Transcript Personality and Your Legal Career - Lawyers Assistance Program of

Personality and Your
Legal Career
Presented by the Lawyers
Assistance Program
Facilitated by Robert
Bircher
Personality
• Many lawyers attempt to practice law in legal
cultures or areas of law that are inconsistent
with their core personality-sooner or later
dissatisfaction and problems are inevitable
• Getting to know your own personality is
critical for making good career choices
• It is important in this analysis to accept
yourself as you are rather than who you think
you “should be”
• Some lawyers think they should have the
same personality as lawyers on TV or local
lawyers they admire and proceed to try and be
fundamentally different than they actually
are-this won’t work
Authentic Self and Ideal
Self
• Your authentic self is your basic nature
and personality-As any mother knows
this evident shortly after birth and is
unique
• Your Ideal self is the self that will be
acceptable and gain approval from
others-this is part of acculturation and
is based on pleasing others for
survival-it could also be called your
“should” self
• At first you rebel at the way others
want you to be but after many years of
capitulation it becomes difficult to
determine which part of you wants
what!! Is this me or who I am supposed
to be??
Authentic Self and Ideal
Self
• For example if you are told that going
to university and becoming a lawyer
will make you happy, for many years
you may actually come to believe it –
even though it is often a dream of your
parents not you!!
• Lawyers generally do little genuine
career planning (except for academic
planning) before law school and
usually have no conception of what law
will be like until they actually do it. If
they are lucky they find a job that
perfectly suits them. For most
however, it is hit and miss until they
gradually figure it out
Personality Dimensions
• Lets have a look at personality
dimensions using the Myers Briggs
model
• People will have both dimensions and a
preference for one dimension or
another -you can write with both hands
but one will be easy and comfortable
and one will not
• Most people use both in different
circumstances but if given no pressure
and a free choice will find one side
slightly more natural or normal for
them-we will talk about extremes for
illustration but most people have some
of both
Introversion and
Extraversion
• Most people know about this-extraverts focus
their attention and energy on the outside
world introverts focus on the inside
• An extravert loves crowds and people and is
energized by them, introverts like one on one
or small groups
• A good friend of mine from Victoria is an
extravert and if we go for a walk in
downtown Victoria the longest we can go
without him stopping and chatting to
someone is about 5 minutes-it once took us
nearly a day to walk around Beacon Hill park
and we met about 50 people!!
• To an introvert an office party is a drag,
especially if is your partners law firm-who
wants to make small talk with a bunch of
strangers I won’t see again!!
Introversion and
Extraversion
• Introverts think then talkextraverts think out loud
• Extraverts like breadth, introverts
like depth
• Everyone is capable of both
depending on circumstances
• When I teach my extravert comes
out and enjoys it-most of the rest
of the time I enjoy being
introverted
• Rate yourself on the scale
provided
Sensing and Intuition
• Everyone uses their senses to gather
information from the world but that
information is processed differently
• Sensors trust what can be measured and
documented and focus on what is real and
concrete and stay in the present
• Intuitives naturally look for meanings,
relationships and possibilities based on their
senses-they value imagination and trust
inspirations and hunches-they tend to
anticipate events
• Sensors tend to remember facts, intuitives
pick up insights and interpret the facts
Sensing and Intuition
• At a meeting the intuitives will pick up
the underlying “vibe” of a meeting
even if nothing is directly said about it
• Sensors are good at remembering detail
• Intuitives trust their senses and may not
use a map
• Sensors are not overly worried about
the future-intuitives may worry a lot
about it
• Rate yourself on the scale attached
Thinking and Feeling
• Everyone has both but there is
usually a preference or style a
person has at their core
• It is about how decisions are
made-thinkers make decisions
logically and impersonally-feelers
make decisions based on values
(what is important to you and
others)
• Thinkers are logical and analytical
about their decisions even if it
means an unpleasant outcome
Thinking and Feeling
• Feelers make decisions based on
how much they care or what they
feel is right
• This choice can be difficult since
it is overlaid with cultural gender
roles-men are commonly seen as
thinkers and woman as feelers and
our socialization reinforces this
• Lay off story-Rate yourself on the
scale
Judging and Perceiving
• This relates to the amount of
structure we like in our lives
• Judgers like to live in an orderly
way and are happiest when their
lives are structured and matters
are settled-they like to regulate
and control their life
• Perceivers like to live in a
spontaneous way and are happiest
when their lives are flexible-they
like to have many options
available
Judging and Perceiving
• Judgers are not necessarily judgmentalthey just like things resolve
• Perceivers are not necessarily
perceptive-they just like being open to
many possibilities
• Judgers will experience tension until
closure is reached and are constantly
drawn to making a decision
• Perceivers experience tension when
they are forced to make a decision-they
like to keep options open
Judging and Perceiving
• A balance between these works best
• Perceivers can be terrible procrastinators and
judgers can be rigid and inflexible
• Imagine a couple shopping for a bike-the
perceiver asks many questions and goes to
several bike shops and still has trouble
deciding-the judger asks at the first shop
which bike do you recommend and buys it
• If a brochure arrives for a CLE event the
judger either signs up immediately or throws
it away-the perceiver keeps the brochure for
weeks weighing the pros and cons of going to
the seminar or not
• Rate yourself on the attached scale
Final Compilation
• On the attached page put down
your 4 dimensions IE INFP
• You can get more information on
this online-Google Myers-Briggs
Personality profile or MBTI
• You can also take a test online
• Many are free-they may or may
not be any more accurate than
what you have today
Personality and Law
• Obviously certain personality
characteristics benefit certain legal
careers-but because law has so many
types of careers there is always a niche
for anybody who looks around and is
flexible enough
• An ESTJ would make a great Barristerthey would however, not be popular
and would have no bedside manner at
all
• An ISTJ would be the perfect
researcher-they would however be
painfully boring to be around
• An INFP would be a good mediatoralthough they might be seen as flakey
and indecisive
Personality And Law
• Mismatches can result in extreme
unhappiness and even leaving law
altogether
• If you have an articling student who is
a strong feeler/intuitive under a
principle who is a strong thinker/judger
you will likely end up with a disaster
that is unpleasant for both
• Generally you can pull out various
parts of your personality under various
circumstances-an introvert can be a
good public speaker-a thinker can feel
and a feeler can think-it doesn’t mean
you don’t have access to these things
Personality and Law
• It works best when you are not trying
to be something you are not-to put a an
ESTJ in charge of human resources
would be a disaster
• Many lawyers have tried to change
their personality to adjust to the
expectations of others-this is inevitably
doomed to fail and will unpleasant in
the process
• The firm culture and area of law must
suit you for you to be happy
• The more you understand and accept
who you are the easier it is to find a
good match
Personality and Law
• The system in place does not take
personality into consideration-most law
schools use marks not personality tests
• Even though your personality is a key
factor in your performance and
happiness in legal culture it is usually
ignored by both firms and individuals
• It is important to “true up” who you are
with what you do,otherwise you may
end up trying to pound a square peg
into a round hole and waste valuable
time and life energy