Many students in our mediation training programs ask about the steps they should take to translate their professional training into a successful mediation career. While an education and a high-quality mediation training program are essential for laying the foundation of a career, they are not the ultimate indicators of a successful career in mediation. What will ultimately shape and define one’s mediation practice is a life-long commitment to self-improvement, continuous learning, and ultimately delivering the highest-quality service, which is crucial for building a highly successful career.
I often tell those interested in pursuing a career in mediation that most jobs available in our still nascent mediation profession have yet to be created. That’s because conflict is ubiquitous in our human condition. One needs only to turn to the internet or glance at headlines to know that the world is rife with dispute and that opportunities for conflict resolution abound.
Today, law school and graduate degree programs in dispute resolution abound, creating career interests in dispute resolution. This growth in career interest, against a backdrop of diminishing judicial resources in most communities, has led to an expanded role for commercial mediators. Moreover, an increased appreciation for the cost of conflict in government, business, and other organizations has formalized institutional roles for mediators and ombudsmen, ensuring a bright future for career paths in conflict resolution in the U.S.
Action Steps for a Successful Mediation Career
For those interested in a career in conflict resolution generally, and commercial mediation specifically, it’s critical to first understand yourself and then embrace the actions required to prosper in the profession. Creative problem-solving skills are essential to finding satisfactory resolutions and addressing the interests of all parties involved. Thirty-five years ago, I left the law practice to begin one of the first mediation companies in the United States. Over the ensuing years, I’ve mediated almost daily, mentored dozens, if not hundreds, of aspiring mediators, and helped grow the world’s largest commercial mediation company. From the lessons I learned along the way, I developed a roadmap with action steps that will prove helpful to mediators in developing a successful mediation practice.
1. Self-Reflection to Activate Your Mediator’s Mind®
Mediation Begins with ‘Me’
Most “how-to” programs on developing a successful career in mediation begin with practical recommendations. What is lacking is the essential first step of personal self-reflection: Who am I? What are my strengths and weaknesses? Why do I want to embark on this new profession? How do I see my intervention? Who do I want to become? How can you hope to assist others in conflict, often with high emotion, unless you first honestly know yourself? Finding common ground in conflict resolution starts with understanding oneself to better address the core concerns of all parties involved.
A variety of self-assessment tools are available online, yet the keenest insight may well come from spouses, family, or close friends. Importantly, self-reflection is not a “check the box” moment in career development, as the most successful mediators maintain learning journals, participate in ongoing reflective groups, and otherwise treat self-reflection as a lifelong journey.
The Mediator’s Mind®
Career development, generally, and mediation more specifically, begins with developing a mental model or philosophical construct that I have coined: the Mediator’s Mind®. This model focuses on how you view your conflict intervention and will shape your thinking about career options while guiding your moment-to-moment decisions once in the profession. Think of the Mediator’s Mind® as your north star illuminating your career path.
2. Crafting a Strategic Business Plan
The road to failure in mediation is paved with those who thought that prior career success and a long contact list of former clients would guarantee success. The reality is that unless one demonstrates a commitment to strategic planning and follow-through, the chances of a successful practice will remain a distant aspiration. As the saying goes, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.”
Mission Statement
Reducing your strategic plan to a single paragraph forces you to be clear on objectives and realistic about specific goals. It will also help you avoid the natural tendency to overreach in pursuit of being a mediator for all disputes.
Short and Long-Term Objectives
The longest journey begins with a single step, and in this case, a series of short-term, single steps for which there must be direction and accountability. Short-term goals that are both measurable and realistic will enable an aspiring mediator to ultimately pursue long-term objectives.
Defining Geographic and Substantive Reach
Many entering the field of mediation will encounter a degree of competition. While competition is somewhat relative, given the potential breadth of the conflict environment, those destined for success will begin with marketplace research. Where do I see the most favorable entry point for my brand development? What are my most transferable skills? What is the opportunity to assist a potentially underserved population? Understanding these factors will help you stand out from other mediators.
Understanding the Business of Mediation
Understanding mediation as a business and, more particularly, how various business models can influence your career trajectory presents a blind spot for many seeking to prioritize skill development. The business of mediation represents the support framework that will allow you to pursue the passion of your chosen intervention. Ignored, it could become the Achilles heel of your economic success.
Business Models and Opportunities
The past several decades of our nascent profession have, in part, reflected a grand experiment in the business of mediation and, more specifically, have provided vital lessons about what business models can provide to those who aspire to offer their services as dispute resolution professionals. From solo practitioners to corporate employees to those who choose to sign on with ADR providers, there are various opportunities that merit careful consideration depending on one’s preferred career path.
Mastering Finances and Efficient Operations
For many, this will sound more like a business school course than one in dispute resolution. A keen appreciation for office overhead, marketing budgets, accounts receivable, and strategic pricing are central to career success.
3. Marketing
The concrete steps required to gain experience mediating are the sine qua non of career development programs. Specific strategies for marketing, branding, and creating mediation opportunities are the standards against which most such programs are judged. Fortunately, industry success stories abound, and important lessons can be universally applied.
Brand Development and Social Media
While succeeding when helping others resolve a conflict represents the best possible marketing, gaining those opportunities begins with getting one’s name out to the marketplace. Social media’s ubiquitous reach presents unique and creative opportunities for those entering the field to develop their own brand identity while reaching a broad audience.
Write, Talk, and Teach: Selling the Value Proposition of Conflict Resolution
Advertising is not enough for those looking to start a commercial practice. One must seek to distinguish oneself while advancing the value proposition of mediation to potential consumers of ADR services. Looking for opportunities to write, talk, and teach about the many benefits of mediation will elevate one’s reputation in the profession as both a thought leader and one who has mastered the nuanced skills of the mediation process.
Developing Opportunities to Mediate
For most aspiring professionals, this is where the rubber meets the road. How one is afforded the opportunity to assist others in conflict will depend upon what role one chooses in the profession. From volunteering to co-mediating to workplace mediation to mediating for your local or federal court, patience and persistence will be required.
4. Enhancing Skills
Long-term success in mediation is equal part skill development, marketing, and successful navigation/resolution of conflict opportunities. Strategic career planning and development ultimately pale compared to what an aspiring mediator can accomplish behind closed doors in mediation. While it’s important not to conflate outcome success with process and personal satisfaction in the mediation process, how one “sells” her services by example in the mediation room will have a far more significant impact on career success than any other variable. Many mediators balance their mediation practice with a day job, especially when starting out.
Pursue Continued Skill Development
Although this article focuses on career development, it can’t be overemphasized that career development goes hand in glove with mediation skills and techniques. The more one demonstrates a fluid understanding of conflict moments and a nuanced skill set in response to those moments, the more likely long-term success. Stated more succinctly, people will remember a job well done. Become a lifelong student of skill development, and it will pay dividends beyond the largest marketing budget.
Building on Mediation Success
Once one has gained early mediation opportunities and demonstrated a firm grasp of skills, the longer-term focus shifts to sustaining and enhancing one’s reputation and practice. Here again, the question is one of finding ways to advance one’s reputation and career opportunities. Building one’s reputation through activities within the profession, expanding one’s subject matter expertise, or simply passionately pursuing success in the mediation room are all strategies for long-term success. Regardless of career accomplishments, the most successful and experienced mediators never stray far from the lessons learned at the outset of one’s career.
To assist those considering a career in dispute resolution and those looking to enhance their existing dispute resolution careers, Edwards Mediation Academy has made available an online course on Developing Your Career in Mediation. Our instructors, some of the most experienced professional mediators, share insights on the common challenges facing mediators in their careers, building a business plan, and the action steps to take to stand out as a professional mediator.
Conclusion
Ask any successful mediator, and they will tell you that it takes months, if not years, of commitment and persistence to build a successful mediation career. Yet, for those who persevere, there are many rewards. What could be more fulfilling than a career focused on helping parties in a dispute resolve conflicts through intellectual and emotional engagement?
