Executive or strategy committee meetings this year will hold a higher level of importance given the complex challenges and uncertainty facing law firms.  As a legal management leader, you’d love to be in those meetings.

But with limited seats available, how can you get a seat and make sure you’re heard? This all depends on your perceived value to the managing partner or committee chair. Expertise, experience, and effort are mostly table stakes. The differentiators are based on effective ("smart") collaboration, specifically broad understanding, influence and impact.    

In the new issue of the Association of Legal Administrators' magazine "Legal Management," Dr. Heidi Gardner and I co-authored an article titled "How Legal Administrators Can Get a Seat (and Voice) at the Strategy Table."   

This article will give you several practical ideas for demonstrating value and becoming an indispensable part of the strategy team, whether “chief” is part of your title.

And, just as lawyers and "lawyer leaders" receive training/coaching to enhance their business development and leadership skills, so too can a legal management leader participate in training/coaching to understand their collaborative strengths and enhance their individual and team's collaboration skills and efforts to increase their value.