The one question worth asking about your craft

One of my favourite questions from the Successful Junior Lawyer Project is “What do you wish you'd done differently as a junior?" I interviewed mostly two groups of people: practicing lawyers (e.g. managing partners, department heads, and regular partners) and non-practicing lawyers (e.g. chief people officers, talent directors).

From the former group, you get answers that highlight what they can see from hindsight now that they've made it successfully through being a junior. From the latter, the answer often reflects what they think would have kept them (happily) in practice.

And some answers are universal. Like this one:

“Taken more time to focus on my craft and not been so focused on the judgment of others.”

This applies far beyond law. It doesn't matter whether you're a lawyer, a professional, an artist, a carpenter, or anything else.

Your. Craft. Matters.

🧡💙

I often see people work at improving in their craft until they're good, and improvement slows down. But being good is table stakes.

What would it take to be excellent?

It's worth thinking about.

And likely even more worth thinking about — 'what small step could I take today that would bring me closer to excellence?'

I don't know that excellence is ever achieved forever. It's in the pursuit of excellence that our craft is really honed.

So — what's that small step?

And will you take it today?

Remember: you got this.