Biglaw, In-House Counsel

How To Succeed: Moving Work Onto Your Desk

Senior people universally prefer that you accept work, rather than decline work. Do yourself a favor.

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“Okay,” says the junior person.  “That sounds good.  Why don’t you write up whatever you have in mind?”

Huh?

I understand that you prefer not to work.  You prefer to put work on the other guy’s desk.

But, if you want to succeed, then always — always — take work away from the other person, and put it on your own desk.

The responsible junior person says:  “Okay.  That sounds good.  Let me take a stab at writing that up, and I’ll let you review my draft.”

See the difference?

The first response declines effort; the second accepts effort.  The junior person who undertakes effort is the junior person that the senior person prefers to work with.

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It’s the same with a draft.

You could decline effort:  “There’s a technical problem with the draft.  There are three possible ways to deal with it.  It strikes me that . . . . Why don’t you decide how to solve this and put a proposed solution in the next draft?”

Or you could accept effort:  “There’s a technical problem with the draft.  There are three possible ways to deal with it.  I’ve proposed below language that adopts each of the three alternatives.  Please let me know which alternative you prefer, and I’ll insert that in the next draft.”

See the difference?

The first tells the senior person to do work.  The second identifies the problem and offers ways to solve it.  Who do you think the senior person prefers to work with?

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It’s the same with every email that you send.

You could decline effort:  “That leaves us with a very difficult problem.  Please let me know how you’d like to proceed.”

Or you could accept effort:  “That leaves us with a very difficult problem  My proposed solution is [whatever].  I’ve drafted language that adopts that solution below.  But please let me know if you prefer some other solution, or if I should draft this differently.”

See the difference?

Move the ball forward; don’t roll it onto the senior person’s desk.  The senior person will notice.  Invariably.

I know you prefer to decline effort rather than to accept it.  Work is not always fun.  And sometimes it’s hard.

But it’s hard to succeed professionally, rather than to fail.

Senior people universally prefer that you accept work, rather than decline work and inflict it back on the senior person.

I’m just sayin’.

Mark Herrmann spent 17 years as a partner at a leading international law firm and is now deputy general counsel at a large international company. He is the author of The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law and Inside Straight: Advice About Lawyering, In-House And Out, That Only The Internet Could Provide (affiliate links). You can reach him by email at inhouse@abovethelaw.com.

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