Yes, your technical expertise is indispensable, however it’s assumed that you possess it.
And the more senior you become, the more people-oriented your working life will be.
Unsurprising then that lots of you joined the first of Joanna Gaudoin’s four 2025 webinars with CLL, which looked at personal branding. Joanna, through her consultancy, Inside Out Image, helps in-house lawyers excel at workplace relationships and develop the non-technical skills that drive careers forward.
Commit to a personal brand
We don’t get to choose all the people we spend our working hours with. Not all relationships evolve naturally, so we need to develop skills and techniques that maximise the quality of every interaction. This is where a great personal brand shows its value.
Lay the foundations
The three foundations of effective professional relationships are:
Known – for in-house lawyers, this involves being visible to senior management and other stakeholders in your organisation. Externally, it’s important to build your profile among private practice law firms and, where appropriate, regulators. Building networks is a vital part of getting known;
Liked – you don’t have to be a people pleaser. This is about building human rapport and genuine connections. A little work here in the early stages of relationships will pay dividends when the inevitable difficult conversations arise; and
Trusted – if someone feels you’ve given them the best of yourself and you’ve done what you promised to do, you’ve gone a long way to winning lasting trust. Remember, trust is the sum of your credibility, reliability and intimacy less focus on self-orientation.
Be aware that you’re always projecting
Whether face to face, in writing or over the phone we’re continually sending out subliminal messages. Other people are constantly processing these messages and forming opinions about you. Consciously control these messages and influence the perceptions people form of you. Be mindful, for example, of the strength vs warmth equation.
A good balance between these potentially conflicting traits is one that shows interest in, and concern, for others while also conveying decisiveness, confidence in your opinion and a willingness to challenge people where appropriate.
Take time to ask yourself where you currently sit in this equation – and whether you need to adjust your position. It’s also instructive to identify what makes you shift between gradations of strength and warmth and to what extent any fluctuation is detectable by colleagues.
How would people describe you to others?
Imagine a colleague describing you to others when you’re not in the room. Putting your technical expertise to one side, what would you like them to say? Decide on three adjectives you want to be known for. Then, ask a trusted colleague what three adjectives they’d use to describe you. This will give you a good indication of how close you are to projecting your chosen values and to defining your personal brand.
Talk with technique
How you use your voice has a big effect on how well you engage listeners. Maximise your impact with thee four techniques for memorable conversations:
Volume – be heard by everyone you speak to. In a business setting, most people will only ask you to repeat yourself once. Breathe in deeply before speaking as the amount of air in our lungs determines how loudly we can speak. Similarly;
Enunciation – fully pronounce all parts of every word by using your mouth, rather than just your lips, when speaking. This is particularly important in noisy settings, such as networking/social events;
Pace – most of us speak too quickly, which makes it hard for listeners to fully grasp important points. Use pauses to give people time to digest information and speak at moderate pace. Fast talking can be interpreted as nervousness or arrogance, while slow speech, for some, signals slow thinking or boredom; and
Inflection – avoid monotones. They make conversations dull. Instead, adapt your tone according to your audience and the subject under discussion. Alternate between high and low inflection and use a mix of question, statement and command intonations.
Show as well as tell
Up to 70% of what we communicate is conveyed by behaviours other than speech, such as:
Posture – how you occupy and own the space you take up sends signals about your self-confidence and position in the strength vs warmth equation. It’s worth remembering that your posture (and therefore the messages it carries about you) can be seen from distance;
Expressions – facial expressions can exhibit much about your internal dialogue. We all vary – from inscrutable poker face to extravagantly expressive – and it’s said that humans are capable of 3000 unique expressions. So, be aware of that, without conscious effort, your face may contradict your verbal communication;
Gestures – make use of gestures in face-to-face communications. Done with authenticity they keep people engaged, bring your conversation alive and reinforce your individualism. However, don’t overdo gesturing to the extreme of over-dramaticism; and
Eye contact – aim to make eye contact with the other person in a conversation for around 60-70% of the time. Too little eye contact can make you appear dishonest or uninterested while too much can be intimidating.
Commit to your personal brand now
A great personal brand rarely evolves by itself. Put time aside – perhaps an hour or two each week - to define your brand and the steps needed to build it and improve your personal impact.
Start by listing your actions. Next, sort them by priority. Then diarise them. And be sure to follow them.
Read on
You’ll find more relationship-building tips and insights from Joanna in her book, Getting On: Making work work, available through Amazon. You can receive a discount for CLL delegates (usual print price £14.99) using code CLL251 until Sunday 9 March 2025.
Join us next time
How comfortable are you with giving and receiving feedback? In her next webinar, Joanna will show how to harness feedback as a tool for personal growth. It’s on 13 May at 10.00am. Register here.
