Ep. 39 - Soft Skills, Hard Truths: Emotional Intelligence in Law Firms

Is People Intelligence, Getting Emotional: Improve Your Firm’s EQ

Sometimes, the soft skills are the hard skills. While emotional intelligence may seem like a fluffy concept, it can have real benefits in your practice. In this episode of the Successful Barrister, Marc and Diana discuss (and debate) the importance of emotional intelligence in law firms, particularly in your leadership team. They discuss the four components of emotional intelligence, times they applied at the firm, and how emotional intelligence improves your people skills in a people-centered industry. 

For detailed show notes, navigate using the time stamps below:

[1:40] Today’s episode is about emotional intelligence. Diana and Marc both took the emotional intelligence test, and Marc scored lower than Diana. 

[4:07] Diana has two theses: 1. To be an effective, impactful leader you have to have a high EQ, and 2. Your law firm can only grow to the level of your leader with the lowest EQ. 

[4:33] Emotional intelligence has four components: self-awareness, self-regulation, social awareness, and social regulation. 

[6:30] Marc says that law is a people business, and dealing with people in a positive way is a requirement. EQ can help firm owners and staff engage with people more effectively.

[11:14] Marc recently had to sit down with a new employee after he noticed a pattern of behavior at meetings. He related the conversation back to two of the firm’s core values: teamwork and effective communication. 

[16:26] Diana brings up a time when she did not exhibit high IQ by blowing up during a meeting. In that moment, she exhibited low self-regulation. 

[26:02] Marc is very self-aware according to his EQ test results. He disagrees with these results somewhat because he finds that he sometimes fails to be self-aware. 

[31:53] When you don’t understand how your emotions impact your team members, it can inhibit communication and make it difficult to take accountability. 

[35:32] High EQ is also about listening actively. There are times where your team members might not want a solution and just need to vent. 

[39:09] Marc says that the most successful people in business aren’t necessarily the smartest people. Instead, they usually have good people skills and can organize the people around them. 

Take the Emotional Intelligence 2.0 test: https://www.talentsmarteq.com/test/ 

Visit the Successful Barrister website: https://www.successfulbarrister.com/ 

Visit the Marc Whitehead & Associates website: https://disabilitydenials.com/ 

Email Diana about her list: diana@marcwhitehead.com 

Email Marc Whitehead: marc@marcwhitehead.com