career path Archives - Everpool Recruitment

In the competitive Legal space, getting ahead at work and achieving your career goals demands more than an ability to meet your performance expectations. The dynamic and unpredictable world we live in means employers are prioritising candidates who demonstrate adaptability, resilience, and intuition, which means you will need to be proactive to thrive.

Proactivity is valuable, ensuring you can anticipate and overcome challenges as they emerge, consistently demonstrate the right skills to your employers, and stay one step ahead in an evolving industry.

In fact, several research studies show proactive employees have greater job satisfaction, more successful careers, and a reduced risk of burnout.

Understanding Proactivity in the Workplace

Being proactive means taking a self-initiated, future-focused approach to everything you do. It’s not just about ensuring you’re always busy in the workplace or taking regular risks. Proactive employees are reflective and strategic about every action they take.

Proactive people know how to recognise challenges before they emerge, solve problems creatively, and constantly develop their skills to remain productive.

Rather than simply responding to situations as they arise, proactive employees actively look for opportunities to contribute to the workplace and drive progress positively. They’re curious and confident and embrace personal agency in their roles.

The Importance of Proactivity in Your Legal Role

A proactive approach can benefit both your personal and professional life. When Legal employees are proactive, they will be more satisfied with their careers because they constantly search for valuable opportunities. They don’t just wait for promotions and new responsibilities to present themselves; they map and implement their path to success.

Proactive employees are more valuable to employers, too. They can positively impact business results, helping organisations to overcome challenges rapidly, remain agile, and explore new methods for growth.

Embracing a proactive personality can:

Differentiate You From the Competition

Proactive people stand out because they regularly innovate, solve problems independently, and show their value to existing and prospective employers. Fact: Proactive people are likelier to access excellent job offers and promotions than competing candidates.

Enhance Resilience

The Legal space constantly evolves, presenting new challenges and opportunities to employees. As a proactive person, you can pre-empt changing dynamics and prepare for them more effectively. You’ll be better equipped to change and evolve consistently, seize opportunities, and remain agile in your role.

Unlock Leadership Opportunities

Proactivity is a common characteristic of effective leaders. Showing proactivity at work can boost your chances of accessing greater responsibilities. One report from the Journal of Applied Psychology found that proactive people are more likely to be promoted to leadership roles and make more money.

Strategies to Develop Proactivity

While your upbringing can impact how proactive you are as a Legal employee, proactivity is still something you can build yourself. Some of the best ways to nurture your proactive skills include:

Taking Ownership

Embracing personal empowerment is a significant factor in proactivity. You can’t be proactive if you don’t take ownership of your career and work. Rather than waiting for opportunities to present themselves or reacting to things as they happen, actively look for opportunities.

Embrace chances to take ownership of tasks and projects and act as a leader for other members of your Legal team. Take accountability for your actions and the outcomes of projects, and regularly review your strengths and development areas to find growth opportunities.

Predict and Anticipate Needs

Part of being a proactive Legal employee is nurturing a future-focused mindset. You’ll need to develop a habit of anticipating challenges and opportunities, even before they arise.

There are various ways you can do this.

Tuning into industry trends, tracking market changes, and staying updated on developments by following industry leaders can help.

Another way to become more future-focused is to envision your goals and what you want to accomplish and work backwards from there. Identify your company’s and personal goals, and ask yourself what you will want to accomplish or overcome.

Be Solution Focused

Anticipating challenges is useful, AND to be proactive, you also need to take action. Don’t just present problems and opportunities to your manager or team members; propose creative ways of approaching them. Look at issues from multiple angles and collaborate with colleagues to drive positive results effectively. Learn from your previous strategies and grow.

Don’t wait for someone else to step in and offer a solution. Make it a priority to confront challenges and handle problems before they escalate.

Commit to Continuous Learning

Proactive Legal employees are constantly evolving. They know the importance of developing new skills as the market changes, whether technical skills are linked to A.I. and automation or soft skills like emotional intelligence.

Rather than relying on your employer to offer the right training opportunities, look for ways to develop skills yourself. Seek out courses and certifications, find a mentor who can help you hone your abilities, or network with other experts in your industry.

Proactivity: Steps for Success

Developing a proactive personality isn’t enough; you must also constantly demonstrate that attribute to your Legal employers and colleagues. Here are some of the ways you can present a proactive mindset.

1. Make Long-Term Plans

Proactivity is all about looking ahead. With this in mind, think about your future in terms of long-term and short-term targets. Ask yourself where you want to be in your career five or ten years from now. Do you want to be part of another Legal team or lead your own?

If so, which skills will you need to develop, and how will you show your employer that you deserve these opportunities?

Do you need to take on more responsibilities, volunteer for difficult projects or learn new skills?

Organise your plans with SMART goal setting. Break the steps you need to take down into simple targets that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.

For instance, if your goal is to become a Legal team leader, you may need to start by developing better time management and organisational skills over the next few months.

Keep track of your progress and record your proactive contributions, including successful initiatives, problems resolved, and outcomes.

2. Organise Your Time Effectively

When you take control of your schedule, you can plan activities and ensure you’re spending your time in a way that drives you towards the results you want. Part of being proactive is identifying what you can and can’t control in your life and career.

Determine what you can take ownership of in your Legal career and what you need to prioritise to reach your goals.

3. Communicate and Collaborate Consistently

Good communication is crucial to success in the Legal workplace. Communicating and collaborating regularly with team members will help you to examine your work from different perspectives, solve problems more creatively, and anticipate a wider range of challenges.

Collaborating with team members will also allow you to showcase your proactive nature to your employers by volunteering for cross-functional projects, mentoring other team members, and sharing your skills. Additionally, effective communication will ensure you can keep everyone informed of your initiatives and accomplishments.

Ask for regular meetings or performance reviews so you can show how your proactive approach has made a positive impact on the team. Ask regularly for feedback to become more self-aware and in tune with your strengths and development areas.

4. Be actively Involved in the workplace

Studies from Harvard Business Review show that quiet, reserved employees are often overlooked for promotions and opportunities, regardless of how effective they are in their roles. As a proactive employee, you must find opportunities to show Legal managers and leaders how involved you are in the workplace.

Subscribe to internal newsletters to keep track of upcoming business opportunities and offer assistance in launching new initiatives. In meetings, speak up and deliver contributions; don’t blend into the background.

When challenges and opportunities emerge in your work, be the first to raise your hand and ask to contribute. Even if a challenge is outside your comfort zone, showing a willingness to contribute will help to highlight your proactive nature.

5. Develop a Growth Mindset

Finally, remember that being proactive is often associated with having a growth mindset. Proactive people don’t give up when they face a challenge or something goes wrong. They learn from their mistakes and commit to constant improvement.

Allow the success of other employees to inspire you rather than make you envious. Regularly use self-reflection to assess your weaknesses and look for opportunities to grow. See negative feedback as a chance to improve your work and become a more valuable Legal employee.

Be a Proactive Legal Employee

Developing your proactivity muscle in the Legal workplace ensures you can make a lasting impression on your employer and team members. Embracing a proactive mindset demonstrates your value as an employee, helps you to innovate and adapt faster, and ensures you’ll be first in line for new promotions and opportunities when they arise.

Look at your current work strategy and ask yourself where to apply proactive strategies, whether proposing new ideas in meetings, seeking additional training, or offering to take the lead on a new project.

You might even decide the path to proactivity starts with finding a better role in an environment more suited to your needs. In that case, your journey could begin by contacting a Legal recruitment company like ourselves.

Making it to a final stage Office and Commercial interview is both exciting and daunting. If you’ve got this far, it means that your potential employer is seriously considering offering you a job/role/position. However, you’ll still be competing against a selection of other, equally qualified candidates.

Ensuring you’re properly prepared to make the right impact on a hiring manager or business leader is crucial to ensuring you don’t stumble at the last hurdle.

How well you demonstrate your hard and soft skills, and knowledge, as well as a strong level of cultural fit, will determine whether you walk away with the role you want.

Here, we’ll guide you through the process of preparing for a Office and Commercial final stage interview, discussing everything from the research you’ll need to conduct, to the questions you should ask.

The First Step: Demonstrating Cultural Fit

The first step in being successful in your Office and Commercial final stage interview, involves carefully researching the culture of the company you want to work for. The chances are you’ll already have a basic knowledge of things like team dynamics and business values, based on previous interviews and assessments and information from your recruitment company.

At this stage, it’s important to refine your understanding of the company’s culture, so you can demonstrate how well you’ll fit into the organisation. According to a study from Glassdoor, up to 25% of new hires leave a role within 6 months, and one of the most commonly cited reasons, is poor cultural fit.

Since employers don’t want to waste time and money replacing new hires, they often use the final stage of the interview process to evaluate cultural fit carefully. Being able to demonstrate that you understand and share the company’s values will make you a more compelling option.

Dive into previous interview notes, examine the company’s website, and look for insights into the company’s goals, mission, and vision and how they align with your personal work vision. Consider if you have any anecdotes or stories you can share about previous projects you’ve worked on, that demonstrate potential cultural alignment.

For instance, if your company values intuition and creativity, you could talk about a previous project you launched, and how it benefited a previous employer.

Showcasing Your Skills and Experience

While your CV, and previous interviews or assessments should have given your potential employer insight into your skills or experience, many will still use the final interview to gather additional information. They’ll be looking for specific examples of your Office and Commercial expertise, and how your competencies align with their specific needs.

Prepare some “STAR” (Situation, Task, Action, Result) stories to dive deeper into your experience. Outline achievements with clear numbers or statistics, and remember to base your responses on what you know about the company and the responsibilities of the role.

While it’s important to showcase your technical skills, don’t forget to draw attention to relevant soft skills too. Showing a high level of resilience and adaptability will significantly boost your chances of getting the right role in a dynamic Office and Commercial landscape.

Highlighting important transferrable skills, such as the ability to problem solve, collaborate cohesively with team members, and lead others can also be extremely helpful. Remember to convey confidence in your abilities, but know when to acknowledge your weaknesses, and discuss what you’re going to do to overcome them, such as investing in additional training.

Showing a growth mindset and commitment to continuous learning and improvement can give you an edge over other candidates, even if they have more experience than you.

Asking Insightful Questions

The final stage interview isn’t just an opportunity for potential employers to evaluate your suitability for a role. It’s also your opportunity to learn more about the position the company, and the responsibilities you’ll have in this Office and Commercial position.

Asking insightful questions demonstrates that you have a genuine interest in the role, and are committed to being the best possible new hire. It can also show you’ve done your research into the company, showing you have initiative and drive.

Consider asking questions such as:

What are the key performance indicators you’ll be tracking in my work?
How would you describe your company’s approach to professional development?
Which staff members will I be working with on a daily basis?
What would you say your number one goal is for the company in the next year?
What would you consider to be the biggest challenge for someone starting in this role?
Which skills would be most important for me to develop when I start this role?
How does your company show a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion?
What does your typical onboarding process involve?

When formulating a list of questions, look for ways to show your focus on delivering value to your employer. Be careful not to ask questions that are clearly answered by the job description, or the company’s website.

Preparing for Different Interview Formats

Only around 20% of the people who apply for a Office and Commercial role will reach the final interview round, and each company can take a different approach to how they manage the interview process.

Some companies, looking to save time and money on the recruitment process, will conduct virtual interviews using video conferencing software. If your employer takes this approach, make sure you treat the virtual interview just like any other interview. Don’t assume the conversation is casual or informal, just because you’re not attending an office in-person.

Different Office and Commercial companies will also add different elements to the interview process. Some will ask you to talk with a panel of business leaders, others will ask you to present case studies from your past work, or take technical assessments.

If you’re not sure which approach your potential employer will take, you can ask the hiring manager or recruitment company you work with what the interview will involve so you can prepare.

Make sure you familiarise yourself with the company’s products, services, and goals, and research the trends in the Office and Commercial industry when preparing responses to possible questions. It can also help to host “practice” interviews with friends or family members. This should boost your confidence, and help you identify any issues with body language or anxiety before the interview.

Preparing for Your Final Stage Interview

Reaching the final stage of the interview process with a Office and Commercial company means you’ve shown a hiring manager or team that you potentially have the skills and experience required to excel in their role. However, if you fail to impress during the interview, you could miss out on a job offer.

By researching the company’s culture, demonstrating your skills and experience, and asking insightful questions, you can maximise your chances of success.

Preparing for different interview formats will also ensure you have the confidence you need to excel during this stage.

Remember, regardless of the outcome of this interview, you should view it as a valuable learning experience that you can use to support your career path and professional development. If you’re unsuccessful, ask your recruitment company or the hiring manager for feedback on how you can improve and prepare for future interview success.

How to Become More Proactive in Your Legal Role

August 8, 2024