I recently attended a fascinating panel of legal leaders in Silicon Valley discussing lessons learned while navigating to the top. Here are five tips straight from the room where it happened:

1. Develop relationships. If you build trust with business partners, they will back you when you need it. (And it’s best to build the relationship before you need it, and it’s easiest to develop one-on-one.)
2. Figure out your superpower, and lean into it (while of course working on your weaknesses). You are lucky if your superpower is developing relationships, but if you are not a natural people person, you can still succeed if you bring something compelling to the table, e.g., generating good ideas for the business.
3. How to get to yes (and not be the Department of No). Business teams are already primed to be afraid of Legal, so never say no outright. Instead, present options. For example, you could say: “We can do something like that. Here are a couple options. Option X could be better and generate less risk.”
4. How to manage up. Understand what information your execs need, and present it to them in their language. Speak simply. Distill the information to the top points. Bring practical solutions. Know that different clients have varying strengths and weaknesses, so you should tailor your support according to what they need. For instance, if they have IP expertise, then you might just be a second pair of eyes, but if they are less sophisticated, you might need to manage that area for the deal.
5. How to manage down. Give your team members what they need. Some will love the independence to run a project, while others may feel overwhelmed and need one-on-one advice. Celebrate your team’s wins publicly, but raise criticisms privately.