LawPundit Pages

Friday, March 20, 2015

Secrets to Success from a Law Firm Head: Don't Complain - Fix It, Drop Dogmatism - Cultivate an Open Mind, Listen Actively - Give Everyone Else a Chance to Express Their Views

Adam Bryant has a condensed interview online at the New York Times with Stephen J. Immelt, head of the international law firm Hogan Lovells (ca. 6000 employees worldwide -- see also Wikipedia).

Immelt's brother Jeff is CEO of General Electric.

Their parents taught them not to complain but to "fix it" and that philisophy surely has a lot to do with two brothers both being CEOs of big organizations, a real rarity.

Stephen J. is quoted as follows on a further important need in our modern world, the capacity for open-mindedness, another rare commodity, whose necessity became even more clear when Immelt became a CEO:
"Suddenly I was in a position where I was managing people in London, in Germany, in Paris. That was an eye-opener. I came to appreciate pretty quickly that when you’re in that setting, your own views about how the world is set up go out the window. You really have to become a much better listener, and you learn that there are very different cultural lenses. You have to make sure that everybody who has something to say has a chance to say it."