What Does Your Employer Want From You – Career Advice from an Old Timer

While my last few blogs have focused on managers, I’ll now shift my focus to those in the early stages of their careers. This guidance is best suited for someone in a large law firm or business, but I hope all people starting their careers will find something helpful.

Many bosses, especially lawyers, are woefully inadequate in setting out their expectations for you. My hope is these rules will help you overcome the lack of feedback.

1.  Always say yes. Move to Omaha? Take a lateral position for no additional money? Work every weekend in May? Why say yes? The more you experience in your current position, the more you will learn and grow. This makes you more valuable to your current employer and future employers. Additionally, if you work in a large organization with multiple locations, you signed up for these types of assignments when you took the job (at least that is what your employer thought). If you say no, you may not be living up to your side of the bargain.
2.  What if I cannot say yes. Ok. There may be legitimate reasons why you cannot say yes. If you must say no, make it a “no but.” Such a but could be: “I cannot move to Omaha now, but I will be in a much better position to relocate in 18 months if another opportunity arises.” Or “I can cover three weekends in May, but is it OK if I get Alice to cover the other weekend?” A “no but” expresses your sincere interest in helping the organization and shows that you care and is always preferable to a flat “no.”
3. Get on your manager’s calendar. Do not wait for your manager to schedule a periodic update session with you. She is very busy and means well but…..Take the initiative to check in with your manager from time to time. Make sure she knows what you are working on, what issues you see on the horizon, and what resources you may need. The one universal thing that all managers hate is a surprise.
4. Take a marketing person to lunch. There are many functions in an organization that, if you understood better, would make your job easier and make you a more valuable contributor. The organization clearly has a responsibility to provide you with training. But you need to take the initiative as well. People love to talk about themselves. Find a person in marketing, legal, sales, or accounting and ask her for lunch or a drink. Get to know what she does. Learn from her.
5.  Understand the basics of accounting and finance. Many decisions that an organization makes are rooted in accounting or finance. If you do not have a basic understanding of accounting and finance, you will not understand fully what is going on in the business. And being “bad with numbers” is not an excuse.
6. Be independent, but know when to reach out. Your manager trusts you to do the work. If he doesn’t trust you, it’s time for you to get a new manager. You need to make the decisions. But you also must know your limitations. If it’s a close call, err on the side of making the decision.
7. Don’t be negative. All organizations have issues. If you don’t like your job or situation, get out. Being cynical or negative is very damaging to work place morale. I’m not asking you to be a phony. But you must generally have a positive attitude. You can stay at your job and be positive or leave your job . But you cannot stay and be negative.

*Photo Credit:  Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

The information contained on this blog is not legal advice, nor does this blog create an attorney-client relationship. Klein Bussell attorneys do not blog about pending matters handled on behalf of our clients and will never disclose client confidences.