Practical empathy.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸, 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵, 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘦𝘦. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘯𝘰𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘰𝘬𝘢𝘺.

I heard Seth Godin mentioned something along these lines in a podcast. I find myself keep going back to these words.

It’s something that I wish I have understood early in my career. That would have saved me a lot of frustration when:

– a corporate exercise dragged on for years for reasons beyond my control

– fees were discounted but that did not stop emails marked with high importance and with the word “𝘂𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁” and deadlines specified in bold, from landing in my inbox in the early hours and Fridays

– others called for back-to-back meetings on the same day for the same project with no tangible outcome after the meetings but more minutes of meetings to be prepared

(or when the honking from vehicles stuck in heavy traffic on a rainy late afternoon in Kuala Lumpur got so loud that the lawyer on the other side of the phone commented about it when I called while I was seated several floors above ground level)

My experience is not unique. It’s all in a day’s work of a corporate lawyer.

Having practical empathy (and some self-compassion) goes a long way.

#malaysiancorporatelawyer

#lawyering

This post first appeared on Linkedin on 28 April 2022.