EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE: WHAT CAN LEARNED LAWYERS LEARN FROM THE LESS LEARNED?

Transcription

1 EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE: WHAT CAN LEARNED LAWYERS LEARN FROM THE LESS LEARNED?

2 EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE WHAT CAN LEARNED LAWYERS LEARN FROM THE LESS LEARNED? By Jonathan Middleburgh and Lucy Butterworth In my teens I studied hard and got into a great university. In my twenties I studied hard and got a great law degree and a job in a great law firm. A few years later I hit a barrier and couldn t figure out why I wasn t making progress and why the less academically gifted lawyers were moving ahead of me. I wasn t the smartest student at law school, not by any means. But I have always understood what makes people tick and always known my own strengths and weaknesses. I m not afraid to ask questions and not afraid to look dumb. Too many brighter lawyers don t know how to get on with people, how to make their clients feel loved. Why do smart lawyers fail? Legal training develops excellence in technical skills, legal analysis, reasoning and writing. This narrow emphasis on technical competence neglects many of the skills that make a good lawyer; as lawyers climb through the ranks, client-handling skills and managerial skills assume increasing importance. The well-known American psychologist Martin Seligman has pointed out powerfully that the training a lawyer receives at law school and in the early years in practice develops negative thinking skills: the ability to problemspot, i.e., the ability to spot risk and the potential downside in any situation on which one is called to advise. In one study of law school students, there was a strong correlation between those with negative thinking skills and higher academic achievement (Satterfield, Monahan, & Seligman, 1997). A lawyer with these negative thinking skills may be whip-smart, but is less likely to be a good team player or a good manager. Chief legal officers, managing partners and other senior lawyers all say the same thing: their most successful managers are not the smartest lawyers or those with the best law degrees they are generally those who have good self-awareness, who know how to get on with people, and who can spot risk but who also understand how to work with their clients to find solutions to their problems. Susie Lees, Executive Vice President and General Counsel at the Fortune 500 insurance giant Allstate, manages a department of 500 lawyers and a legal budget that runs into the tens of millions. She ascribes her success to her people smarts. A lot of lawyers are technically more proficient than I am. I have always known how to read people, how to get along with them. In my experience, what makes an effective CLO is someone who has great people skills. You can always hire smart outside counsel to give the technical advice. Bill Mordan, Senior Vice President and Group General Counsel at Reckitt Benckiser, echoes these words, When we wanted to dramatically improve training and development in the legal team, we focused on the misunderstood psychological barriers to great teamwork. First, we asked each member of the legal team to take a confidential psychological profile and speak with an independent consultant who could help them better understand their strengths and weaknesses. The following year we focused on international understanding and cooperation, building on our self-awareness to better understand how our foreign colleagues see each of us. This forced a discussion on how we work as a unified global legal team, when all of us are from different cultures and have different legal training. The end result was a more cohesive and cooperative international legal department, where people understand how they can best contribute and consider the multi-cultural views of others. In a recent survey commissioned by the well-known UK law firm Nabarro LLP, 82% of general counsel (GCs) surveyed felt that they would be more effective in their current position with improved influencing skills, and 88% felt that improved influencing skills would increase their effectiveness over the course of their career. Interpersonal skills form a key part of influence, huronconsultinggroup.com 2

3 Emotional Intelligence highlighted by the finding that GCs typically have to deal with various stakeholder groups and adapt their approach for each group. 87% of the GCs surveyed felt that these skills were trainable, but only 36% had had any form of training, coaching or mentoring in this area. These results again underscore the importance of developing strong interpersonal skills. What is emotional intelligence? Emotional intelligence (EI) is by no means a new concept. Its importance, we will suggest, has been in encouraging the development of a growing body of scientific knowledge that can help the less emotionally intelligent grow their EI. The concept of EI finds historical echoes in the writings of the ancients. In the Judaeo-Christian tradition, the religious sources contain contemplative, meditative and other practices aimed at developing EI-type skills. The Buddhist sources similarly talk of developing wisdom mind ; many of the skills they discuss we would think of today as EI skills. There is an understanding in Buddhism that these skills are trainable. In more recent times, three academic psychologists Howard Gardner, Peter Salovey and John Mayer did ground-breaking work on EI in the 1970s and 1980s. But it was a journalist, Daniel Goleman, rather than an academic who popularized EI. His bestseller Emotional Intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ did for EI what Freud did for the talking therapies. EI theory recognizes that the traditional view of academic intelligence is too narrow to encapsulate the full range of intelligences. It asserts and has convincingly shown that cognitive ability alone does not predict success in both work and life. IQ is a relatively robust measure of intellect or cognitive ability but it does not measure other important skills such as social intelligence, self-awareness, mental resilience, robustness and so on. Thus, while cognitive ability is a reasonable predictor of career success, evidence suggests that beyond a certain level of IQ, increasingly high levels of IQ do not correlate with increased success as a lawyer. Instead, the skills which make up emotional intelligence have more of an impact on success (Goleman, 2011). There is no agreed definition of EI. Salovey and Mayer (1990) define EI as a form of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one s own and others feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one s thinking and action (p. 189). They outline four key areas of EI: Emotional perception and expression: the ability to correctly identify how people are feeling Emotional facilitation of thought: the ability to create emotions and to integrate one s feelings into the way one thinks Emotional understanding: the ability to understand the causes of emotions Emotional management: the ability to discover and implement effective strategies utilizing one s emotions to assist in goal achievement Goleman (2004) takes a different approach and suggests that there are five domains of EQ: Self-awareness Self-regulation Self-motivation Social awareness Social skills Other academics, psychologists and behavioral scientists have proposed different definitions of EI but they all contain similar elements. What does emotional intelligence look like? The definitions of EI have more commonality than difference. The EQ-i 2.0 model is helpful to illustrate EI components. This model is based on the work of Reuven Bar-On (2004) and grounds a suite of psychometric tools which can be used to measure EI. The EQ-i 2.0 model consists of five components: selfperception, self-expression, interpersonal, decision making and stress management. Each of these has a further three sub-components, for example, decision making consists of problem solving skills, reality testing and impulse control. Altogether, the model provides a set of emotional and social skills which comprise emotional intelligence. According to this model, each individual has a different profile of skills, and thus may be stronger in some areas than others. 3

4 FIGURE 1 - THE EQ-i 2.0 MODEL In practical terms, there are a number of commercially available psychometric tools that claim to measure EI: for example the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT), the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue), the Emotional and Social Competence Inventory (ESCI) and the Work Group Emotional Intelligence Profile (WEIP). Why is EI important? Traditionally, IQ has been seen as the predictor of success in life. However, both research and practice have shown that this is not always the case. For example, when 95 Harvard students (graduating in the 1940s) were followed into middle age, the men with the highest test scores in college were not particularly successful compared to their lower scoring peers in terms of salary, productivity or status in their field (Vaillant, 1977). At best, IQ accounts for only 25% of variance in performance (Hunter & Hunter, 1984), and some have argued it is even less. When IQ is considered alongside EQ, a far greater proportion of variance can be explained. Reproduced with permission from Multi-Health Systems Inc. Copyright 2011 Multi-Health Systems Inc. All rights reserved. Based on the Bar-On EQ-i model by Reuven Bar-On, copyright Others (e.g., Goleman, 2004; Brushfield, 2012) have suggested that EI can be observed and measured via a number of behavioral indicators such as: Self-confidence A self-deprecating sense of humor Trustworthiness Openness to change A strong drive to achieve Optimism Cross-cultural sensitivity Effectiveness in leading change Persuasiveness Empathy Remaining unflustered when challenged Awareness of one s own emotional state Emotional intelligence is particularly important for those in leadership positions. According to Goleman (2004), the most effective leaders are those who have the traditional leadership skills coupled with high EI. Research has shown that emotional competencies account for up to two-thirds of the distinctive characteristics of top performers (Mines et al., 2004), and the most effective decisions are made when both emotional and intellectual aspects of the brain are engaged (Brushfield, 2012). There are numerous examples in the research suggesting that EI can be a powerful predictor of success. In his article The Business Case for Emotional Intelligence, Cary Cherniss cites various examples, among them: Experienced partners in a multinational consulting firm were assessed on EI competencies. Partners who scored above the median on nine or more of the 20 EI competencies delivered $1.2 million more profit from their accounts than did other partners a 139% incremental gain (Boyatzis, 1999). An analysis of more than 300 top-level executives from fifteen global companies showed that six emotional competencies distinguished stars from the average: influence, team leadership, organizational awareness, self-confidence, achievement drive and leadership (Spencer, L. M., Jr., 1997). 4

5 Emotional Intelligence A study of 130 executives found that how well people handled their own emotions determined how much other people preferred to deal with them (Walter V. Clarke Associates, 1997). For 515 senior executives analyzed by the search firm Egon Zehnder International, those who were primarily strong in EI were more likely to succeed than those who were strongest in either relevant previous experience or IQ. In other words, emotional intelligence was a better predictor of success than either relevant previous experience or high IQ. More specifically, those executives who were high in EI featured in 74% of the successes and only in 24% of the failures. The study included executives in Latin America, Germany and Japan, and the results were almost identical in all three cultures (as cited by Cherniss, 1999). More recently, research has shown that those with higher EI scores are more likely to be highly profitable (Stein et al., 2009), and that higher EI scores are related to improved teamwork and conflict management (Clarke, 2010). A review of research looking into the relationship between EI and job performance showed that EI can predict performance above and beyond personality and cognitive ability (O Boyle et al., 2011), further highlighting the importance of EI. Why is EI important in a law firm or department? Lawyers typically have above average to very high IQs high academic ability being the key screening factor determining entrance into the profession. Other factors, however, differentiate a technically able lawyer from a stellar practitioner. EI has been identified as being particularly important in job roles where there is customer interaction (Boyle et al. 2011). Practicing law involves not only working with clients, but also colleagues and other professionals (Slocum, 2011). Unfortunately, however, lawyers typically score lower than the general public in EI (Muir, n.d.). Specifically, lawyers are generally low on the social side of EI when compared to the general population (Bradberry et al., 2009). Traditionally, emotional display is generally low among lawyers, who are taught to suspend emotions. As a result, emotions are often suppressed and ignored in legal environments, meaning that emotional intelligence is typically overlooked despite being a useful skill. Fortunately, law departments and law firms that encourage lawyers to develop their EI can reap a number of benefits, including improved client relationships, enhanced leadership and stronger team and employee relations. This, in turn, can have a positive impact on employee turnover and business development activities (Mines et al., 2004), ultimately leading to greater productivity, profitability and employee fulfillment (Brushfield, 2012). The academic findings echo our own experience and our conversations with senior lawyers. Jacqueline Barrett, Group Compliance Director at Vodafone and herself a graduate in psychology, comments, Lawyers develop early on in their careers as technical specialists. They often find the transition to strategic business advisor a difficult one. Their emotional intelligence skills are often underdeveloped in comparison with their technical skills. Similarly, Susie Lees, Executive Vice President and General Counsel at Allstate, comments, A trusted adviser is someone who knows how to get along with their clients, who knows how to respond instinctively to their clients needs. This requires not just the ability to read a client s needs, but self-awareness and, in particular, an awareness of the impact you are having on those around you. The good news is that everyone has the potential to develop their EI, and there are an increasing number of ways in which to do this. Can emotional intelligence be learned? Although there is still some debate, it is generally agreed that EI can be learned and improved upon regardless of an individual s stage in her career (Mines et al, 2004). Although it is trainable, EI does come easier to some than others (Goleman, 2004). EI training requires a relatively high investment in time and effort, because it involves changing habits and behaviors which have been formed over time, often over many years (Brushfield, 2012). But it doesn t need to take as much time as you might think; Nelis and colleagues (2011) designed an evidence-based training program which covered theoretical aspects of emotional intelligence and practical exercises over 18 hours of training. The program had an immediate impact on EI that was maintained six months later. Improvements were also seen in the physical health, mental health, happiness, life satisfaction, global social functioning and employability of participants. 5

6 The New York Times reported about an important book on developing EI, in which Chade-Meng Tan, an early employee at Google, describes the transformational effects of an EI program he designed for the company. An engineer by background, Tan created the program in collaboration with a Zen master, a CEO, a Stanford University scientist and with Daniel Goleman himself. The course, which accepts 60 people and runs for seven weeks, focuses on the development of three core skills: attention training, self-knowledge and self-mastery, and the creation of useful mental habits. The article quotes Richard Fernandez, director of executive development at Google and a psychologist by training, as saying he saw a significant difference in his work behavior since taking the class. I m definitely much more resilient as a leader, he comments. I listen more carefully and with less reactivity in high-stakes meetings. I work with a lot of senior executives who can be very demanding, but that doesn t faze me anymore. It s almost an emotional and mental bank account. I ve now got much more of a buffer there. Similarly, Johanna Sistek, a trademark lawyer at Google, says the emotional skills she refined in the class help her focus on her many tasks, despite a fire hose of professional demands, the article reports. Like most of her colleagues, she still faces instant deadlines but says they no longer freak her out. Our own experience is that emotional intelligence skills are as learnable as many other skills. This, to us, is hardly surprising if you can learn how to act, how to paint and how to play a musical instrument, it makes sense that you can develop behavioral skills. Of course, the degree the skills are learned is limited by one s natural ability. In the same way that you cannot teach musical or artistic genius, you cannot turn someone with poor influencing skills into a Winston Churchill or a Ronald Reagan. So what works best in terms of teaching emotional intelligence skills to lawyers? The answer depends, as one would expect, on the precise needs and the client. Some of the ways we have taught EI skills are as follows: One-to-one coaching. Working one-to-one with an individual helps that individual develop greater selfawareness. The coach can hold up a mirror to that person, giving feedback as to his way of interacting with others. The coachee can use the coach to explore how others experience him and can road test new and different behaviors in the coaching session before trying them out with colleagues. For example, recently a coachee found himself embattled and facing criticism in a new position. Colleagues said that he had sharp elbows and poor judgment. Our coach was able to get detailed behavioral feedback from those colleagues as to the behaviors that were causing difficulty and to share her own experience of the client s personal style. Within three coaching sessions, the colleagues reported a dramatic shift in the individual s behavior and significant improvement in working relationships. Pairing individuals with experienced corporate actors. Sometimes one-to-one coaching works well when the individual being coached also works with an experienced corporate actor a professional actor who specializes in corporate role-playing. A skillful coach can often achieve a breakthrough, but occasionally it is extremely helpful for the coachee to work with a corporate actor. For example, one recent coachee in a law firm was having limited impact as a junior partner. He had low confidence and colleagues said he lacked gravitas. A corporate actor worked on aspects of his voice projection and how he physically carried himself. The results were astonishing his key mentor said that colleagues saw an entirely different individual and that he now had a key place at the partnership table. Workshops and leadership development programs. Workshops can focus on particular aspects of EI or particular skills such as impact and influence. We have run successful workshops, for example, on influencing skills and behaving as a strategic business partner. These are equally applicable to both law firms and law departments. Both face similar challenges of how to build a trusted business adviser relationship with their clients. Workshops, properly designed, involve reflection on how most effectively to behave towards a valued client but also involve practicing skills. In one recent workshop, for example, we worked with senior leaders in a law department and had some key internal clients visit the workshop to talk about how they experienced working with those leaders. The feedback suggested that the leaders had to work on aspects of collaboration and their communication style. We spent the balance of the workshop and a subsequent workshop defining what needed to change and practicing those new skills. We subsequently brought back the internal clients to discuss whether they had noticed change and, if so, how. The clients appreciated being involved in this type of exercise 6

7 Emotional Intelligence and reported some significant improvements in the partnering relationship. Our experience is that few law firms or law departments invest the time and effort to develop higher levels of EI in their key employees. Given the importance of these skills and the critical impact on key relationships, morale and productivity this greatly surprises us. Developing emotional intelligence: some concluding tips The most effective methods to develop EI require considerable investment in both time and effort and typically require skillful external or internal coaching. To whet the appetite, here are a few small ways in which you can start to develop your own EI. To develop self-awareness, try taking some time each day to observe how you react to other people and stressful situations. What is your typical emotional and behavioral response? Do any of your key clients trigger a particular emotional response? How do you manage this? If you find a particular client getting under your skin, try to work out why. Lawyers who understand their own and their clients hot buttons are able to work more effectively with their clients. To develop self-regulation, try breathing and relaxation exercises and practice your ability to stay calm in pressured situations. Get feedback from those around you (in particular trusted colleagues, close friends and family) as to how they perceive you. Do they see you as stressed? Do you seem to be calmer than usual? To develop motivation, reflect on your personal goals and make a note of these. Consider your values and think about how these influence your behavior. To develop empathy, take more time to notice the moods of your clients and colleagues and to think about the causes of these by putting yourself in the other person s shoes. If a particular colleague is irritating you, think about the situation from your colleague s point of view. Have you done anything to contribute to the situation? By changing your behavior could you help the situation improve? To develop social skills, work on your communication and conflict resolution skills. Try to notice the body language of others. Does their body language send a different message than their verbal communication? These are some ways to work on self-improvement and these techniques can certainly help move the dial, but there is no quick fix. Self-help techniques typically oversimplify the complex process of change. In the same way that self-help frequently fails when it comes to making personal change dieting is an obvious example self-help can founder when changing workplace behaviors. We strongly recommend that senior lawyers invest as much time and effort into working on emotional intelligence skills and the so-called soft skills as they do on other, technical, so-called hard skills. In our experience, it is the soft skills that make the real difference leading to increased productivity, stronger leadership and higher levels of organizational impact and influence. References Bar-On, R. (2004). The Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i): Rationale, description and psychometric properties. In G. Geher (Ed.), Measuring emotional intelligence: Common ground and controversy. Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science. Boyatzis, R. E. (1999). From a presentation to the Linkage Conference on Emotional Intelligence, Chicago, IL, September 27, Boyle, E. H., Humphrey, R. H., Pollack, J. M., Hawver, T. H., & Story, P. A. (2011). The relation between emotional intelligence and job performance: A metaanalysis. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 32, Bradberry, T., Tasler, N., & Su, L. D. (2009). Lawyers with Personality? TalentSmart. Brushfield, R. (2012). Feeling decisions: Why lawyers need emotional intelligence. Cherniss, C. (1999). The business case for emotional intelligence. Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations. Clarke, N. (2010). Emotional intelligence and its relationship to transformational leadership and key project manager competences. Project Management Journal, 41, Goleman, D. (2004). What makes a leader? Harvard Business Review. Goleman, D. (2011). They ve taken emotional intelligence too far. time.com/2011/11/01/theyve-taken-emotional-intelligence-too-far/ Hunter, J. E., & Hunter, R. F. (1984). Validity and utility of alternative predictors of job performance. Psychological Bulletin, 76,

8 Kelly, C. OK, Google, Take a Deep Breath. New York Times (April 28, 2012). Mines, R. A., Meyer, R. A., & Mines, M. R. (2004). Emotional intelligence and emotional toxicity: Implications for attorneys and law firms. The Colorado Lawyer, 33, Muir (n.d.). Emotional intelligence for lawyers. Robin Rolfe Resources Nelis, D., Kotsou, I., Quoidbach, J., Hansenne, M., Weytens, F., Dupuis, P., & Mikolajczak, M. (2011). Increasing emotional competence improves psychological and physical well-being, social relationships, and employability. Emotion, 11, O Boyle, E. H., Humphrey, R. H., Pollack, J. M., Hawver, T. H., & Story, P. A. (2011). The relation between emotional intelligence and job performance: A meta-analysis. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 32, Salovey, P., & Mayer, J. (1990). Emotional intelligence. Imagination cognition, and personality, 9, Satterfield, J. M., Monahan, J., & Seligman, M. E. P. (1997). Law school performance predicted by explanatory style. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 15, Slocum (2011). An inconvenient truth: The need to educate emotionally competent lawyers. Spencer, L. M., et al. (1997). Competency assessment methods: History and state of the art. Boston: Hay/McBer. Stein, S. J., Papadogiannis, P., Yip, J. A., & Sitarenios, G. (2009). Emotional intelligence of leaders: A profile of top executives. Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 30, Vaillant, G. (1977). Adaptation to Life. Boston: Little Brown. Walter V. Clarke Associates. (1996). Activity vector analysis: Some applications to the concept of emotional intelligence. Pittsburgh, PA: Walter V. Clarke Associates. Warne, J. & Williamson, P. (2012). The Influential GC: A survey and discussion paper. Nabarro LLP. Huron Consulting Group helps clients in diverse industries improve performance, comply with complex regulations, reduce costs, recover from distress, leverage technology, and stimulate growth. The Company teams with its clients to deliver sustainable and measurable results. Huron provides services to a wide variety of both financially sound and distressed organizations, including healthcare organizations, Fortune 500 companies, leading academic institutions, medium-sized businesses, and the law firms that represent these various organizations. Learn more at Huron Consulting Group Inc. All Rights Reserved. Huron is a management consulting firm and not a CPA firm, and does not provide attest services, audits, or other engagements in accordance with standards established by the AICPA or auditing standards promulgated by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board ( PCAOB ). Huron is not a law firm; it does not offer, and is not authorized to provide, legal advice or counseling in any jurisdiction. 8