When Penny Dudley, former legal director of Bupa’s international health insurance division, was asked to move into the chief legal officer role earlier this year, it was an opportunity to reflect on the importance of non-legal skills. ‘We have a strong focus on leadership at Bupa at all senior levels, but it’s a big step when you go from one part of a business to overseeing the entire group. It brought it home that you need to make sure in-house lawyers have these skills at an early stage. It’s a bit late to start investing in leadership once you’ve put someone on the executive committee.’
The need for leadership skills is also playing a big part in the in-house recruitment process. ‘If I’m looking for someone to step into a senior role then I’m much more focused on their leadership skills and the interview process is designed to find out whether a candidate has those skills. From having a candidate speak to various business teams to working with consultants and conducting psychological profiling, the process we use is the same one they would go through for any other senior management role.’
The growing focus on people management and influencing skills has exposed the scarcity of bespoke training aimed at in-house lawyers. However, says Dudley, the responsibility for developing the right mindset ultimately falls on the GC. ‘Lawyers like the idea of external training because it resonates with the view that there’s a right approach, which you can sit down and learn, but for me leadership is much more about being able to work in an environment where nothing is defined. The biggest thing lawyers struggle with in-house is that there is very often not a right answer.’
‘Leadership is about working where nothing is defined.’
By definition, not everyone can be a leader in a flat hierarchy. ‘We need to have a broader view of leadership in law, particularly in-house. We don’t think of it in terms of the number of people a lawyer has reporting in to them but whether they are able to show initiative and take on a project on their own. Leadership is about being willing to make a decision in an area where you’re not a subject matter expert.’
For lawyers looking to develop these skills, Dudley has a simple piece of advice. ‘Be open to a sideways move into another part of the business where you’ll get profit and loss responsibility. I was responsible for corporate affairs at Bupa Global and it taught me that you don’t always need to be the recognised expert to make good leadership calls. The GC role is one where you have to manage a large number of stakeholders and get the best out of your team, none of which requires subject matter expertise.’