Lisa Lang is the General Counsel at Kentucky State University where she leads a team of four professionals while serving on the university president’s senior leadership team for a campus with more than 2000 students and 135 full-time instructional faculty. She also hosts a successful podcast “Why Not This Not That.”
She is an active user of LinkedIn and posts terrific advice on the platform (you should follow her!) for business professionals at all levels.
Learn more about her in this Women Who Wow profile.
How has social media helped you build your brand?
Social media and LinkedIn, in particular, has really helped me build my personal brand. After routinely posting content over the last eighteen months, I have been able to expand my reach more than I ever imagined possible.
For the first time in my career, I have been invited to speak at national conferences; I have been invited to serve on podcasts; and I have been invited to write articles.
What do you think is the key for success in a role like yours?
A general counsel needs to be more than just a legal advisor.
Legal advisors oversee the day-to-day operations of the in-house legal department and is generally responsible for spotting issues, for providing objective legal advice, for drafting and reviewing agreements, and for providing possible solutions to issues important to the organization.
A general counsel, however, must be far more than that. The general counsel must also serve as a strategic business partner committed to the advancement of the organization’s business.
A strategic business partner is included in executive level conversations about an organization’s future, its mission, goals and overall strategy goals. The organizational leadership expects a strategic partner to offer recommendations and to help make decisions that will allow the organization to achieve its goals.
What advice would you give to women in your field?
If you want to be successful, you have to do more than just do good work. You have to be comfortable sharing with others the good work that you do. Do not rely on others to do it for you.
When you don’t publicly take credit for the good work you do, it is harder to get in front of those people who are in a position to help you move to the next level.
Don’t worry about appearing boastful. Be authentic. Be honest.
The rest will take care of itself.