By Taryn Tawoda
In the highly niche and often intensely competitive field of legal marketing, the prospect of securing a top C-level position at a major firm can appear incredibly daunting. But as co-presenters Kelly Hoey and Jennifer Johnson discussed in the Legal Marketing Association’s September luncheon in Chicago, the CMO title does not have to serve as the defining capstone of a successful career.
“Tenures are getting longer and longer – CMOs are serving nine, 10, 25 years in their current roles,” said Jennifer. “There are one hundred top jobs in the top one hundred firms. Not everybody is going to get there, and that’s okay.”
Rather than fretting over the prospect of eventually landing the top and most sought-after position at an Am Law 100 firm, Kelly and Jennifer explained in “Unpacking and Mapping Your Career Business Plan,” it is crucial to focus on identifying the aspects of your job you most enjoy and on strengthening your professional network, regardless of whether you feel like you need it.
“If you have expertise and a network, you have career control,” said Kelly. “You know where to reach out and you are aware of your opportunities.”
One of the biggest potential roadblocks to professional development is discovering – often when it is too late – that your career network isn’t sufficiently strategic. It may not consist of the people who are knowledgeable of and connected to the niche field you feel most passionately about. Or, it may consist of weak relationships rather than loyal advocates as you search for your next position. As Kelly emphasized, start building your network before you need it, because it takes time to foster strong, meaningful and relevant connections.
Even with a network in place, however, you cannot necessarily count on landing a top marketing position. Also, when you take a closer look at your career goals, you very well may find that the role of CMO is hardly an appropriate fit. When you pinpoint the tasks in your day that bring you the greatest sense of accomplishment, you may, for example, realize that you are better suited for a role that heavily emphasizes media relations rather than holistic management. Moreover, not every career trajectory is traditional and predictably progressive. You may find that a position with the same title at a different company entails greater responsibility, and that it would be highly beneficial to make the switch without necessarily taking on a prestigious title.
“Going forward, think: what do I love?” said Jennifer. “What does that look like, and where do I have to go to get it?”
The panelists ended the session by encouraging audience members to fill out their own career networking plan worksheets, which included the following steps for defining career goals and advancing one’s own professional network:
- Describe briefly up to three career goals. These goals should be specific (for example: becoming active on an LMA committee or expanding a current role on a committee or with an industry group; volunteering on a cross-departmental project; pursuing a new role; seeking targeted assignment(s) from your CMO).
- Choose a goal above and think about who you know and how well you know them. Which of these people can help you achieve your goal? Start by selecting buckets and then put each contact into a bucket. Buckets can include current work colleagues, former work colleagues, industry contacts, non-profit committee contacts, family and friends.
- As you write down names, highlight the contacts who are mentors or sponsors. A mentor is a trusted counselor or advisor who you have turned to when you need guidance or direction in your career development. A sponsor is someone with significant influence on decision-making processes or structures who will advocate, protect and fight for your career advancement.
- Last, think about whom you know or who you need to get to know better.
PRESENTERS:
Kelly Hoey
Business Network Strategist
jkellyhoey@gmail.com
Jennifer Johnson
J. Johnson Executive Search
jennifer@jjohnsonexecsearch.com
Taryn Tawoda is an associate at Greentarget Global Group, a strategic communications firm serving law firms, professional service firms and select industries in the business-to-business market.