I am a huge fan of Dimitri Mastrocola’s LinkedIn posts. If you are not following Dimitri on LinkedIn, you should. His posts are full of insights and advice on how to succeed as an in-house counsel but can be applied more generally to most business professionals.
As one commenter of this post on LinkedIn said, “this is a checklist for anyone who wishes to keep quality people, who wants to improve their leadership skills, and/or who wants to create a workplace where people feel psychologically safe enough to openly share their ideas” and I couldn’t have said it better myself.
As a general counsel (or any c-suite or business leader), you can’t effectively lead if the members of your team don’t trust you.
It takes consistent energy, effort and attention to your behavior to build trust. It’s well worth the investment. Here are 17 tips on how to engender trust with your team by Dimitri.
✅ Be honest
✅ Keep commitments and keep your word
✅ Avoid surprises
✅ Be consistent with your mood
✅ Be your best and thereby set an example
✅ Demonstrate respect
✅ Listen to understand, not to respond
✅ Communicate clearly
✅ Speak with positive intent
✅ Admit mistakes
✅ Be willing to hear feedback
✅ Maintain confidences
✅ Get to know others
✅ Practice empathy
✅ Seek input from others
✅ Have a sense of humor
✅ Say “thank you” often
Any others?
Dimitri is an executive search consultant at Major Lindsay & Africa where he is focused on making general counsel, in-house counsel and chief compliance officer placements for public and private corporations, diversified financial services firms, asset managers, hedge funds, private equity and VC firms.