I had lunch with a long-time mentor recently.  Pleasantly, he called me up out of the blue to ask me how things were going.  I was glad to hear from him and got straight to asking some career questions.  He didn't respond right away.  Instead, after he had a chance to hear me out, he proposed an arrangement:  he would give me a professional development tutorial if I would take him out for sushi.  Now, my old friend can eat a lot of sushi, but he has years of experience in legal technology and wise advice - how could I refuse?

With all the chit-chatting and catching up, we were well into dessert before my mentor got around to professional development, but once he did, it was like a seminar.  In every industry, he began, professional development boils down to four main pursuits:

• Developing Skills
  
• Making Contributions
  
• Managing Perceptions
  
• Building Relationships

And in the legal technology field, these four pursuits mean meeting some specific challenges.

Developing Skills
He started with something I already knew was important - let's face it, as an IT professional, if I do not keep my skill sets current, my professional outlook will decay rather quickly.  But how, I asked, could I take time to attend a class, read a book or experiment with new technology?  More importantly, how could I get management to encourage - or even allow - me to shift some of my workload in order to continue to be the best IT professional I can be?

My mentor had a solution, of course.  The best tool for carving out time for upgrading my skills, he said, is a detailed plan with the following characteristics:  First, a time line.  As with many things that are "important but not urgent," training is often postponed indefinitely.  A time line with calendared milestones would be great for keeping me on track . . . and keeping my boss focused on the plan.  Second, specific learning activities.  Whether I learn best in my own lab or by attending a class, whatever my style, I should be specific about what learning activities I intend to undertake.  And third, value propositions.  A good value proposition will answer management's question of why the firm should invest in the training, and it should be a step in making my department or my firm more effective - and for making my boss shine.

Making Contributions
My mentor was emphatic that discovering, analyzing and solving business problems is a real skill - and one that is worth developing.  He assured me that when I concentrate on making a real difference at my firm, things will almost always fall into place career-wise.  However, this does not always mean big, firm-wide initiatives.  In fact, most of the time it means small things like streamlining a clumsy process for a few workers.

The goldmine for potential contributions these days, he explained, is in practice groups.  Many firms are working to organize many of their business processes around practice groups, and the IT professionals who recognize and assist the business objectives of their firms' practice groups will inevitably be branded as heroes.

Where to start?  He pointed out that most practice group leaders would be very happy to have someone from the IT department sit in on a few of their practice group meetings just to see what kind of help they might need.  It would not take very long for an astute observer at those meetings to pick up on the unique goals of the practice group and perhaps develop a few ideas about how to align upcoming initiatives - or even existing technology - with those goals.  And implementing an idea that genuinely makes my firm more effective is a real contribution to the organization.  "That's why you're there," he reminded me, "to contribute.  Just ask the partners."

Managing Perceptions
According to my friend, the most dangerous perception IT professionals face in a law firm is that they do not contribute to the bottom line (or that they contribute negatively to the bottom line)!  Associates and paralegals have billable hours, but unfortunately I have no such way to demonstrate my contributions directly.  All of my thoughtful planning and dynamite skills won't count for much if nobody ever notices.  So how can I demonstrate my value without becoming a shameless braggart?  Goal setting was the answer.

If I, on an annual basis, select a handful of worthy goals and present the list to my supervisor, he said, I immediately accomplish a number of important things:

• I provide self-direction - and become known as a "self-starter"
  
• I arrive at an agreement for the year's priorities
  
• I establish evaluation criteria

The first item would have an immediate positive effect on my reputation, he said, but the last item is the real ace in the hole.  At the end of the year, or when it comes time to discuss performance, I would be able to point to a concrete list of targets achieved.  Then there would be no question about my performance or contributions - and my boss would probably take the list to her boss, which is the kind of visibility that everyone likes.

Building Relationships
It's more than building a "network," my mentor explained; building relationships is about building trust.  When people trust that I will do what I say I will do - and also trust that I am perceptive and interested enough to incorporate their concerns into my campaigns - then they will give me opportunities to make a difference and grow.  I should seek out and become acquainted with my internal customers - and make opportunities to talk with the partners, he emphasized.  Peers are also important.

We agreed that one of the best ways to get to know peers is through professional associations like ILTA.  Through ILTA, I get a chance to troubleshoot together with people and lend a helping hand.  Another suggestion was to join ALA - having congenial relationships with my boss' peers is a good thing.  And there is no substitute for making my boss a co-conspirator in my success.  If I can succeed in doing that, he said, the road gets much smoother.

As I was paying for lunch, something occurred to me.  I told him that his four pursuits seemed to build on each other.  That is, if I manage to build relationships with my internal customers and business owners, then I'm more likely to have good insight as to which goals may benefit the firm most, thereby making a real contribution and probably gaining valuable skills in the process - all of which builds trust, which brings us back to relationships.  "It's like an upward spiral," I mused.  "If you can get that spiral working for you," he said with a wink, "then I imagine you'll get a nice raise and a big bonus.  Not a bad exchange for taking an old timer out to lunch, huh?  And maybe then you'll be able to pay for a decent sushi place."

About our author . . .

Joshua de Koning is the IT Manager at Lloyd Gosselink Blevins Rochelle & Townsend, P.C. in Austin, Texas.  Joshua manages existing technology, new technology, IT staff and a sense of humor.  He can be reached at 512.322.5841 or jdekoning@lglawfirm.com.