BE CREATIVE

James DonovanGoldman Sachs

CORPORATE LAWYERS NEED TO GET CREATIVE

• Everyone should be creative as client managers, but especially corporate lawyers.

• Never just say “No” to a suggestion. If you have to answer in the negative, come up with an alternative.

• Also be very clear about why you are rejecting the suggestion.• Now it is time to offer an alternative, preferably more than one.

COMMON SENSE RULES

• While most managers think they know about common sense, in practice, it often gets lost in the process.

• In other words, never forget to think about how a client is going to be hearing what you are saying.

• So if they make a suggestion and you don’t think it is good for example, hearing “No” is hard. Hearing “No but how about…?” is much easier on the ears.

• Common sense means you will get into the mind of the client and truly understand what specific issues they are encountering.

KEEP THE CONVERSATION FLOWING

• Ask open-ended questions which require more than a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response.

• One example is: instead of saying “do you like the weather outside?” you will instead ask “how do you like the weather outside?”

• When asking questions, think about how best to elicit the most information with an answer.

• Understand the ego: people love to talk about themselves. So ask questions that encourage the client to talk about him/herself.

UNDERSTAND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PEOPLE

• If you really understand the psychology of human nature you’ll quickly realize that people just like to feel good about themselves and have confidence in what they are doing.

• It is your job as a client manager to help them feel good and to give them the confidence they need to propel their project forward.

JIM DONOVAN: SOCIAL MEDIA PROFILES