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“We are on the cusp of a change – one that’s happening at a pace I’ve not seen in 35 years,” says Mark Smolik, Chief Legal Officer at DHL Supply Chain Americas.
If we’re being frank, the rapid pace of technological change sweeping across the globe is at times frightening, especially for leaders who need to keep abreast of accelerating tools to enhance business impact.
Yet in a time when technology is defining the way we work, soft skills are more important than ever. In fact, Smolik would go so far as to call them a strategic necessity.
We all know the power of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and could most likely name people who have climbed up the ladder of life with some serious help from the ‘gift of the gab’.
EQ is not a new concept. Dale Carnegie’s famous book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, first published in 1936, is considered a foundational book to the current vernacular of emotional intelligence. It has since been translated into 36 languages and sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. Yet it’s one we still haven’t fully grasped.
Smolik believes the ability to read a room, adapt to changing contexts and influence through empathy are fundamental skills to being a Chief Legal Officer today. A huge part of that is a relational leadership style, rather than hierarchical.
“Whatever you do day in and day out, remember that people’s perception of you and your team is their reality,” says Smolik.
For a CLO to be effective, their leadership and their team need to be trusted by the business as a whole – and that trust is earned not guaranteed. We’ve all heard the saying ‘legal is a handbrake’, with other functions seeing the red tape and regulations of the legal team as a roadblock to their goals. It’s crucial to change this perspective.
Smolik notes that building trust across business functions means understanding their pressures, goals, and objectives – and tailoring legal’s support to meet if not exceed them. Making cross-functional alliances also goes a long way. “The CFO has always been one of my strongest allies,” Smolik says, “We share the same mission – protecting and advancing the organization.”
“We go to great lengths to assure our team are keenly focused on servicing the business and each other. We operate as a team not as a group of individuals who happen to be part of the same team,” reflects Smolik. “The more aligned you are as a team all working towards the same goals, the better your ability to help grow the organization while seeking to identify and mitigate risks along the way. As leaders, it is our job to assure everyone on the team is working towards a common objective and, to use a boating analogy, rowing in the same direction.”
The law is an innately competitive profession. But as a team we prosper on collaboration and a shared vision. For a legal leader to make a real impact, they must nurture a high-performing team, and that means letting others shine in the spotlight.
“You hire the right people, explain your vision and expectations, and then get out of the way,” says Smolik. “You support them of course but when your people shine, you know you’ve done your job.” Empowering others is a key pillar of Smolik’s EQ toolkit; it creates trust, gives people confidence, and ultimately leads to a thriving legal team.
Leaders should also be mentees themselves, and Smolik attributes much of his success to his multiple mentors throughout his career. “Always ask for feedback and find a mentor. Until recently, it was my CFO who retired. That relationship taught me more about business and leadership than any legal project ever did.”
Anticipating the needs of the business is the ultimate way to build trust, which requires the CLO to have strong relationships across the C-suite. Being informed of potential issues before they arise, rather than putting out fires, should be the goal of the legal function.
Smolik’s advice on how to do this: “Engage with the business; immerse yourself in how your organization generates revenue and what drives business decisions. The more you understand the culture of your organization, the expectations of your business partners, and how they think, the more opportunity you create to deliver meaningful, measurable and sustainable value.”
In business, people want solutions – not to be presented with a problem and a complex legal theory that only serves to complicate a resolution. “If you ever sit in front of a CEO and simply recite the law, you’ll lose them,” says Smolik.
Successful legal leaders can convey the law without the legalese, breaking things down from a business point of view so the C-suite can make informed decisions. Making legal matters easy by presenting multiple business focused solutions to a problem is a sure way to achieve this.
“At the end of the day,” Smolik reflects, “your name precedes you in everything you do. We do nothing to earn it, but it is up to us to do everything to protect it. Never lose sight of the need to lead with integrity, trust, humility, and compassion. Doing so creates a perception in the minds of others about who we are and what we stand for in business and in life. That’s leadership.”
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In a world where AI can analyze contracts and generate legal solutions faster than a human could ever dream of, the differentiator for lawyers and great legal leaders will be something algorithms can’t replicate empathy, awareness, and credibility.
