There are many definitions of leadership, and it is helpful to separate the ideas of being a leader and becoming a leader. Being a leader means setting direction within the framework of an inspiring vision. It means motivating yourself and others to reach that vision. Becoming a leader means using the tools at your disposal and finding the confidence to take power for yourself. Shearman & Sterling has many programmes to support experienced leaders, new leaders and aspiring leaders.
The firm regularly convenes Lean In Education Circles, which enable designated resource partners to lead associates in discussions on a wide array of issues that pose challenges to progress. With topics including 'Using Grit and Growth Mindset for Advancement' and 'Communicating with Confidence', these intimate internal gatherings give associates the opportunity to hear how partners have addressed universally vexing issues, and to then discuss their own experiences within smaller working groups. As such, Education Circles accomplish two goals at once: partners get to demonstrate their leadership, and associates can immediately apply those lessons in a comfortable forum, free from the pressures of their everyday work environments.
Launched in 2014, Shearman & Sterling's annual Associate Leadership Academy (ALA) provides a select group of senior associates with individual assessments, interactive small group learning, skill development and one-on-one coaching both during and following the programme. The participants also meet with the firm's senior leadership and other partners to develop more substantive relationships. Themes include situational leadership, having crucial conversations, becoming a trusted advisor, client development and what to do with feedback.
In addition, every year the firm sends a designated group of new partners to Harvard Law School's Accelerated Leadership Program (ALP). This is an intensive, four-day interactive programme designed to advance early-stage equity partners to the next level across four leadership dimensions: client, practice, people and team, and personal. The ALP serves a springboard for early-stage equity partners' roles in the firm. Recent participants have gone on to be practice group and industry group leaders, partners in charge of associate development, and significant business generators.
In the end, leadership comes about by using your own unique set of strengths to galvanise others toward achieving an articulated goal. And in the spirit of encouraging leadership, Shearman & Sterling is very supportive of its lawyers taking the initiative to pursue avenues of most interest to them. It is this philosophy that allowed the firm's Women's Initiative to launch without any major hurdles. With firm management consistently receptive to the ideas of those who are courageous and motivated, the end result is that more people are empowered to find the leaders within themselves.
Originally published by IFLR's Women in Business Law Group
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