Canadian Lawyer InHouse

december 2014 48 INHOUSE L aw D e p a r t m e n t M a n a g e m e n t More than 20 years after psychol- ogists Peter Salovey and John Mayer intro- duced the concept of emotional intelligence, it is still a hotly debated issue in the corpo- rate world. Now the discussion has made its way to in-house legal departments as general counsel look for ways to foster more effec- tive relationships with their business units. Some espouse emotional intelligence as a panacea for creating more productive teams, but others are more skeptical that an ability to skillfully read one's own emotions and evaluate those of others has real value in the workplace. In a recent LinkedIn post titled "Emo- tional Intelligence Is Overrrated" Adam Grant suggests it's a mistake to base hiring or promotion decisions on emotional intel- ligence, and that doing so can even have a detrimental effect. Emotional intelligence is "a set of skills that can be beneficial in situations where emotional information is rich or vital," states Grant, a professor of management and psychology at the Wharton School of Business. If your work involves "data, things and ideas," he argues, too much focus on emotion can be distracting from "working efficiently and effectively." In a comprehensive meta-study a few years ago, researchers Dana Joseph and Dan Newman studied 191 different jobs to determine how much emotional intel- ligence affected job performance. They found that cognitive ability accounted for more than 14 per cent of job performance while emotional intelligence accounted for less than one per cent. If that argument was meant to persuade lawyers that emotional intelligence doesn't apply to them, it seemed to fall on deaf ears. At the Association of Corporate Counsel's annual meeting in New Orleans in October, more than 500 attended a panel discussion on "What Makes Smart Lawyers Fail? How to Increase Your Emotional Intelligence — and Your Impact." As legal advisers to the business, lawyers are always standing "slightly outside the cir- cle," and knowing how to effectively com- municate is key to their success, especially when it comes to delivering the "tough messages" to the business, says Norma For- manek, senior vice president and general counsel of Trilliant Networks in Redwood City, Calif., and a panel participant. She ar- gues that being an effective lawyer involves communicating complex legal concepts in a way business people can both understand and appropriately respond to. "In-house lawyers can break down boundaries by [positioning] themselves as helpers to their colleagues, as someone who supports them and helps them through the difficult decisions they need to make," she says. "If you can deliver a tough mes- sage constructively and without an excess of emotion, you don't drive people under- ground [to the point] where they don't want to share problems with you." Formanek believes that emotional intel- ligence is a tool lawyers can use to become more self-aware and more attuned to how others perceive their messages. "I can't control what they think or their emotional reactions, but I can control the way I'm behaving and communicating so I'm not triggering emotional reactions or negative reactions that might get in the way of a constructive discussion." A little self-awareness goes a long way toward more productive work relationships, says Formanek, and the reverse is also true. She has met her share of "top-tier, brand- name" lawyers whose career opportunities have been limited because of their inability to "deal with people in an emotionally ma- ture, reasonable, and constructive way." As a litigation partner in private practice, she worked with a lawyer who was an expert in his specialty, but who treated "the rank and file like dirt." "He knew more in his subject area than I know about everything else in the world, but he reduced people to tears. And then he was fired." In collaborative working environments, emotional intelligence can act as a building block that helps lawyers create more effective Are you emotionally smart? Lawyers adept at understanding and reading emotions are more effective and successful, experts suggest, and those who ignore this 'soft' skill may do so at their peril. BY PATrICIA mACINNIS

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