When Going It Alone Becomes Unproductive
Welcoming Leonard Tillerman as an editor and a call for help
It took an act of generosity to make me see I was being stupidly stubborn in my approach to publications here.
Leonard Tillerman recently became an editor of Pragmatic Wisdom and I want to thank him for volunteering. He’s helped me gain some wisdom, ironically enough, on why going it alone can be unproductive.
I’ll explain why and end with a call for help.
Lawyers are smart sometimes but we can also be idiots
Lawyers often make terrible leaders because of how we earn our living. Lawyers rise and fall on our wits — how quickly we size up a situation, analyze the right aspects of complex interactions, and apply the law creatively but correctly to solve client problems.
It’s an individual game, and individual lawyers can spend their entire careers relying on just their particular prowess. As such, it’s predictably unpleasant when a firm promotes a lawyer who is used to working alone to a position where they must lead other lawyers.
- The new boss has little idea how to work collaboratively, how to motivate the team, and how to inspire their best.
- For their part, the team members care even less about what the boss thinks. They’ve been doing just fine as individual contributors, thank you very much.
Serving as the managing partner of a law firm is thus more likely to be viewed as a kind of penance, not a reward.
Running a Medium publication reminds me of my lawyer days
I started my publications to publish and collect my own stories in defined areas. Career Paths is about finding ways to thrive in our work, and Pragmatic Wisdom is about all the ways we can find to do well in life.
I started them solo and have been happy with the freedom and flexibility.
Relatively quickly, though, I saw the merit in opening both publications to other writers. Medium runs on coffee and collaboration. Why not see if my favorite authors could be enticed to contribute?
And contribute you did! While working on a recent story about my first six weeks as a boost nominator, I totted up how many stories I published by other authors this year. It’s almost 120 stories between the two publications, about 20 a week. Where was I finding the time?
Here’s the thing. Until Leonard reached out to generously volunteer to become an editor, it never occurred to me to ask for help or that I would benefit from it.
Here’s what a dummy I am: I told Leonard thanks, but that I wasn’t looking for help.
It is not a sign of weakness to accept help. Quite the contrary
It took me less than a day to realize I was being an idiot. If there is a kinder, more thoughtful writer than Leonard who has deep reservoirs of human understanding to call upon, I don’t know them. I told him I changed my mind and would be delighted to have him as a fellow editor.
And I am delighted.
- Delighted that Leonard volunteered and woke me out of my stupor.
- Delighted that contributors will have another set of talented eyes looking over their submissions and helping make them shine.
- Delighted that I realized there is strength in accepting a helping hand.
The next step beyond accepting help is asking for it
If I struggle to accept help, I am even worse at asking for it. But I am putting my ego aside and asking for it.
Specifically, if anyone wishes to join me as an editor of Career Paths, I would like to hear from you. It’s a modest time commitment, and despite how I sometimes come across online, I am easy to work with.
The pay? De minimis, as we lawyers like to say, which you can take to mean nothing at all. Nothing, that is, except the feeling of immense satisfaction at helping make the world a better place one writer and one story at a time.
I like to think we are doing just that, and I invite you to join me. In the meantime, please join me in thanking Leonard for taking the first step.
Be well.