Lawyer Monthly - Women In Law Special Edition

LAWYER MONTHLY WOMEN IN LAW EDITION 96 A Baker’s Dozen: 13 Leadership Books for Lawyers Timothy M. Lupinacci a shareholder in Baker Donelson, one of the US’ top 100 law firms. He is chair of the firm’s Financial Services Department, a member of the firm’s Board of Directors and former office managing shareholder for Birmingham, Alabama. In his daily life Timothy lives and breathes leadership. We benefit from Timothy’s extensive library of experiences as he lists the top 13 leadership books that influenced his journey and enflamed his passion as a leader. I believe two fundamental principles about leadership. First, every person is a leader in some capacity, whether in business, family, athletic team, civic organisation, church, synagogue, mosque, or book club. I think far too many people fail to see their unique leadership role played out every day and miss opportunities to influence and help others. My second foundational belief is that everyone must continue growing as a leader. It is critical for each person to be a consummate, life-long learner. Although difficult to devote regular time to leadership growth and learning, it is a discipline that is crucial for long-term success and achievement. Whether it involves attending live or simulcast seminars, systematically reading books or periodicals, leading training sessions for others or listening to podcasts and audio books while driving to work each day, you have to implement a leadership development plan become obsessive about and sticking to it in order to maximise your influence and potential. Over the years, I have tried various approaches to leadership growth. One year I realised I had fallen out of the habit of reading and committed to read at least one book a month. This discipline continues and I try to vary the books I read. I always ensure that I read at least one leadership, teamwork, management or biography every month to consistently learn, grow and improve by considering additional principles, tips, tools and leadership approaches to adapt into my own leadership journey. I have tried to make sure and attend at least one leadership conference each year. I also have become disciplined about using time I am in the car listening to podcasts or audio books. You have to determine what works best for you, but the important thing is to develop a plan for systematic leadership growth. The great thing is that some of the best “business books” are not traditionally found in the business section at your favorite bookstore. You can gain leadership insight from a diverse array of sources. Below are a few of my favourites. Over the years, there have been certain books that I return to in honing my leadership abilities. Often I use these books to train others. These are the resources that have provided real leadership gold to me over the arc of my career. I hope you will find some of these suggestions, which are in no particular order, useful in your own journey. This is an interesting little book that I happened to pick up fifteen years ago when I began more fully appreciating the importance of business development. I had gotten my feet on the ground in figuring out how to be a lawyer and started realising the need to focus with intentionality on developing business. This is a book of short, often pithy, chapters that includes great ideas and excellent examples furthering the premise that everything we do is selling ourselves. Even if we do not have a product to sell, as a 13 What Clients Love by Harry Beckwith professional, our skills, expertise and counsel are the “product.” We need to explore how to market and brand ourselves better every day, including focusing on adding value through intangible and “non-billable” efforts and building a referral network through word of mouth. I have developed many creative ideas in business development after reading again this simple book of stories and ideas. I remain convinced that we must continuing learning and growing from a variety of diverse resources. No matter the background or content of the resource, I try to take the topic discussed and apply it to make me a better leader, team member or encourager. These thirteen books have proved increasingly valuable over the years, and are resources that I continue to reference, use and give to others seeking leadership growth. I hope you can find a least one nugget of information from these books to help you better lead and serve those within your sphere of influence. I hope you will drop me a note and let me know additional insight you gain from any of these resources and let me know additional valuable leadership books you have read or studied.