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Leading Out Loud: Authenticity, Visibility and Firm Growth
163 Plays1 month ago
In this episode of Shortlisted, we sit down with William Peake, Global Managing Partner of Harneys, to explore what it really means to lead out loud.
William shares how bad management shaped his leadership style, why emotional intelligence will outpace technical brilliance in the age of AI, and what the service sector can teach lawyers about communication and managing expectations. He explains how he’s used LinkedIn to amplify Harneys’ global growth—from Dubai to Asia—build brand awareness, attract top talent, and spark honest conversations about bullying, culture, and accountability.
Credits: Music by Grand_Project from Pixabay
Produced by Kwame Slusher Audio
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Transcript
Introduction to the Shortlisted Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
I am a one-person advertising agency. I get inundated with CVs from absolute quality candidates and that happens to me all all the time.
00:00:16
Speaker
You're listening to Shortlisted, a podcast from Seldon Rosser, the leading executive search firm that connects professional services firms to the best leadership candidates in business development, sales, marketing, and communications.
00:00:29
Speaker
This podcast is dedicated to helping ambitious leaders in professional services build high-performing, market-leading firms. I'm Graeme Seldon. And I'm Katie Rosser.
00:00:39
Speaker
And in each episode, we bring you candid conversations with leaders who are driving growth and innovation in their fields. be it leadership and strategy to talent management, client development, marketing communications, or cutting edge technologies, including AI.
00:00:54
Speaker
We explore the key areas that contribute success in today's competitive landscape. So if you're in a leadership role focused on growth, then Shortlisted is your go-to resource for actionable insights and inspiring stories.
00:01:09
Speaker
Welcome to today's episode of Shortlisted.
Meet William Peake
00:01:11
Speaker
Today we're joined by William Peake, global managing partner of Hanees, a firm with a strong reputation and a clear growth agenda, expanding its presence across key markets, including Dubai and Asia.
00:01:24
Speaker
Now, William is also one of the most visible managing partners in the global legal market, known for a leadership style which is straight-talking, humorous, and refreshingly down-to-earth, particularly through the way he shows up publicly on LinkedIn.
00:01:40
Speaker
In this episode, we will explore what it really means to lead out loud, how authenticity and visibility show up in real leadership, what the boundaries are, and how that kind of leadership presence can drive firm culture, client trust, and growth.
00:01:56
Speaker
William, we're delighted to have you with us. Welcome. Hi, very nice to see you both. How are you? Nice to see you. We're good. Well, look, William, for listeners who may know you from LinkedIn, but not personally, who is William Peake and what shaped the leader that you are
What Inspired Peake's Leadership Style?
00:02:12
Speaker
today? I'm just very conscious that my wife might walk in and just start screaming lies. They're all lies, what he's saying. ah So what shaped me as a leader? I think that ah bad management shaped me as a leader because I always wanted to do the opposite of that. and
00:02:33
Speaker
From a young age, be it with teachers, be it with sports coaches, I could always identify people who I find inspiring and people who I find had the absolute opposite effect. And I then, when I had an opportunity to lead, um I definitely leaned into doing the opposite of things that I find on inspiring. And I've used that to this very day that.
00:03:00
Speaker
Even in our own firm, when I see things that are ah not going according to plan, i do really do see them all as kind of learning opportunities and teaching opportunities, which I know is a very trite Instagram way of of framing it. But I do think that that's a really good way of of leading.
00:03:17
Speaker
And when I think about what I've read of your background on LinkedIn, reading about you starting out in jobs like medieval jousting and maitre d' and sales assistant before coming into the law, have those things shaped who you are still today as
Service Sector Insights and Emotional Intelligence
00:03:33
Speaker
a leader?
00:03:33
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. Look, I think that, and it's really interesting. So my niece at the moment is studying law in university and she is desperately looking for an apprenticeship and internships, et cetera. And I'm trying to tell her that you will learn more from going and working at a restaurant and learning what good service is than you ever will photocopying documents and wearing...
00:03:59
Speaker
your mum's office clothes into into another office. And, you know, she's really struggling with that. And she says, look, that's all very well for you to say, because you've got a plum job. And I said, yeah, I do. But i I learned so much from the service sector. And what did I learn? I learned how to communicate and I learned how to manage expectations. And if you can communicate and manage expectations, your career trajectory will go to the moon.
00:04:26
Speaker
especially now with AI, so everybody can be smart. So being smart now is no longer what's going to differentiate you. What is going to differentiate you is having emotional intelligence and you can incubate that in a service sector better than anywhere else.
00:04:43
Speaker
And then, because I find this absolutely fascinating that... One of the themes that the Financial Times is developing at the moment is the impact of weight loss drugs on the service sector, because people are eating out less and they're going to less restaurants. So there's less opportunities for, uh, waiters and and waitresses, et cetera. And all of this impact, this world is changing at such a rate of knots and it's changing in ways that We glibly say, AI will have an impact, et cetera, but it's, it's an equal opportunity employer. Everybody, everybody is impacted, but, um, stopping resisting going off on a complete tangent. Uh, I think that it is the service sector. There are so many opportunities to learn because you are dealing with
00:05:32
Speaker
As a maitre I used to be such a yes man. So anybody would come in and they would say, can I have a table? And I'd be like, yeah, sure. and But I didn't but didn't have a table for them. And I'd say, just give me 15 minutes. So I would delay the problem for 15 minutes and the person would be delighted. They thought they had a table. And then after 15 minutes, I would have to explain to them that that they didn't. And then I learned that actually what I needed to say was, look, I'm going to try to get you a table. No promises, but let's see what we can do. So their expectations are 50-50.
00:06:06
Speaker
ah But if I deliver that table, they're absolutely delighted. And if I don't, they understand that because their expectations have been managed. And lawyers are way too quick to be yes people. They say yes to everything. They don't interrogate the intentions of what the client wants to do.
00:06:23
Speaker
And it's all short-termism. You've got to think ah longer term. We see in business services well. mean, we recruit in business services and we catch i really like people who've got hotel experience. yes we We call it the concierge mindset that if you can approach a problem with leave it with me, I'll do my best, but I'm not actually going to say that I can do it.
00:06:44
Speaker
Already the partners who are working with that business service professional feel like it's being done. Something is happening, even if nothing happens. Totally. And so, so we love people who come from hospitality, don't we?
00:06:57
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Call centers, hospitality. I think those jobs actually, when we've interviewed several people over the years, always come through into into who people are as leaders. And and also um resisting the tangent, but on your point of mentioning AI, I think it also pushes us to talk about human intelligence and those human skills that will be even more important in the future.
Authenticity and Social Media Presence
00:07:20
Speaker
And so, you know, on that, you have built yourself a bit of a reputation online for being a human led leader, or an authentic managing partner. And so I wonder what does that look like day-to- day to day Harnies in the decisions you make, how you show up, how you communicate in in that role?
00:07:40
Speaker
Yes, look, all these words are so overused and so trite around authenticity, you know, resilience and vulnerability, et cetera, et cetera. And so, you know, it's all just being human. That's all it is. Just strip it down and it's just being normal.
00:07:56
Speaker
I think that the reason that my social media stuff resonates with people is that, People in work recognize the person that is projecting himself to the outside world. Now, am I identical to that person? No, because I have to make really difficult decisions day in day out. I make decisions that are, mean, cause the reality is that making the right decision is rarely the most popular decision.
00:08:23
Speaker
So with that matrix, there will be people who are. flummoxed by decisions that that the firm has made or feel like it's not the right direction. But the executive committee and the collective making that decision feel that it is in the the best interests of the majority of people in the in the firm. And I think way too much social media stuff is introduces this kind of chintzy vulnerability where people just fabricate things about themselves to give a lacquer or a varnish of humanity.
00:08:56
Speaker
But the problem is they, they come on stuck because if I was a, um, difficult person or like a galloping bully in the workplace, you can bet your bottom dollar that would have come out by, by now. Um, and that's really, really important that there is a connection between the person that people see,
00:09:19
Speaker
on LinkedIn and the person that they meet in in public. And the reality is I do an awful lot of these podcasts and I do, like I spend a lot of time commenting on LinkedIn and that's where you actually get to reveal your personality because if all my stuff was ghostwritten or if somebody else was curating this version of me,
00:09:41
Speaker
You wouldn't feel, because the comments are the echo of the voice from the post. And that's the bit that really concretises, which is actually a word I looked it up yesterday. So just, so.
00:09:55
Speaker
Yeah, am. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I couldn't believe it. I heard it on an In Our Time podcast and some very smart person said, and you need that to concretize. And I was like, that can't be a word, but it is. So there go. So see if everybody running for the dictionary. asked so ah So you need that to actually and kind of glue in people's minds that that is the person who wrote wrote the post.
00:10:16
Speaker
do do you Is there a line? like ah And have you ever crossed it you know when you when when you're posting? Because often you're posting on on routes somewhere. You're in an airport. or you know is Have you ever sort of got to a point where you posted something and thought, probably shouldn't have done that? To be honest with you, not not really. i mean, i've I've ended down a few rabbit holes. I posted a picture of... ah ah I was traveling with a friend of mine who, uh, they took their shoes off and their socks off and i took a photo of their feet and, and I so ah ah posted it and I said, just to be clear, you know, this is unacceptable.
00:10:51
Speaker
And, um, that when i went, be that went, that went berserk, uh, because it ended up with like a quarter of a million views and, And people got very, very, uh, angry about what I was, what I was saying and you how dare I try to fetter the right of somebody to take their socks and shoes off. And I was like, uh, it was just a, just a rubbish, just a rubbish joke. Uh, but I will go, but I will go toe to toe with people who try to manipulate what I'm saying or contort the sentiment of what I'm saying. I've no problem doing that. And.
00:11:27
Speaker
And I've also been hijacked by a few life coaches who have, you know, are peddling their own wares. And one of them in particular became extremely obnoxious and extremely difficult.
00:11:40
Speaker
So I stopped engaging with them. So they ramped it up. So then I just, just blocked them. And then they tried to gaslight me with some emails about, you know, what I, what I did, et cetera. There is a bit of a sewer out there and you've got to keep an eye on it, but that's totally fine. um I'm big enough and certainly ugly enough to to deal with that. And and loud and loud enough also, you've got an amazing following on LinkedIn. Yeah, and that's been really interesting as well, kind of developing that, because all I set out to do with my LinkedIn was promote Harneys and promote who we are asset as a business.
00:12:18
Speaker
And there are so many law firms like like Harney's. I mean, all the other major firms, you know, Maples, Walkers, Ogier, et cetera, they're all unbelievably good firms with really, really smart people.
00:12:32
Speaker
So how do we try to distinguish ourselves from these firms? is We're trying to say that we're really personable and easy to work with firm. Now, all those firms are too, but what we're trying to do is really amplify that aspect of our business client delivery service. And again, it all goes back to that EQ point around, I, um, I really think that this time two years, everybody's going to be smart, but not everybody is going to have emotional intelligence.
00:13:06
Speaker
And you know you can learn emotional intelligence up until a point. So if you're seeing less and less of that in the workplace, it's harder to pick it up via osmosis. So it becomes an even more precious and scarce resource.
00:13:18
Speaker
Has it had an impact culturally on other lawyers at Harness? So given that you're the voice of the firm, has that meant that other lawyers in the firm can sort of relax into a style which is perhaps more accessible, personable, flexible, relaxed than it might have been if you weren't on LinkedIn? It definitely set say it sets a tone, but I had to be extremely clear at the start with people that...
00:13:45
Speaker
You don't get, you know, you don't progress in your career at Harney's because you've got a good social media presence. You know, I'm not looking for people to ape what I am doing in order to get up the greasy pole.
00:13:59
Speaker
What I want people to take from that is that I want people to be decent folk. I want them to have integrity. I want them to be honest. I don't want them to flex or be bullies in the workplace.
00:14:12
Speaker
Because, like, I take a few that... Life is hard enough and work is hard enough. And does anybody really want to be sitting at their desk churning through documents? No, they're doing it to earn money so they can either look after the families, look after themselves, occasionally have a holiday, have a bit of a treat, buy themselves a pair of sneakers if they like them without worrying about the impact of that on their ability to pay their mortgage.
00:14:38
Speaker
Like that's why people do their jobs. You know, it's not, you know, you don't do it because you've got this higher calling to, I don't, you know, I, I, I do it because ah want to look after the people who I love around me. That's, that's pretty much in it.
00:14:51
Speaker
Thinking sort of offline for a second while we talk about this bring your authentic self to work, you know, when we're recruiting, we sometimes hear this sort of tension between generations of newer generations wanting to wholeheartedly bring their authentic selves to work and sometimes um other generations sort of feeling a bit of friction to where that line is. i mean, do you um do you observe that in the work environment? Do you have any particular sort of tips or guidance for people offline as to where the line is?
00:15:22
Speaker
i often I often think about before I went to my first date and I was wearing my dad's good blue Ralph Lauren shirt and I had dumped, I would say, three quarters of a bottle of Davidoff cool water over myself. And my mum, having pointed out that I should stay away from naked flames, said that be yourself, but not too much.
00:15:49
Speaker
And it stuck with me as a really, really good kind of yardstick for how you should present yourself in, in the workplace. If I was to bring my true 100% authentic self into the workplace, I would be fired immediately.
00:16:05
Speaker
I am a menace and I love mucking around. I love making people laugh. and I love pranks that would not be a very professional way to conduct myself in the workplace but people would be able to identify me in the workplace as the person out outside of it and I think that the generational crunch actually really comes from people speaking different languages people talking about different things and and I think as well you need to be really mindful of that
00:16:39
Speaker
My generation, i would say has had it, ah you know, would say it's had it slightly easier than than the current generation because, you know, we lived in a time of a kind of capital drive. You could get mortgages, you know, there was, there were better salaries. Inflation was less rife, interest rates were down, et cetera, et cetera.
00:17:00
Speaker
I think that a lot of generations of mine actually are very clumsy with their language and casual references to holiday homes and cars and watches and things.
00:17:11
Speaker
but I can only imagine how utterly aggravating and frustrating that is for somebody starting out in their starting out in their career. So i think clumsy language is a real problem and you know that's on generations to keep keep a close eye on that. And i also think you've got to educate yourself and not buy into these tropes that you know these generations are lazy or these generations are... and That's just nonsense. It's just absolute nonsense. And it all goes back to that core piece around why do people why do people work?
00:17:44
Speaker
They work to provide for themselves, for people. They might work to provide for people around them, but they work to have money, to have a little bit of joy and their lives.
00:17:57
Speaker
I don't know, there seems to be this obsession with producing all these kind of higher notions of why you do anything. just do it to have a bit of joy and not worry about paying your electricity bill.
00:18:08
Speaker
Yeah, no. Fair enough. um Coming back to your work on LinkedIn, and and actually I catch myself, coming back your activity on LinkedIn, because it doesn't seem to feel like work for you. It seems something you enjoy. But I'm interested to explore the impact that you're seeing.
The Role of LinkedIn in Brand Awareness
00:18:25
Speaker
There's a few aspects, but is there anything when it comes to client development, firm growth? Have there been outcomes you've seen? Oh yeah, totally. I mean, if our, say, Harneys account promotes a piece of news, say like a new office. So we opened up in Jersey and we opened up in Dubai last year.
00:18:44
Speaker
And LinkedIn's algorithm is based on obviously cutting out free advertising. So if Harney's promotes a new office, the algorithm's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, we're not giving you free advertising. So we will suppress that and we'll, you know, keep it to maybe a thousand impressions.
00:19:03
Speaker
If I post about that and that I... kind of deal with the chicanery of the algorithm by maybe not saying Harneys, but putting in a photo, promoting it, blah, blah, blah. You that'll easily get 50,000 impressions.
00:19:18
Speaker
So I am a one-person advertising agency. I get inundated with CVs from absolute quality candidates. And that happens to me all, all the time. i look, I get a lot of known quality candidates. Uh, so don't think that your business model is corrupt. It's not, it's perfect, but it's, so like I get a lot of that, but I think the greatest opportunity for us is that it is the brand awareness and it allows our juniors to walk into rooms and And people say, oh, we know your firm.
00:19:57
Speaker
We know your firm. We've read about your firm. Is William as insufferable as he comes across on LinkedIn? You know, they've got lots of questions that they can but they can answer. so to that the brand awareness has been has been really huge. You know, I am messaging externally, but I'm messaging internally as well. And I did a series last year on bullying, and it got millions and millions and millions of views. And it was because I was talking about a topic that law firm leaders tend to shy away from.
00:20:28
Speaker
And I, yes, I was communicating externally. And yes, I was talking about that. I was also communicating internally around that is, that is the standard. And that is what is expected of the people who work in this business. And this is what's important to me. And this is what I'm going to, this is what I'm going to talk about.
00:20:48
Speaker
And I knew that sometimes internally, people are frustrated around, ah you know, I would have liked more internal comms on that. You know like I did a partnership kind of masterclass series on LinkedIn. And again, that got low, you know, tons of of views. And i remember a couple of junior partners were like,
00:21:10
Speaker
You know, I would liked to have seen that internally only. i was like, well, why? you know, you got you got to see it externally. ah You can chat to me anytime anytime you want. And I was communicating to you as much as I was communicating to them.
00:21:24
Speaker
so you know, I'm a fairly open book as well on this stuff. But at the same time, you know, my friends would say to me that I do a very good job of projecting this.
00:21:37
Speaker
You know everything about me. Whereas, you know, I really am, I'm i'm holding back a lot of ah lot of stuff around. I'm very rarely...
00:21:49
Speaker
talk about my family. Um, I, because I'm very, very careful about that because I don't want people to know about, I would never want my family to get dragged into this in terms of, you know, people talking, talking about them. Um, my parents absolutely free reign, you know, just go to town on them, uh, harvest, harvest as much stuff out of them as possible. And, um,
00:22:15
Speaker
And you I'll never talk about religion or I'll never talk about politics, which I've got very strong views on both, but you know, that's that just grossly inappropriate for me to be doing that with the the Harleys brand.
00:22:28
Speaker
you're you're in ah You're in an elite group of people worldwide. of You're a global managing partner. And we know that law is as a set as an industry has been quite traditional. um We know that lawyers resist generally talking about themselves or engaging in marketing or brand awareness strategies. I'm curious, when you're in a group of global managing partners, you you often get together at forums and stuff.
00:22:52
Speaker
Do you sense that they think about you in a different way? like Do you feel that your LinkedIn presence has has all almost sort of identified you to the room before you've even got there.
00:23:05
Speaker
Yeah, no, it it has. And it's opened up huge doors for me in terms of, you know, I've been invited to the Thomson Reuters Global Elite Managing Partners conference in California in May. I would never, ever have been invited to that unless I was on LinkedIn because it allowed me, LinkedIn has allowed me to get into rooms,
00:23:27
Speaker
that I would never have been in otherwise, or it would have taken me much longer to get into. I'm, I'm sufficiently confident in my own abilities that my voice will be heard and my impact will be felt on these issues.
00:23:46
Speaker
But LinkedIn has accelerated that absolutely. And And I do think that, you know it's been funny. like You know, I do walk into a lot of rooms of of managing partners and people are very interested to meet me. and And it's funny as well, though, because but so I've got two ways of dressing. I either dress extremely formally or like I am a very, very...
00:24:17
Speaker
poorly dressed, kind of like teenage skateboarder. And had so many other things in my mind. I was going, they're all inappropriate, so I won't do them. But, ah you know, so so I've got, you know, I've got those two ways of dressing. And it's really funny. I would, if I was meeting a group of managing partners, I would always be very formally dressed because I don't want to, I don't want to play into that, you know, piece around. I'm always in jeans and a hoodie and sneakers, but it's funny. They're always so disappointed. Yeah.
00:24:45
Speaker
I thought you'd be you'd be ah you' be dressed like you know in some like Supreme night collab. And I'm like, no, why would why I be dressed like that? So that that kind of stuff is is quite um it's quite funny, actually. how the and then i you
Adapting Communication Across Cultures
00:25:03
Speaker
know look And I've also had this where you know I've had a lot of people meet me and say, I thought you'd be funnier.
00:25:11
Speaker
I'm like, okay, for somebody whose ego is so fragile, do you realise just how difficult that is for me to comprehend? But but I find that really amusing. that I'm like, I'm not going to perform for... perform for me. I'm just going to be normal when when I meet them. But that that's definitely been a thing.
00:25:33
Speaker
um that people are really waiting to find the version of me that they have curated in their mind. And it's typically around something I will have said will have really, really resonated with them. And they really, really want to want to talk about that. Um, so that, that comes up a lot.
00:25:53
Speaker
ah How conscious are you I mean, you're global managing partner. the clue is in the title, um, you're across cultures, cross borders as ah as a business. How conscious are you that your voice and style lands differently in different cultures different markets? Yeah, no, I'm really i'm really conscious of that. i'm I am a pretty good chameleon and the best one of the best partners that I ever worked with She was incredible
00:26:25
Speaker
ah changing almost everything about herself when she was dealing with different audiences, but always remaining true to her values and herself. You could always identify that it was it was her.
00:26:38
Speaker
You always knew it was her, but it just changed for the room that she was in and the audience that she had. And I always find that remarkably... impressive and I've definitely, ah I definitely do do that. And, but I, I'd see it as a real privilege. I can hardly use the word privilege anymore cause it's got such LinkedIn connotations, but, but I'm really, really, but I am privileged to be able to spend time in, you know, like this year I've been in Singapore, Hong Kong,
00:27:14
Speaker
Dubai, London, you and all of those offices. And they're very different offices in different ways, but, and they're very different culturally, but at the same time, there are common denominators that, that will resonate throughout. And, know, I'm going to the BVI and i ah Again, and you know that'll be a different kind of, you know, approach to that. And most of the things like how people dress in different different jurisdictions as well. I mean, the BVI is actually, you know, I remember the first time I turned up there, you know i always had kind of like chinos and, you know, some polo shirts. And it's actually a very kind of it's actually quite formal, you know, how people dress in and the office.
00:27:58
Speaker
I trained at Maples and their office came in Cayman when I first moved there in 2005 was like, grey flannel pinstripe trousers, white shirts, navy ties. And like it was just, it was like a boarding skill. it was bizarre.
00:28:14
Speaker
When you think about your LinkedIn engagement and you look at where you're getting most engagement or interaction or impressions, if we look at the stats or even just how people are engaging with you and reacting to your LinkedIn in real life when you're in those markets.
00:28:31
Speaker
Does it vary, you know, if you're in the Middle East, if you're in Asia, um if you're in the UK? Is there any notable difference in how much of an impact this LinkedIn activity is having?
00:28:43
Speaker
ah Yeah, definitely. So it's in Asia, it's very much focused on yeah financial services, service providers. So I've got lots of lawyers, lots of accountants, lots of hedge funds,
00:28:58
Speaker
Follow me in the UK. It's a bit more of a smoldering bin fire. So it's kind of, I've got a bit more odds and sods, but that's where it kind of definitely was the kind of crucible off it, which I, and I love, and I've got, I've got so many regulars who just kind of comment on stuff and they they are just really, really funny, really funny people. And I'm followed by a huge amount of architects.
00:29:22
Speaker
So it's really interesting. i don't know. I don't, I'm not too sure why. why that is, ah but they see real overlaps between the dysfunction, because I talk a lot about the dysfunction of law firms and they see a lot of that dysfunction in architects and what they would say actually is that because architects have even more of a almost a romantic bent and a kind of, you know, florid artistic nature that that even lends itself to greater dysfunction. um
00:29:54
Speaker
And then who else? I just kind of followed by all sorts of kind of randomers as well. But again, you know, the funny thing is I am quite fast and loose on things like, you know, I was, there was ah a firm who's a contemporary of ours who I know they do a lot of marketing stuff based on my LinkedIn because they're, you know, the people keep contacting me about it, but they always start the sessions with you're not allowed to talk about this outside of, you know, outside of the room. And.
00:30:28
Speaker
I'm like, well, I've got a fair idea you are doing it because 30 people from your firm have checked my profile in a row. So that's, you know that's fairly, that's fairly obvious. And I've had some very funny ones where, um,
00:30:43
Speaker
dms from partners and other law firms where they were trying to forward something of mine to somebody else and they've ended up sending it to me and then they've deleted and uh but there's one very angry one which was really amusing about ah i can't remember what it was it was kind of like everywhere i turn he's there who is writing this stuff for him it's clearly not him ah And I was like, so i wrote back to them and they didn't reply. i was like, i was like, hi. I don't think you meant to send that to me. Well, do they, do they ever sort of pull you in or do they ever sort of say to you, this is what we'd like to talk about. I mean, are they using you as a sort of channel now? Like we want to launch this. Can you talk about that next week?
Firm Support for Peake's LinkedIn Strategy
00:31:27
Speaker
No, no they're really, they're really good. They're actually brilliant about that. And dan Danielle is, was wonderfully supportive because like at the start,
00:31:35
Speaker
not going to lie to there were a number of partners who were like what is he doing you know what the hell is going on here and what and actually it was paul paul sefton who's our hong kong managing partner sent me a really i'd say it was a really difficult email for him to send actually where he was just like look dude this is what people are saying this is what we need to kind of sort out and i was like look that's totally fair enough because I think they were worried that I didn't have a plan and and I did I really did and so what I did was I set out my plan to the entire did I send it to all the lawyers or all the partners can't remember but I think I may have sent it to the firm ah it was a few years ago but it was few years but I basically said look there is a plan don't worry don't worry there's a plan here I've got this and Danielle was really supportive of it and then they started to realise that
00:32:24
Speaker
This was coming up constantly in business development, in interviews. People were like, the only reason I've applied is because of what William said about X. And now I am used as a channel for people internally who want me to talk about things. And the reason I'll never run out of content is my DMs is just...
00:32:43
Speaker
It is. I mean, so I think there's over a hundred messages in there from people saying, can you talk about this? Can you talk about that? And so, yes, you' but but you've got to be, you can't be so arrogant as to think that everything you want to talk about is...
00:32:59
Speaker
is relevant and i do cut out a lot of stuff you know i do somebody messaged me about you know it'd be really good if you could kind of talk us through your sneaker collection and i was like yeah i mean i'd love to do that even even i even i can see that's pushing pushing the boundaries a little bit too much i'm about to get a youtube channel just yeah yeah yeah yeah no totally totally It's interesting you mentioned like we're starting to talk about other partners there because I'm just starting to picture other managing partners, senior partners who might be listening to this going, oh, it's all it's all well and good for William Peake and he's got this sort of particular style. He's got this sort of natural humor or whatever it might be. They might be feeling a little bit more comfort knowing there's a plan and a strategy, and but feeling like this this would never be for me. so
00:33:50
Speaker
What would you say to those partners about whether this is something they can do and what having an a authentic, visible voice might look like for someone who doesn't quite have your same style? Yeah, so look, I don't think you should try to recycle or impersonate somebody else's style because I think you will just be Nersat's version of that individual and you will actually set yourself up for a big fall there. And...
00:34:19
Speaker
You, I mean, I i used to a attempt to stand up comedy and I was obsessed with Bill Hicks and I used to listen to Bill Hicks all the time. You know i was just obsessed. It was so, so funny. I love the style. I love this delivery.
00:34:36
Speaker
But of course the problem then is that you start dreaming like Bill Hicks and you start coming up with stuff. That's basically a version of his jokes. And you think that you're really, really funny and you've landed in this. year go, it's a Bill Hicks joke. And you actually start the cadence of your voice changes and everything changes. So you need to be really, really careful about aping somebody's style like that. Because I think it can go it can go wrong. But...
00:35:01
Speaker
I do think if you are a leader or you're a managing partner, you need to be able to speak eloquently. You need to be able to articulate your vision, your strategy, and you need to be able to give a speech internally at the drop of a hat.
00:35:15
Speaker
And I will do that internally. I will do town halls all the time.
Vision, Strategy, and Leadership Success
00:35:21
Speaker
If I am chatting to a group of people in the kitchen and you know people start kind of you coming around, we start talking, you know, i will, I will just, I'll always have three things that I want to say.
00:35:35
Speaker
i will always have three things I want to communicate at any given moment that are relevant to the trajectory and success of Harneys. And that's something that I think about most, most days, actually, what are the three things that I want to communicate clearly on our strategic vision? you know,
00:35:56
Speaker
that I think every leader needs to be able to needs to be able to do that. And people are, again, I go back to that point of everybody's going to be smart.
00:36:08
Speaker
Everybody's going to be smart. And people want to feel inspired and they want to feel rejuvenated after they've listened to somebody who they have entrusted with the leadership of the of the business. But I'm not saying that, I'm not saying that I'm everybody's cup of tea. And I'm not saying if you did a survey in Harneys that there would just be this overwhelming 100%.
00:36:31
Speaker
This guy's doing it right. absolutely Absolutely not. But i I think there'd be a fair majority of people would recognize that he, he alongside the executive committee are flying in formation and they're trying to do something a little bit, a little bit different and, and it's working. Our clients, our clients really like it.
00:36:53
Speaker
My final question for you, which I'm just really interested in, is that having grown up over the last 30 years of working with lawyers, um traditionally, they enjoy your profile when it's been about their legal skills. So if we think about the Chambers, and the Legal 500 and all the millions of awards that there are around the world for best lawyer for this and best lawyer for that.
00:37:15
Speaker
You're almost famous for being on LinkedIn and for your personality. Which would you rather be famous for? your Your skills as a lawyer or your visibility on social media? I actually i genuinely don't care because know...
00:37:31
Speaker
no I'm reasonably smart. You know, I've said this a lot of times. I'm, I think I'm a seven out of 10 lawyer. I was, I always find the, I find the trajectory quite interesting in terms of every educational milestone you reach, uh, makes you realize that you're not as smart as you thought you were in the previous one. you know, I was the smartest guy in primary school. Cause I went to a small primary school.
00:37:57
Speaker
I was maybe top 10 in school. Uh, in my year, but I'm starting to realize that maybe I'm not as smart as I thought I was. University, at this stage, I'm like jeepers, you know, I'm going to be lucky to, you know, get get out of here with a degree.
00:38:14
Speaker
By the time I'd started my training contract, you know i was making sure that there were two L's in William. ah So, you know, I was really, you know, I was really kind of conscious and aware of that, but I was always extremely confident that I was a really good communicator.
00:38:32
Speaker
And I was always really, really aware that I could manage expectations and that I had emotional intelligence and that I could observe body language really, really well. And those were the things that I was like, I know I'm really good at those.
00:38:46
Speaker
So I'm going to lean, lean into them. And. When you're good at those as well, um you do need to be you do need to arrest yourself, though, from thinking you're smarter at the other stuff as a result of that. Because because I can write, i can sometimes fool myself into thinking I'm smarter smarter than I am. and i And I know I'm not. And that's why...
00:39:10
Speaker
successful leaders, uh, themselves with smart, smart people and people who, i mean, the team, the team around me that I speak to day in day out are, ah Colin Regals, who is, you know, gave up teaching at Oxford to be our general counsel. His father was one of the founding partners of the firm. He was a very senior equity partner, went off to teach.
00:39:35
Speaker
came back to sit in our GC team alongside Carla and Vivian. But because of the time zone, I speak to him most most days. He's an absolute genius. um Gareth Russell, our chief of staff, phenomenal. You know, just keeps me...
00:39:52
Speaker
In check all the time. Holly Hurst, our chief people officer, phenomenal emotional intelligence to burn and so smart and excellent communicator.
00:40:04
Speaker
And our CFO, Mary Lee Baldwin, she is just phenomenal at breaking down things that I sometimes struggle to understand into a pub summary.
00:40:16
Speaker
So my job is to kind of conduct that orchestra and I know I can do that quite, quite well, but without all of those cons constituent parts around me, I am zero.
00:40:29
Speaker
You know, I'm, I'm a busted flush and but I'm, I'm really, I'm really aware
Conclusion: Humility, Teamwork, and Authentic Leadership
00:40:34
Speaker
of that. And you will never hear me say i'm I'm right because I'm right. um That's just, nobody nobody's ever going to follow that individual.
00:40:45
Speaker
That's a great summary and a wonderful place to to end, I think. William, thank you so much for your time on the shortlisted podcast today. ah pleasure. Thank you so much. i know that was really, that was a lot of fun. So thank you very much. It's a wonderful ah pleasure. Our pleasure.
00:41:04
Speaker
So Graham, what did you think? Well, I mean, he is very entertaining. and You know, he is exactly what you think he's going to be. And I was I was pleased about that. You know, there'd be nothing worse than if actually he'd have come on to the podcast and we realised that everything was done through marketing and the whole voice was not his voice. That would have been very disappointing. So I was absolutely delighted in the first 30 seconds that he was going to be who we thought he was going to be.
00:41:28
Speaker
um It's interesting, isn't it? Because, you know, whilst he comes across as being very relaxed and very spontaneous, both in real life and on LinkedIn, what's evident really is that it's planned, you know, like any good GD strategy, it's consistent and it's planned and he turns up for it.
00:41:47
Speaker
You know, and I think it's paid off for him. It's paid off for Hanis. But, you know, really the lesson for anybody else thinking about going on and doing something similar is it's not just a one day a week or whenever I feel like it. he He turns up every day and does it every day. And that's the consistency and that's working for him.
00:42:05
Speaker
Absolutely. and I think one thing that strikes me when I think about could others do this, because not everybody is an ex-comedian, not everybody you know used to do medieval jousting, and he is very funny. and i really think that you know authentic voice can be there for anybody. And when we had that conversation about is this now required, strikes me that when you watch William online in the posts, in the comments, I sit back and almost picture him what it would be like at a networking drinks event. And there would be moments for jokes and there will be moments for deep conversation about certain issues. And if you are a firm that expects your managing partner and your lead partners
00:42:53
Speaker
to be somebody who can work a room at a networking event in whatever style of personality you are. And I would say that any lead partner would have to do that. And to me, this is just the same thing. This is just a much bigger, modern networking event. And so...
00:43:10
Speaker
There must be a responsibility, in my view, for lead partners to be engaging in that and in whatever voice is more natural. If you are somebody that is more intellectual and more serious, there is still plenty of conversation to be had on lead-in.
00:43:29
Speaker
I agree. I think what he does really, really well and what others could learn from him is He's an ambassador for Harness. He plays an ambassadorial role.
00:43:40
Speaker
What I mean by that is he's he turns up on LinkedIn and he talks and he speaks his voice. He's obviously traveling the world, you know meeting and all the partners and being really involved in the offices. But he's also, as he explained, going to forums and being invited to forums. And one of the things I think is really interesting about his style compared to others is that we often hear so much from our BD and marketing colleagues that one of the struggles they have in professional services is differentiating their phone from other persons.
00:44:08
Speaker
and he does this so brilliantly and it's so obvious and i and i wonder why other leaders aren't recognizing the one way to differentiate your firm is to have a voice from the leadership table which is authentic which is consistent which is engaging you know and i think you look at the other global law firms how many of the managing partners of the other global law firms can you actually people actually, I mean, no, I'm being serious. I mean, how many can you name?
00:44:38
Speaker
well peakque brilliant peak you know and um and that says that says an awful lot you know hiding behind the title and the website and the thought leadership and all the rest of it that these some of these leaders do and you can't even name them and you yeah you you wouldn't know what their ah authentic voice was they're missing a trick absolutely missing a trick and you're right not everybody can do the same thing but do something I think it comes to what is the leader of the future.
Empowering Leaders on LinkedIn
00:45:09
Speaker
You know, it wasn't just humility, it was accuracy and understanding. When William described, hey, I wasn't the best lawyer, but actually my role is to conduct the orchestra of the experts in these areas. So, you know, firms probably need to ask themselves, what do we want from our leaders? Yes. Because, you know, is it an ambassador? Is it somebody to lead other experts, you know, rather than somebody that, you know, has political advantage you know, all the other things that go into it. Yeah. As I was listening, I was also thinking about our BD community. And I was thinking about the conversations we have with BD client leaders who bemoan not being able to be client-facing enough. But then I go on LinkedIn And I have a look at how active these BD and client senior managers heads are on LinkedIn and they're not at all. And I'm thinking, well, this is the biggest networking opportunity, the modern networking event. If you went to a networking event physically that had clients in the room, are you hiding in a corner saying nothing, just listening and watching conversations? Or you getting around that room, yeah seizing your opportunity? You need no one's permission to start commenting and being a commentator on what's going on. I know energy resources or telcos, if that's the area you're looking after. And I don't get why BD and client people aren't doing that thinking, oh, it's about the partners, you know. well
00:46:41
Speaker
And also, I think yeah you're absolutely right. And I also think that they're missing a trick by not doing that. They're also not communicating to the people in their own firm how expert they are or how passionate they are about particular subject matter.
00:46:53
Speaker
yeah yeah And I think this is where they really could step up. Big D people really could step up and demonstrate to the market that they are experts in or interested in becoming experts in the particular field that they're hired to deliver business development for.
00:47:10
Speaker
Yeah. but know William is a very, very good example for all of us on if you really want to raise your profile in a business perspective, networking format of which linkedin is the biggest globally um then be consistent um be authentic which he is um be humorous because it's a bit of levity doesn't harm does it but ultimately you in your own way because in your own way might hear that and think oh there's pressure i can't do it and back away that you know in your own way yeah but be on that yeah and you know that's it okay
00:47:47
Speaker
yeah now What a great conversation and with somebody unapologetically themselves and a human who is so well practiced at knowing where that line is is um and should be an inspiration for all leaders out there. Yeah, brilliant.
00:48:05
Speaker
So Graham, who have we got next? So I think the next guest we've got coming on is Joel Borolsky. He's a leading independent consultant here in Australia. He gets invited to the annual Managing Partner Forum. It's a legal event, the Managing Partner Forum in Australia.
00:48:21
Speaker
and He chairs it, so he's in the room and he's agreed to come on and next month and just tell us what it is, what what's on the agenda for many of these managing partners. what are the issues facing them and um and how you know how can we address them from a business development and growth perspective?
00:48:39
Speaker
Fantastic. Looking forward to that.