Difficult personalities at the office are a big problem, and the problem is not confined to partners and abusive behavior toward associates or others lower on the law firm ladder than themselves. Oh no. The bad news is that the higher you climb on that ladder, the stronger the resistance to good working relationships can become.
The subject of whether your law firm partner is a jerk is addressed in this article from The American Lawyer. The article has two applications for you as a young woman lawyer. First, it provides some good advice on what kind of bad behavior to be aware of and how to handle it. Second, the article demonstrates the bad role models that you do not want to channel.
Pay close attention to the remarks about emotional intelligence. That is a big deal, and you need to understand it. A high emotional intelligence can be helpful in getting clients, retaining clients, and developing a strong working team for servicing the clients at your firm. A low emotional intelligence can yield very opposite results.
According to the article: “The No. 1 problem is that lawyers are incredibly competitive, and they want all the glory for themselves. They tend to be individual go-getters rather than consensus formers.” Personalities like this do not further the goals of the law firm in a positive way, and that becomes a problem for everyone.
Much of the emphasis in this article is on leadership and the role of effective leadership in eliminating abusive behavior and promoting respect and the team concept. There are repeated references to the “top-down” approach, which is very reminiscent of my new book on law firm leadership, Best Friends at the Bar: Top-Down Leadership for Women Lawyers (Wolters Kluwer Law and Business/Aspen Publishers, 2015).
Check it out as well!
