As winner of this year’s Corporate Counsel of the Year award, presented by New York’s Metropolitan Black Bar Association, Reginald Rasch, Esq. has much to inform in how to achieve career success.

 

Although his particular purview is the legal profession, his advice and words of wisdom cut across all industries and job functions.

 

Here are Rasch’s best practices, based on his own experiences, and in his own words, on achieving career success.

 

Everything you do is an investment: Early on in your career, you tend to have less patience when there are setbacks, and you may think that your employers are viewing you differently than others around you. That may or may not be the case, but be patient and continue to demonstrate your skill, your ability, and your willingness to be successful in whatever the endeavor.

 

What I found to be helpful is to think about everything as an investment. In the beginning of your career or when you first start a job, do more than what is asked of you and what you get back in return. Take on extra assignments; be willing to travel; work with other groups in the company. Maybe come up with lists of ideas for your boss that he didn’t even ask for that can improve service or project outcomes.

 

As you move along your career path, take on different responsibilities that give you a new set of challenges; while you may have a wealth of experience, step out and into something new. Develop a new set of skills; be adaptable. Don’t be afraid of the struggle: Some of the best advice I ever received stuck with me and I used it and put it in my toolbox. Early on in my career, I was doing some particularly complicated stuff—structured mortgages.

 

I didn’t take to it at first. One of the partners that I worked for sat me down and said “When you work on this stuff, you will struggle with the material. Read it, sit on it, step away from it, and then come back to it. You’ll have to grapple with the language and words and what they mean, and you have to struggle until the light bulb goes off.”

 

I didn’t equate that process with reading documents, but believe it to be sound advice and an approach you should take when doing something new. Be prepared to struggle with the material; take it apart, and then put it back together.

 

It’s a process that you go through.

 

Commit yourself to the job: Another mentor, when I was at a crossroads, said to me: “You have a talent; you have the ability; when you are young you want to do so many different things. You have to hone in on what you want to do, and then commit yourself to it.”

 

When I did commit, there was improvement in my achievement and how other people interacted with me. Listen: The last thing is more of a critique of many lawyers, but it does translate to all industries. Lawyers like to talk and we like to be right and know that people are listening to us.

 

I was told: “You have to listen to your client and what they are saying.”

 

You might think: “I know how to do this, I don’t have to hear people out.” Maybe you’re not even consciously thinking that, but the point is you aren’t taking the time to give people what they are asking for.

 

It was a humbling moment, and a material shift in my approach. If you listen to your clients, you can give them what they are looking for and can really respond to their needs.

 

About Reginald Rasch

Reginald Rasch, Esq. is employed at Rauken Marketing, a global leader in omni-channel marketing with 10,000 worldwide employees. The Corporate Counsel award, given in early spring, spotlights an attorney who is recognized as a leader and serves as a role model both within the profession and the community, and has demonstrated a commitment to the ongoing efforts to ensure a diverse bar.