Who is this for?
Anyone (but especially junior lawyers) looking for tips on improving their working relationship with their managers and regain more control over their workflow.
If you’re frustrated with things like last-minute instructions, late nights, cancelled plans, unnecessary competing deadlines – you might want to check this out.
Introduction
I’ve worked for amazing lawyers who weren’t great managers.
But as a junior, I thought the last-minute instructions, late nights, cancelled plans, competing deadlines and (sometimes) chaos were just a part of the job. After all, they have more experience than me – so I just needed to wait for them to give me tasks and try to do them well…
It wasn’t until my mentor taught me about ‘managing up’ that I realised that I could actually take more control over my workflow (and do a better job).
What is ‘managing up’?
There are a bunch of different definitions floating around but I personally think of ‘managing up’ as proactively taking steps to understand and anticipate the needs of the person you’re working for.
The idea is that by taking over some of the ‘manager-level thinking’, we make their job easier – which in turn makes our own jobs easier (or at least more predictable).
Why should we be responsible for managing up? Isn’t it the manager’s job?
Technically speaking, yes. But the reality is that many great lawyers are not actually great managers. They might simply be too busy, or not have enough training, to delegate and coordinate workflows according to the gold standard.
This leaves us with two options:
- hope that we have a good manager; or
- take steps to exercise some control over our working relationship with our manager.
By opting for the latter, we start to drive our own careers and workflow which should lead to:
- a lower chance of being handed tasks at the last minute;
- learning the skills needed for higher roles in our organisation;
- demonstrating that we’re ready for the next level in our career; and
- a better working relationship (i.e. being seen as proactive, a team player, good communicator, easy to work with etc.)
What actions can we take to manage up?
While managing up can look very different depending on the people you work with, the practice area you’re in or the workflow that you have – there are some core actions that I think junior lawyers should consider.
Taking a proactive approach to tasks
A common thing that newer lawyers do is to wait for tasks to be assigned to them. Essentially, they take on a ‘doer’ role. Which is a problem because a career in law relies on being a ‘thinker’.
From speaking to many senior lawyers, and my own experience starting to become a senior lawyer myself, it’s incredibly valuable when juniors provide input on deadlines and tasks.
Here’s what it could look like:
Emails
- Ask to be copied into all communications on our matters – “Hi Jane – just to make sure I don’t miss anything on the matter, would you mind cc’ing me on all the emails? [I think there’s been a few times the client hasn’t cc’d me in as well. Would you mind asking them to so I can help you manage this matter?]”
- When emails come in from the client, be proactive and suggest tasks we can take on as well as draft due dates that we can reasonably meet. “Hi Jane – I’ve just had a think about this email from [client]. They’ve asked for [an advice] by [next Monday]. I can start working on a draft this afternoon and expect to issue it to you by [Thursday morning]. [I think this gives you enough time to review and for me to fix any areas but please let me know if that time doesn’t work for you.]”
Meetings
- Ask if there are any documents you should prepare in advance – “Hi John – for this meeting, did you want me to prepare hard copies of [the draft advice] or anything else?”
- For in-person meetings, Google Maps to see how to get there and when to leave – “Hi – for today’s meeting with [client], it looks like it’ll be a 20 minute taxi so we should leave by [10:35am].”
- In the meeting, if they’re discussing some reference material – be ready to bring it up. For example, if there are questions about a specific section of a contract, then you can offer to bring up that section on the shared screen.
- For notes taken during the meeting, work up an action list and offer to circulate them – “Hi John – I’ve got a list of actions from our meeting. Do you want me to send you a summary of those notes and the actions?”
Deliverables
- For timing on deliverables, try to work out a time buffer for (1) them to review your work and (2) you to go back in and amend the work based on their feedback. If there’s a client deadline on Friday, then by handing them your work on Friday morning – they’ll probably have no time to get you involved again and just make changes themselves (which is a lost learning opportunity).
- Where possible, instead of preparing internal-facing work products – prepare a draft of the client-facing deliverable instead. For example, if you’ve been asked a research question:
- Newer lawyers might prepare an internal-facing answer to their manager along the lines of “Hi Jane – please see below my answer to the question you’ve asked me this morning….”
- But a lawyer that’s managing up might check whether that research is meant to be turned into an advice to the client, ask further questions about what the instructing lawyer needs in terms of a final client-facing product, and produce a draft email and advice like this instead:
For the complete breakdown of the above-numbered boxes, check out the ‘preparing draft emails’ section.
Communication
Modern lawyers rarely work in silos anymore. There’s a big emphasis on teamwork and communication. This fits right in with managing up.
- Try to understand your manager’s communication style. Do they prefer to send through emails as tasks come through? Or do they use / are open to morning and end of day check-in meetings to assign tasks?
- Where possible, communicate your unavailabilities ahead of time. For example, if you have upcoming leave or a social event, let them know and offer to send through a calendar invite to remind them of your unavailability.
- If your manager is open to it, set up regular 15-30 minute meetings to discuss workflow. A recurring agenda for those meetings could be:
- FYIs that don’t need discussion
- Review of actions from previous period, comprising of:
- Updates from you:
- Completed work / wins
- Blockers to progress
- What you need from your manager (e.g. “I’ve followed up on getting [this answer] from our tax team but haven’t got a response. Could I prepare a draft email for you to send out chasing them up again? I think it’d mean more if it came from you.)
- Updates from manager
- Updates from you:
- Actions for upcoming period
- Track the workflow and follow up on things you’re waiting on. “Hi – just wanted to remind you about that draft email I sent you yesterday. Are there any changes you’d like me to make or should I just leave it for you to send out?” (Btw, I’ve got a visual tracking system for workflow that you might find handy for this)
Understanding your manager
Instead of trying to guess what your manager’s thinking, or what their working style is like – set up a meeting to ask them. The key is to ask questions based on previous experiences instead of aspirational ones like “how would you ideally like me to follow up?”
Here are the sorts of questions that you might want to ask:
- Who is somebody that you’ve had a great working relationship with, and why do you think it worked well?
- What are things that your juniors have done to make your job easier?
- With the tasks that I’ve done for you in the last few weeks, do you feel you’ve had enough time to review my work and also give me a chance to make amendments?
Thinking one step further – your manager’s manager (or the client)
Finally, there’s always bonus points if you can think beyond your immediate manager. This can be in the form of:
- suggesting improvements – “I’ve done it this way but do you think it’d be clearer for the client if we reorganised the table so it looked more like this?”
- understanding how your work feeds into their deliverables – e.g. making sure your time entries are up to date with proper narratives because it feeds into the invoices your partner has to issue to the clients.
Final thoughts
It can feel a bit weird when we start managing up. Especially if you’re a newer lawyer working with very experienced partners. But just remember that the people you work for went to law school – not management school.
Start taking on a ‘managing up’ mentality and you’ll gain much more control over your work and career.