In The Inside Track, General Counsels across CEE share the nuances of their roles, challenges, and strategies for success. In the dynamic landscape of modern businesses, where adaptability and innovation are paramount, this time around we asked GCs: What is the one critical skill that you’re investing time and energy in to develop within your team, and why?
Nada Matusikova, Co-Head of Legal, RWS Group: It’s quite hard to name just one skill that I consider as critical. But I would probably choose thoroughness. How to build this skill? Don’t make assumptions, verify the data inputs. Normal people have the tendency to get tired after reading one page of legal text. But we lawyers know that the devil is in the details and the most unfavorable provisions will be probably in the middle of the small print. Don’t look for the shortcuts. We need to be sure there is logic in the entire legal document or in a transaction. All angles must be explored, all options elaborated, and all views considered. Be thorough and you are invincible.
Eva Kovacic, General Counsel, Belupo: With over 25 years of experience working for a law firm and in a corporate law department, I value and invest very much in successful habits within my team.
In the team’s responsiveness to clients, I think they as corporate in-house counsels must provide value at every opportunity. There are no wasted meetings or calls. They always contribute, question, provoke thinking, share, or advise on alternative approaches, after they diagnose a mutual way forward with a client, to achieve the target.
Therefore, I’d highlight the “how can I help you to get to ‘yes’ (your deal, contract, other)” approach. In their responsiveness to clients, I encourage curiosity, courage, and confidence.
In their responsiveness within the team, I encourage respect and thinking less as a lawyer and more as a musketeer with the “one for all and all for one” approach. My energy is focused on mentoring as a two-way process where all the team members grow and gain creative thinking skills and inclusion. The linear or exponential development of each team member as a leader is a reward to every mentor.
Daniel Szeszler, Group Legal Director, Magyar Telekom: The single most important skill that we at Magyar Telekom Legal are focusing on is AI literacy. In the past several years, we significantly developed the Legal team’s digital capabilities. Now we seek to enable and empower ourselves to make real use of AI-based tools that we all have at our fingertips already; and to get prepared for a possible imminent breakthrough when AI tools may become game changers in our everyday work. We are running courses and workshops to familiarize ourselves with key concepts such as LLM and Generative AI; to better understand the basic mechanisms underlying AI; and to explore the applications and tools that are becoming increasingly useful and can in fact make a real difference in our work and private lives. This journey also helps in boosting another core ability that we all need more than ever: adaptivity.
Mate Lapis, Head of Legal, Cherrisk: In our organization, one of our core values is the “can-do attitude.” Building upon this ethos, we have identified two critical skills for investment within our team: communication proficiency coupled with adaptive capability. Over the past years, we’ve sharpened our negotiation skills while still holding onto our role as gatekeepers of legality, however, we have augmented this traditional function by equipping our legal team with the skills to become enablers of innovation.
Our approach revolves around focusing on solutions, rather than simply sticking to legal boundaries. We actively seek ways to support our internal or external client’s goals within those boundaries. This requires clear communication with our partners about their needs and the ability to adapt seamlessly or persuade others to adapt their needs and ideas.
This emphasis on communication and adaptability not only promotes an innovative culture but also strengthens our position as a hub for innovation. By empowering our team with these skills, we enable them to navigate challenges and find solutions they might not have thought possible before. As we continue to evolve, our commitment to nurturing these critical skills remains, driving us forward to the ethos of proactive problem-solving.
This article was originally published in Issue 11.4 of the CEE Legal Matters Magazine. If you would like to receive a hard copy of the magazine, you can subscribe here.
