In 1998, Goodwin, then a regional Boston law firm, offered Regina Pisa the chairman’s office. Pisa was elected with a mandate for change, and after a decade of strategic redefinition, laser focus on industry specialization and incredible drive and perseverance, she set Goodwin on a path of growth that would see the firm transformed. Under her strategic leadership, Goodwin grew from a regional law firm of approximately 300 attorneys to a leading international firm with more than 1,000 attorneys in 10 locations across the United States, Europe and Asia. During Pisa’s tenure, revenue at the firm increased fivefold. Today, Goodwin is well-known as a leader in its service to clients in industries such as financial institutions, technology, life sciences, private equity and real estate capital markets and has received accolades for its outstanding client service and commitment to innovation.
The shy only child of an immigrant carpenter with big dreams, Pisa is no stranger to overcoming obstacles by reaching far and driving hard. As the first woman to lead a major U.S. law firm, a passionate advocate for women and children and an active philanthropist, Pisa is a catalyst for transformational change. We set out to learn more about what makes her successful and ask her advice for other women building their own careers and leadership skills.
On Developing Confidence: The Importance of Strong Role Models
My father had a big influence on who and where I am today. He was outgoing and gregarious, and his mission was to push me while providing me with the security of knowing that if I fell, he would pick me up. He encouraged me to raise my hand, stand up and speak out.
When asked how to develop resilience in children, I always think about what my father did for me. He used to say, “Reach far because you’ll never go farther than your own reach. And if you fail, don’t worry, I’ll be here.” He instinctively knew what it took to give a shy young girl the confidence to take risks and to equip her with the resilience to face the prospect of failure head on, because failure and disappointment are inevitable in life if you want to make real progress.
On Leadership Qualities: Courage Is Critical
My shortlist of leadership qualities includes: vision, drive, courage, resilience, confidence, humility, compassion, and a bias toward action. You have to be a great storyteller and paint a picture that makes people want to follow you. You also have to have grit and be able to persevere through the inevitable ups and downs. You cannot afford to have a bad day because there are people relying on you to succeed so that they can put food on their table and provide a future for their children. Shouldering that kind of responsibility takes real courage.
On Giving: Impactful Philanthropy
My personal philanthropy is centered around causes affecting women and children. For me, giving back is all about providing access and opportunity to disadvantaged children and empowering women. I once had a client ask me why I was on the board of Franciscan Children’s Hospital when there were other, more prestigious hospital boards that I could join. I told him that it was because they needed me more, and I could have a greater impact. I have always been attracted to promoting the underdog.
On the Importance of Women’s Education: Developing Leaders
One of the things I am proudest of is my work with Simmons College, where I am in my second three-year term as chair of the board. Simmons is committed to educating women in its undergraduate college. Most women’s colleges in the country are experiencing declining enrollments at a precipitous rate. Simmons was experiencing this three years ago as well. At that time, we retained a consultant who was charged with interviewing high school students to find out what they were looking for in a college. What we learned was that, all things being equal, high school students would prefer not to attend a single-sex college. However, what trumped that preference was a college that prepared them for leadership or was committed to social justice.
Armed with that insight, Simmons set out to revamp its entire undergraduate curriculum to focus on preparing women for leadership – not just what it means to be a leader in the C-suite, but what it means to be a responsible citizen, a leader in the community, and a champion of social justice. When we went out to recruit our next class of high school students with this new curriculum, our first-year enrollments jumped, and we have now had three consecutive years of record enrollments.
On Failure: Disappointments Are Inevitable – Do Not Let Them Get in Your Way
When I first applied to Goodwin as a summer associate, I was rejected. The next year, I approached the firm again saying that I wanted to return for another set of interviews and that while I was rejected the prior summer, I believed this was the firm where I should be. After my interview, I got an offer and joined Goodwin following law school. Many years later, my mother found the original rejection letter and framed it next to the announcement of my appointment as chairman and managing partner of Goodwin.
What distinguishes a successful career – indeed a happy life – is not an absence of disappointments, but how one deals with them.
I share this story with our younger attorneys because I want them to know that they should not let disappointment stand in their way – life is full of disappointments. What distinguishes a successful career – indeed a happy life – is not an absence of disappointments, but how one deals with them. If I had been too timid to approach Goodwin again, I would have lost what I consider to be the opportunity of my career.
10 Leadership Lessons
When the firm asked me to be chairman and managing partner, I called the CEO of my largest client and told him about the opportunity and my uncertainty around accepting it. He said, “So, let me understand this – they offered you the top job, and you are wondering whether you should accept it? A man would never ask that question. He would take the corner office! Take a risk. Women don’t take enough risks in their careers.” With the benefit of hindsight and a little experience, I am in full agreement with him. If you want to move ahead in your career, you need to take some risks.
This is also true for organizations. You have to take calculated risks to make any progress. As an organization, you might make some mistakes, but as long as you are not risking the franchise or being reckless, it is all part of the process of change and transformation. As a leader, what is most important is to acknowledge the mistakes, take responsibility for them, determine the lessons learned, and then move on.
If something is worth doing, it is worth doing with passion. You can be good at almost anything, but you will only be great at something that you love to do. So, my advice to younger people is to figure out what you love to do, and then focus all of your energy on doing that with passion.
This is the way that I have approached my career, and it is the way that I have approached leadership at Goodwin. My entire team and I were passionate about transforming Goodwin. We knew we were on the road to something special. We felt it. We believed in it. That kind of passion is not for the faint of heart; it takes courage and grit.
To be a good leader, you have to be your best self. Each person is unique. One size does not fit all. What is most important is that you are the best that you can be. That starts by making an honest self-assessment of your strengths and weaknesses before you can move forward with whatever your goals are. It is all but impossible to establish and meet goals without this self-assessment.
To be most effective, you also need to find your own style and voice – one that is authentic to you. Of course, you should look around and be aware of what styles are most effective in others. At the end of the day, though, the key is for you to be effective, and it is hard to be effective if you are always trying to emulate someone else’s style.
When I was a young lawyer, I wanted to do M&A work. There were few women in that field at the time, and it was not an easy path. I would watch some of my role models yell and pound tables during negotiations and wonder if I needed to be like that. I soon realized that it was not about how loud or tough you were, but how effective you were in achieving your client’s objectives.
Finally, to be a good leader, you cannot be afraid to be compassionate. Women have a tremendous advantage in business and in life. We listen, and we care. This makes us extraordinarily adept at leading and managing people. I not only led a law firm – I led 1,000 lawyers, one at a time.
Most of us are a balance sheet, with both strengths and weaknesses. Often, when people review their personal balance sheet, they focus on their weaknesses, rather than turning the things they do well into extraordinary talents. When we assess somebody, we do not really assess that person as a blend – our view is shaped by what we consider to be his or her strongest attributes. If a person can do one or two things extraordinarily well, we will often overlook the weaknesses.
My perspective on working with younger people is to figure out what they do well and how I can help them make those things extraordinary talents. It is a positive exercise. For the things they do not do as well, I advise them to focus on bringing those up to a minimal level, to ensure they do not become detractors.
To lead effectively, you have to live the values that you want embodied in your leadership – fairness, integrity, a fundamental belief that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and that the result will achieve the greatest good for the greatest number.
When I was elected to lead Goodwin, I was 42 years old and having a great time building an M&A practice. With no formal management training, I asked the obvious question: “Why me?” One member of the selection committee responded by saying, “We are a firm in search of our moral center, and you represent that to us.” I did not fully appreciate those words then, but I do today.
Organizations are like people. They have hearts and souls, and they have to be inspired. If you want people to follow you, you have to give them something to believe in – something that is bigger than themselves. You have to create a vision that inspires even the most cynical.
A vision is not the same as a strategic plan. It is really an articulation of both your aspirations and your values, and it has to be authentic. Without it, it is hard to imagine that you could capture and sustain the imagination of those you lead. Of course, there will be a thousand reasons to go off track, but your job as a leader is to keep everyone moving forward despite those. To do that, you will need to be a tough-minded optimist.
Our vision at Goodwin is a lofty one: “Goodwin. Unprecedented.” Unprecedented for us means not just what we accomplish, but what our clients accomplish. We want to enable our clients to do things that have never been done before. We are determined not to be the latest in a long line, but the first in a new one.
It took me almost two years to formulate a vision and determine the right course for Goodwin. In the end, we developed a strategy unlike any other law firm in the country, which was to reorganize along industry lines, not legal specialties. We opened offices only in markets where our industry sectors presented a strategic opportunity for us.
The bar we set for ourselves was high – to be among the top five law firms in each of the industry sectors we chose. It took enormous commitment on everyone’s part. Everything I did as a leader was laser focused on driving the organization toward that goal. All of our investments were aligned with that goal, and we did not detour.
While vision and alignment are important, there is no greater ensurer of long-term success than a track record of execution. Regardless of how wonderful the vision is, the secret sauce is in the execution. It is all about the execution.
What will determine whether a plan is a good one is not what it says, but how well it is executed.
I was once at an event at which I was speaking about our strategic plan, and an audience member asked whether I was worried that I was giving away all my secrets. My response was that there was no magic in our strategic plan.
There are no brilliant strategic plans. There are only thousands of daily steps along the way to executing a strategy. What will determine whether a plan is a good one is not what it says, but how well it is executed. In that regard, the actions you decide not to take will be as important as those you decide to take.
As chairman, my direct reports included the COO, CFO, CMO, and CHRO. People would often ask why I did not delegate marketing and HR to others. The reason was simple – transforming an organization requires extraordinary communication. Having marketing and HR aligned with my vision and working closely with me allowed me to leverage all the channels of communication both within and outside the firm and to harness their enormous power to reshape the firm’s culture.
One thing that you realize once you start down the road of transforming an organization is that change never ends and that transformation and renewal – whether personal or organizational – must become an essential part of who you are. Transformation itself becomes a virtue, not just a process or an objective. I like to refer to my career, and to Goodwin, as a work in progress. And, of course, the process never ends, and there is no turning back.
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