At first blush, career planning should be easy because I am naturally a planner, in every aspect of my life. For instance, I plan dinner parties and everything must fit with my vision for the party or it isn’t allowed. (That special dessert passed down from your great-grandmother—if it isn’t in line with my vision, no thank you!) I plan my personal life, like cabin weekends and outings with friends, with varied success. I plan adventures for my husband, me and our dog—which invariably involve sending out a meeting invite because how else do you guarantee you will both be on the same page?
So I should be able to write easily about planning my career. Except my career is the one thing I have not sat down and planned. Not even a little. But in the spirit of improvement and doing this together,
I have taken stock of my own experiences and from that, fashioned my top three tips for success as in-house counsel.
- Don’t (always) listen to your mentors. Now this is specific advice and will not work for everyone. I have a very close friend who has been my mentor since I was a second-year lawyer. She eventually hired me to work in-house in a position reporting to her, where I worked for nearly five years and learned so much during that time.
A couple of years ago, she was appointed to the bench. Before she left, she told everyone on our team that we did not want her job. Respecting her as a mentor, I did what came naturally to me—I ignored her advice and applied for the job. It is the most challenging job I have ever had but it is also the most rewarding.
So my advice? Ignore the people you trust the most if it goes against your gut feeling. Or perhaps this advice has broader applicability: really know yourself. If you know yourself well enough, you will know when you are ready to stretch yourself and take the next big risk.
And don’t worry about timing—it is never perfect. In my career so far, opportunities have never come at the most ideal time. At the time of my promotion, our department was very busy, all my hearings were inexplicably not settling and I was getting married in under a month. With all that, it would have been easy and excusable to keep my head down and continue to do the work I was comfortable with. But I knew myself and felt ready for the challenge, so I took the leap anyway.
- Learn from all professionals (not just lawyers). As lawyers, we are generally adept at the legal aspects of our jobs. However, I, like many of you, find I am doing less and less legal work as time goes on. So to continue to grow my career, I need to look outside the legal profession and learn from professionals who are not lawyers. On my path thus far, I have sought out these learnings from people both within and outside my organization.
In my job, I work for an organization that is extremely supportive of my team’s work. I also work directly for an HR professional who regularly provides productive feedback—and if it is not provided as regularly as I need, I seek it out. I do this because I cannot improve if I am not
aware of my gaps (or, in HR lingo, my opportunities for improvement).
Outside my role, top of mind is the Business Leadership Program for In-House Counsel, offered by the CCCA in conjunction with the Rotman School of Management, which I began in 2017. I cannot say enough about the value I have received from it already. We are taught by experts in every business-related field, and there are so many practical takeaways. I have never really liked school—which is shocking for a lawyer to admit, I know—but I am trying to soak up every bit of knowledge and experience from the excellent faculty. Participate in this program; you will not regret it!
- Say “no” (occasionally). I recently watched a documentary on Netflix about the contemporary art world. One artist interviewed was giving advice to up-and-coming contemporary artists and said something along the lines of “At the beginning of your career, say ‘yes’ to every opportunity. Until you can say ‘no.’ And then, say ‘no’ as often as you can.” There is a ring of truth in this for me. You need to determine and stay true to your goals, career and otherwise.
In my career, I have had amazing opportunities to be involved on boards, committees and councils, both legal-related and not. These experiences have been extremely valuable and I continue to draw from them today. At a certain point, though, I have had to learn to say “no.” I don’t do it very often but being able to draw that boundary occasionally is of increasing importance as I progress in my career.
For me, having any chance of reaching the career success I aspire to requires me to actually show up and be present at home. There are some days when this is much, much easier than others. Coming out of the single busiest year in my professional life, I admit that I have not succeeded nearly enough in this endeavour as of late. However, going forward, I know that
in order to ensure I have enough energy to give at work, I have to fully recharge away from work. So I will continue to say “no” on occasion.
Karlee Blatz is Regional Director of Labour Relations and Senior Legal Counsel for Human Resources at the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority. She always says “yes” to helping her fellow CCCA members.