Like leaders in educational, business, medical, and other professional services organizations routinely do, legal leaders should want to train and develop their people.  But, concerns about costs and benefits and projected return on investment in personal and professional development activities and programs work against and often derail implementation of those initiatives. Other reasons include arguments that training programs divert attention from service delivery to clients, and represent a substantial investment and dedication of human capital, time, effort, and money. Yes, training and de ..read more

Lawyers, like competitive athletes who play contact sports, can before, during, and after their work experience a wide variety of emotions. These stem from the pressures and stress experienced while performing the varied tasks of their work. The effects of anxiety, anger, fear and many other emotions experienced and felt by them can impact, even degrade their performance. Emotional intelligence (EI) researchers have shown that behaviors developed from training in dealing with their own and others’ emotions can play an important and beneficial role in athletes’ performance. Law people can bene ..read more

This post connects my continued emotional education to what I call “My Blue Handkerchief Case”. The professional and personal lives of lawyers involve emotions. We experience joy, anger, sadness, fear, disgust, and, among many others, awe as we try to navigate the rocky shoals of day-to-day law practice. Here, I relate some insights about a case that I handled many years ago. I understand more about emotions in the practice of law now than I did then. We all can learn more. One of the first steps involves reflection. Hopefully, this post will prompt some to engage. About 20 years ago, I served ..read more

“A true gem of a book about ability emotional intelligence authored by experts and destined to accomplish its stated purpose – to efficiently provide busy leaders practical skills and tips to solve tough everyday challenges by leveraging the power motions.” That summarizes this review of A Leader’s Guide to Solving Challenges With Emotional Intelligence recently published by the EI Skills Group, and authored by David Caruso, Ph.D. and Lisa Rees, ACC, MPA. Who Should Read This Book and Why. This book will benefit busy leaders, including legal leaders and lawyers, already convinced about their n ..read more

Emotion and cognition influence decision-making. Emotion influences cognition. Cognition influences emotion. The authors of the article featured here noted that “Cognitive processes such as attention, perception, memory, or cognitive control are integrated with emotions so that they jointly contribute to behavior to achieve adequate environmental and social adaptation.” Applied to them, this study’s results suggest that lawyers, and other professionals who routinely work with cognitive tasks laden with emotional content, may want to improve their emotional intelligence abilities to adapt more ..read more

Can introverts achieve happiness? Researchers recently untangled some of the knots in the complex associations between happiness, personality, social relationships, and emotion regulation. They examined how quality social relationships and emotion regulation ability might positively affect the happiness of introverts. Their results clarify the nature of those complex associations, and the authors suggest how introverts can achieve greater happiness. This post considers those results and suggestions, and from them charts an evidence-based vision for a more focused, safer path for introverted la ..read more

Intense emotions occur often in service encounters.  Many of us have experienced something like – “We’re sorry . . . your flight has been. . . . .” – which can prompt one to experience any number of negative emotions. Likewise, lawyers and legal leaders know that strong negative emotions might erupt after counsel informs her client  “Sorry, . . . .the Judge has considered and overruled your objections to the notice and subpoena, and ordered you to appear on the date and time specified for your deposition at your company’s home office located . . . . .” Service researchers have shown that inten ..read more

Book Review. The light bulb’s bright now. Important truths about quiet law people have been unveiled and illuminated in law professor Heidi K. Brown’s new book, The Introverted Lawyer: A Seven-Step Journey Toward Authentically Empowered Advocacy, published recently by the American Bar Association. As a result of her nine-year journey studying introversion, shyness, and social anxiety in the legal arena, personal counseling experiences, and consulting many experts, Brown developed and her book outlines a system and process of self-discovery which encourages law students and lawyers to deal auth ..read more

Book Review. Objections overruled. No more denials, delays, or excuses. Lawyers need it to provide top shelf client service and to do their best work. Those who study, develop, and implement it – emotional intelligence abilities, skills, and competencies – should differentiate themselves as the value proposition, go-to trusted advisors from the also-rans when it comes to attracting, engaging, serving, and retaining their clients in the increasingly turbulent, uncertain, and disruptive legal services environment of the 21st century. Science also shows that emotionally intelligent law people gen ..read more

Besides my family, my health, and the blessed life that I have lived, I am thankful for many things that I should consider and number daily as blessings. I admit that I often fail there. I take some very fundamental, big, and important things for granted. Here’s my thanksgiving list about freedom, security, bounty, and protection. Freedom. First, I am thankful for my country, the United States of America. Citizens of the United States of America live in a free republic, one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all. Our nation is not perfect, for sure. But, many people want to come he ..read more