Leadership Isn’t a Promotion. It’s a Practice.

By Kelly Margani

Leadership Often Arrives Before You Feel Ready

For many lawyers—and other professionals, for that matter—the call to lead arrives long before you feel ready for it.

It often begins subtly.

A larger file.

A junior lawyer looking to you for guidance.

Being pulled into conversations you weren’t part of before.

Increased responsibility for a client relationship.

And then, over time, something shifts.

The expectation isn’t just that you’ll do the work. It’s that you’ll help steady the people around you through uncertainty, growth, and change.

And suddenly, the skills that made you successful as a lawyer are no longer enough.

Because leadership isn’t simply the next stage of your legal practice—or something that comes with a new title.

It requires a different skillset altogether. One grounded not just in what you know, but in how you show up—and what you consistently do.

Leadership isn’t a promotion. It’s a practice.

The Leadership Environment Has Changed

That distinction matters more than ever.

Today’s law firm leaders are navigating an environment defined by complexity—shifting talent expectations, evolving client demands, new technologies, economic pressure, and increasing uncertainty about what the future of the profession will look like.

And in this environment, leadership is less about authority—and more about behaviour.

It’s how you communicate. 

How you make decisions.

How you respond under pressure.

How you create clarity when others feel uncertain.

How you take the next step when the path forward isn’t perfectly clear.

At SGI, we often remind our clients that strategy sets direction—but behaviour determines whether anything actually changes.

And leadership behaviour doesn’t stay contained. It has a ripple effect across an entire firm.

Leadership Behaviour Shapes Culture

A leader’s communication style influences trust. Their consistency shapes culture.Their emotional regulation impacts team dynamics. Their ability to navigate tension affects execution, collaboration, and morale.

Which means leadership development can’t simply focus on technical competence or operational oversight.

It has to focus on awareness. On adaptability. On intentional practice.

The challenge is that most professionals were never actually taught how to lead.

They were taught how to perform—and then expected to figure the rest out.

Great Lawyers Aren’t Automatically Great Leaders

The legal profession rewards intelligence, responsiveness, precision, advocacy, and expertise.

Those are valuable skills. Essential ones. But leadership asks for something more.

It asks you to influence instead of control.

To be curious instead of prescriptive.

To coach instead of rescue.

To delegate instead of over-function.

To communicate proactively instead of reactively.

To create alignment instead of assuming it exists.

And perhaps most importantly, it asks you to recognize that leadership is fundamentally relational.

Leadership Is Relational

The strongest leaders understand that what motivates one person may disengage another.

That the way a message is intended is not always the way it’s experienced.

That clarity, connection, and consistency aren’t “soft skills” at all—they’re operational advantages.

Leadership also requires a willingness to examine yourself honestly.

Where do you create friction unintentionally?

How do you show up under stress?

What behaviours are reinforcing trust?

What behaviours are eroding it?

What assumptions are you making about your team, your colleagues, or your communication that may no longer serve you?

These aren’t always comfortable questions.

But they are necessary ones.

Leadership Is an Ongoing Practice

Because leadership isn’t a destination you arrive at once you make partner, build a book of business, or receive a new title.

It’s an ongoing practice of learning, adjusting, listening, communicating, and growing.

The most effective leaders aren’t the ones who have all the answers.

They’re the ones who remain curious.

Who stay adaptable.

Who create clarity in complexity.

Who understand that leadership is not about being the smartest person in the room—but about creating the conditions that allow other people to succeed.

And the sooner you start treating leadership that way, the more effective—and intentional—you become.

Leadership isn’t a promotion.

It’s a practice.

In Part 2, we’ll explore what effective leadership actually looks like in practice—and where most lawyers tend to get stuck.

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