Tag Archive for: goals

Grace Jamgochian: Partner, Mergers & Acquisitions, Shearman & Sterling

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Grace Jamgochian“Law professionals are not selling widgets. We’re selling thoughts. We’re selling our expertise. We’re selling relationships,” advises Grace Jamgochian. “So remembering the human nature of our business is so integral to what we do.”

Jamgochian speaks to why M&A is animating every single day, the pay-off of being goal-oriented and why it’s important to treat law as a service-oriented business.

Loving the Hub Responsibility of M&A

As a full-service Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) partner at Shearman & Sterling LLP (Shearman), Jamgochian works across a broad general corporate practice — from public M&A, to private M&A, to private equity — gravitating towards the areas of tech, media, and telecom, infrastructure, and consumer products.

“M&A is a quasi-business and business strategy function. We advise our clients on more than just the technical aspects of the law. We partner with them to achieve their objectives, and we work closely with our internal specialists to make sure all bases are covered,” says Jamgochian. “As an M&A lawyer, you’re responsible for managing, coordinating and completing the entire deal. I love M&A because that responsibility fits well with my personality and drives me.”

Jamgochian thrives on the pace, breadth, variety and overview that M&A demands of her at Shearman.

“Every day is different. I have a general sense of my to-do list but M&A is often a series of fire drills,” she says, “Being on my toes is the type of practice that I’ve always wanted, and that’s why I’ve continued in M&A for more than a decade.”

Jamgochian also enjoys the teamwork needed for M&A transactions. “M&A is the central hub for a deal. My group handles the “corporate” pieces but we also collect the input of specialists such as in IP, Tax, Compensation, Real Estate, and Regulatory. I view a transaction agreement like a complex puzzle, and each person contributes a few pieces into the big puzzle that I’m ultimately 100% responsible for,” she says.

Jamgochian credits a year-ish long stint as an in-house attorney at Thomson Reuters, right after graduating from Cornell Law School, with immersing her into the business perspective of law from the very beginning.

“While others used the Shearman associate deferral year in 2010 for non-professional pursuits, I chose to work at a client handling M&A and securities matters so that I could get my feet wet right out of the gate. Having this opportunity set me up to be a practical, business-minded and solution-oriented attorney from the start,” Jamgochian reflects. “A deal needs business-minded lawyers. It can’t just be working in theory. You need to assess and advise on the risks, but you also need a good dose of reality and know what market practice is.”

Being Goal-Oriented As Her Key to Success

Though Jamgochian is newly elected to the Shearman partnership this year, it’s been in her sights since she first began her law career. Her journey to partner felt both intentional and linear.

“Always give yourself options. From Day 1, I tried to put myself in a position to be partner down the road, even if I couldn’t predict the future and would have been open to other paths. I volunteered for basically everything, from deals to extracurricular responsibilities like involvement in inclusion networks and bar associations. If you want to be a partner, you don’t wake up one day and suddenly have the skills. You should start thinking about business development early on and what technical and “soft” skills you’ll need to develop,” says Jamgochian.

She says her colleagues would most likely also remark on her efficiency, organization and ability to carry through a goal to completion.

“I’m a goal-oriented person. If we all have an idea in mind of what we think should be the finish line, let’s get there and let’s be efficient about it,” says Jamgochian. “In order to do that, you need to be organized, create processes, reduce any inefficiencies of people not knowing what their role is and communicate clearly. That’s me in a nutshell.”

When it comes to her next level goal, Jamgochian would love to continue to develop herself as an M&A lawyer to rank among the top of her field.

Law is Foremost About People

Early on, it was imparted on Jamgochian that law is a service-oriented industry in which the business is “people” and “our minds”.

“We’re getting paid to think. It’s about essentially our brains and our relationships: these intangibles. So the thing that lawyers need to focus on and remember throughout our careers is our clients and to develop those relationships with clients,” says Jamgochian. “Provide them with the best legal advice, which is essentially your thoughts and expertise, but then also don’t forget that everything is people-based in law firms, whether your clients or those you work with.”

When it comes to diversity, M&A as an industry is a more white male dominated area in particular.

“I have definitely had occasions where I’m the only woman in a room of thirty people. Once you already have a male-dominated industry, then you have the lack of mentorship, you have the lack of role models and it kind of snowballs from that,” observes Jamgochian. “But I think all firms, and the industry itself, are trying to pull the reins in. Shearman is really focused on D&I efforts, plus an increasing client focus on diversity is also helping to increase the law firm diversity focus as well.”

Busy Summer and Time for Family

As it’s only a block away from home, Jamgochian has been working out of the office this year, where her workload — focusing largely on tech, media, and telecom and infrastructure — has continued to boom when she might normally see a summer slowdown.

She notes that with the change of executive administration, as well as regulatory and tax changes in the air, many people and organizations are wanting to work through deals quickly. So these days, her expertise is a commodity in fast demand.

Jamgochian’s husband is also a Big Law lawyer, and with both of them having a high-intensity lifestyle, time with their five year old son is precious. They enjoy weekend picnics in Central Park and being surrounded by family in New York City and nearby.

With a background in dance history, Jamgochian turns to movement as part of keeping her balance, which may very well help in flowing with the pace of her work. She also loves learning instruments and reading music to stay sharp – along with piano and flute, she has recently also taken up ukelele.

By: Aimee Hansen

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7 Steps to Writing to Your Own Simple Self Improvement Plan

 

planCareer progression and happiness is intersected with the other elements of your life.

If you want to achieve the type of growth that brings happiness and satisfaction to your whole being, you need to focus on, among other things, your education, physical health, and fitness, spiritual health and personal relationships, in addition to your career path. To achieve better outcomes, you need to put your self-improvement plan in writing and without further ado. Here are seven steps on how to go about it:

1. Brainstorm

First things first, you need to have a foundation on which to build your self-improvement strategy. Hence, sit alone in a quiet room (definitely when the kids are safely tucked in!) and write down every goal, target or achievement that you wish to accomplish in future. While at it, be sure to use your heart and not your head. Write anything, and everything you want in life, however ridiculous or farfetched it looks, time for editing and logical thought will come later. It is through the continuous flow of raw ideas from your mind to the paper that your creative juices, as well as the imaginative side of the brain, will come to life and your plan largely depends on those.

2. Divide Your Goals into Categories

As mentioned earlier, your personal growth needs to involve every aspect of your life for it to be effective. As such, after you write down all that you plan on achieving or acquiring, deconstruct the list and put everything into 4 categories as follows:

• Intellectual – To include spiritual health, personal education, and general knowledge.
• Physical – Overall body health and fitness.
• Professional – Including money and finance, work relations, and any other career goals.
• Social – To include everything in your personal relationships, whether with your kids, romantic partners, family, and friends.

By dividing your goals into categories, you get a clue on which aspects of your life need more attention and most importantly, it helps you track your life progress.

3. Review Your Goals

We hate to be the bearer of bad news, but without a clear and strong “why” on each of your goals, your self-improvement plan won’t achieve much, just like the New Year’s resolutions of more than 91% of Americans that never get accomplished. Do people still do those by the way?

If you are like most women, losing weight is probably one of your priorities but why exactly do you want to do it? To rock your summer body or to be healthier and stronger? If it’s the former, you may end up backtracking at the sight of a chocolate cake. What we are saying is, only include in the plan things that are very important to you, and you will find it easier and more natural to do what’s required.

4. Focus on a Single Goal

Stereotypically and slightly generalizing here, women are great at multitasking and all, but as far as personal development goes, it’s much better, easier and more effective to focus on one thing at a time. Go through your list of goals and objectives, of course in the context of the four categories mentioned above and pick one for each category based on urgency and importance. Focus solely on those and only add more when your progress is satisfactory.

The good thing is, goals and activities in the different categories are mutually exclusive, and you can, for instance, join a gym and regularly attend social events even as you work towards your master’s degree.

5. Find the ‘How’

Now that you know what you will be focusing on sit and reflect on how exactly you will achieve your targets. If you need to, do further research on the Internet or even consult experts, like in the case of improving your fitness level. The most important thing is first to be aware of, and after that put clearly in writing, the roadmap to achieving your goals. For instance, if your objective is to increase your savings, you need to determine how much to save in a day/week, expenses to cut off or even better, how to make more money. As a suggestion, look for activities that you can turn into long-term habits, and that will have the most significant impact on your goals.

6. Take Stock of Your Situation

Depending on what you want to achieve, you will probably need some money, skills, competencies or abilities in the course of your plan. Thus, before you embark on actualization, make a list of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and resources at your disposal as far as your personal development journey goes. You may also have to consult or research on what you need here.

Having an objective look at your circumstances relative to your objectives and ambitions will help you prepare better for the challenge ahead, thereby reducing the possibilities of failure or false starts. It also helps you determine whether the goals you have set for yourself are achievable or beyond your reach.

7. Take Action to Actualize Your Goals

Now that you’ve written all that needs to be written, it’s time to get up and chase your dreams, literally. You already know what you need to do to achieve your goals so restructure your daily routine to include the daily goal-oriented actions and commit yourself to them. Eliminate everything and everyone that might cause you to falter in your journey. For instance, if it’s going to the gym, carry your gym wear to work to avoid going home first and then becoming too lazy to leave the house. It will also do you a lot of good to have a checklist to recap what you do every day towards your goals.

Final Thoughts

There is no conventional way to write a Self-Improvement Plan, and it’s all dependent on your preferences. However, we believe that if you write your plan according to the above steps, you will find it much easier to navigate through it and achieve your goals. Above all, believe in yourself and your goals, and the world is all yours to conquer.

Guest contribution

About the author

Jake Lester is an essay writer that is currently writing for edubirdies.org. The most recurring themes he covers are education, writing and marketing. He has his own writing style and this is why he is appreciated by readers. You may look through Facebook, Twitter & Google+.

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Career or Calling? The Importance of Setting Authentic Goals

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letter writing

Image via Shutterstock

Guest contributed by Kim Forrester

Goal-setting is an obvious necessity for those who want to succeed and achieve. But what if you are seeking more than material success in your life and career? What if you also desire a sense of personal fulfilment; inspiration; purpose? If this is the case, it is vital that you choose goals that are not only challenging and rewarding. They must also be truly authentic.

According to Douglas Hall Ph.D. and Dawn Chandler Ph.D. of the Boston University School of Management, individuals with a strong sense of purpose in their career tend to benefit from enhanced meta-competencies; i.e. heightened self-awareness and greater adaptability. Subsequently, an individual with strong meta-competencies is able to learn other, more specific skills with greater ease.
This makes authentic goal-setting a powerful force in your career: an authentic goal not only appeals on a logical level (that is to say it looks like something worthy), it also resonates with who you are as an individual and injects an inherent sense of meaning and purpose into your daily work.

The greater truth of who you are

By its very definition an authentic goal is one that moves beyond social expectation and, instead, reflects a deeply personal and essentially unique understanding of your vision, your values and your greatest desires. There is no 7-Step-Plan to creating an authentic goal. What is required, is for you to become more aware of who you are.

If asked to describe your role in this world, many of you may say that you are a capable and ambitious woman; a committed team member and/or conscientious leader. A colleague, friend, daughter … perhaps a spouse or mother.

There are many words used to describe the concept of contributing in a truly meaningful way – you may know it as a vocation, calling, or ‘life purpose’ – but essentially they all stem from the same idea: you are a part of nature and, as such, you have inherent and inescapable instincts and abilities yearning to be expressed.

By defining and accomplishing more authentic goals, you not only enjoy the usual benefits of achievement (whether they be intellectual, fiscal, psychological or social) but you also nourish and reward your most fundamental essence – that intangible, natural sense of self.

Defining an authentic goal

Just as who you are, at a fundamental level, is often difficult to express in the conventional sense, defining your most authentic goals almost always requires the suspension of logic, reason and analysis. You are not going to ‘think’ your way to authenticity and you most certainly won’t find a blueprint for it anywhere ‘out there’.

If you are searching for more meaning in your career and life, it’s important to set goals that resonate with you authentically. You can do this by:

Switching off autopilot:

Every path to achievement that you have been told – every plan, process and formula for success – is simply a reflection of someone else’s story. And if we were all identical, living uniform, predictable lives, then your path to success could very well emulate someone else’s. But we are not identical and life is a complex tapestry of events, experiences and opportunities. In our logical society, it is easy to get stuck in the idea that the only way forward is the way it’s been done before, but you are unique, creative and capable. Let go of any concept of how things are supposed to work and carve your own path forward.

Trusting your intuition:

We have come to revere conscious decision-making as the highest form of thought; we are taught that logic and analysis will lead us to the best solution, every time. However, recent studies have suggested that we are, in fact, at the mercy of our unconscious brain. What this means for you, is that even the most ‘rational’ decision is being influenced by deeply-set, unconscious patterns and beliefs, including childhood memories and trauma, unhealthy behaviour patterns and deep rooted concepts of what you do, and do not, believe you are worthy of.

In contrast, researchers are beginning to understand the power of the ‘gut instinct’ and have discovered that unconscious urges and emotional prompts can actually increase the accuracy and confidence of decision making. It’s important to note that the vast majority of your physical and physiological processes are unconscious, so your body is a wonderful ally when seeking intuitive knowledge. It knows what’s good for us, and what’s not, so pay attention.

Listening to your language:

A little self-awareness around the words you use – out loud, and in your mind – can reveal a lot about your goals and your intent behind them. Listen to yourself. If you are doing something because you “should” or you “have to” then you are inviting in a sense of resistance and struggle; of obligation and disempowerment. Make sure you are choosing goals because you “want to”. If you want something, then it is an authentic desire and you will have the strength, resilience and creativity you need to achieve.

Kim Forrester is an award-winning author, educator and holistic wellness coach. She combines cutting-edge science with traditional spiritual teachings to inspire soulful living. Her book, Infinite Mind, explores the capabilities of the human mind and was awarded a Silver Medal in the 2017 Living Now Book Awards.

Disclaimer: The opinions and views of guest contributors are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com

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