Are You Arrogant?
Doug Richardson, a consultant with Altman Weil has a great piece on why many lawyers are perceived to be arrogant. He describes typical lawyers as:
What is most interesting about this piece is that he suggests that many lawyers are unaware that they come across this way. The solution? Ask for feedback more often and consider hiring a coach.
• rational, logical and dispassionate in their basic cognitive styleHe notes that in today's work environment, collaboration is more important than ever. Therefore, lawyers need to put more emphasis on developing better relationship skills.
• confident that their opinions are correct
• intuitive thinkers who tend to make quick assumptions and judgments
• more oriented toward completing tasks than building relationships
• define their personal credibility and authority in terms of subject-matter expertise (meaning they tend to be specialists, not generalists)
• often competitive and protective of their ideas, tasks, authority, prerogatives (and, later in practice, their clients)
What is most interesting about this piece is that he suggests that many lawyers are unaware that they come across this way. The solution? Ask for feedback more often and consider hiring a coach.
Labels: career success in the law
posted by Stephen Seckler, Esq. at 4:41 PM
1 Comments:
I don't understand why we subscribe to generalized notions about diverse groups of people. How many of us even know a lawyer? And if we do, how many? Can we really generalize as to what "most" lawyers are like (and what does "most" mean, 51%?).
The most successful lawyers are compelled to develop people skills if they don't already have them; you need to be personable, likeable, able to attract and retain clients to generate business, and have a huge network of colleagues and acquaintances to call upon in order to become a partner at your firm.
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