department heads at companies with $250 million or more in annual revenue we aimed to dive deeper into more unusual, but critically important terrain. We focused on examining how COVID impacted GCs and the legal teams trying to reconcile changing business demands with the values of their departments and broader organizations.
What we found underscored the importance of values to the in-house team and the critical role GCs play in developing those values, articulating them, and leading organizational adherence to them.
Here’s the headline: 85% of GCs surveyed believe that the legal department has a responsibility to be the primary driver of company values. Those values vary by organization but typically include complying with relevant laws and regulations; an emphasis on social responsibility and human interests; promoting diversity and inclusion; addressing social, environmental and human rights concerns; and importantly, the development, retention, and well-being of the legal team...
Actioning Department Values
What we found is that adherence to values isn’t just talk, it’s action...
Mission Statements: The Haves and Have Nots
A mission statement is a promise between a company, the legal department, and its lawyers to follow a core set of values. Even more than other departmental mission statements, legal department versions are enterprise-critical. Many, if not all, of the company’s hard choices will hit the legal department. As a result, a values-based approach within legal will inherently permeate throughout the rest of the enterprise.
In addition to its impact on the broader organization, the legal mission statement is becoming increasingly important to the lawyers who are part of the in-house team. Employees’ priorities and goals have evolved into something substantively different from their pre-pandemic aspirations. Like other workers, lawyers are rejecting workplaces, practices, and remuneration that don’t align with their personal goals. They’re also rejecting employers that don’t have a greater missional focus, or if they do, lack a fundamental adherence to it. Lawyers will no longer settle for soulless roles, and will no longer practice on behalf of soulless organizations.
As a result, our survey found that articulating and reaffirming a commitment to both departmental and organizational goals is increasingly imperative to legal team satisfaction, retention, and performance. Despite the importance, however, a full 40% of GCs admit they lack formal legal department mission statements.
Put simply, that’s a mistake. Not only does our survey demonstrate that GCs with mission statements are better positioned to navigate volatility, it makes clear that these statements are a critical tools for retaining and nurturing the type of legal talent needed to effectively serve the organization.
The Bottom Line for GCs
Legal department mission statements are mission critical.
GCs that don’t have them must develop them. GCs that do, must consistently revisit them."
