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People skills are imo more important for career growth than hard skills. The people who get ahead and stay employed when others get let go are usually people who communicate well and are well liked. People find a way to keep people around who they like.
Whereas I’ve seen people who were very technically skilled get let go or stalled because they either butted heads with people and didn’t know when to make peace, or just generally irritated people, didn’t want to follow protocols they didn’t agree with, or just didn’t know how to communicate regarding their work and the importance of it.
That’s not a good result necessarily but it’s the way of the world. The people who have technical skills, work ethic, AND are good communicators (or sometimes manipulators) usually move up and become partners/executives at some point.
SC2, yes. Both matter. Being unlikeable or unpleasant to work with is a problem. But I’ve also seen people everyone liked as a person let go because they just weren’t good enough at the work.
For younger attorneys specifically, I’ve found that an eagerness to grow and learn has set attorneys apart from their peers. It’s harder and harder to find diligent workers who want to do good at their job, rather than cruise and collect a paycheck. Not saying to do this at the expense of work life balance or allowing yourself to be exploited/taken advantage of, but caring about the job and/or your clients goes a long way in this day and age.
I was thinking something similar. Some actually have a desire to grow and others just don’t.
Idgaf about storytelling if they can’t run a damn spellcheck before sending something out. Spinning a good yarn doesn’t fix getting the client’s name wrong in the email/filing…
Pro
I know many partners with middling to bad attention to detail but they excel in so many other areas that it doesn’t really matter (and as someone else has said, at a certain level, it’s someone else’s job below you to worry about the minutia).
Back before anyone invented the term 'cynerstalk' I worked with a CEO who memorized files of new employees. If he came across someone walking the other way in the hall, he would greet them by name, and perhaps make small talk about their hobby, even if they had never met before. There were 1300 people working in the building at that time, and it wasn't unusual for 20 new hires to start on any Monday.
Adaptability