Why Lawyers Fail #20-16

Dr. Robert Jeffrey Sternberg is an American psychologist and psychometrician and the Dean of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University. He was formerly IBM Professor of Psychology and Education at Yale University and the President of the American Psychological Association and is generally considered a a prominent figure in the research of human intelligence. Most of Dr. Sternberg’s research in the past decade has gone towards his Triarchic Theory of Intelligence.

However, I wish to focus on an excerpt from his book, In Search of the Human Mind, written in 1994. In it, Dr. Sternberg lists what he believes to be the twenty reasons why intelligent people fail. Now, regardless of public perception or personal anecdote, lawyers are intelligent people. Certainly some are more intelligent than others, but as a whole, they are intelligent people. Lawyers have: graduated from college, completed a graduate degree, and passed the bar exam. One might say this only makes them educated and not intelligent (a distinction not without merit), however for my purposes I am going to say that lawyers, in general, are intelligent.

So here are #20-16 of Why Lawyers Fail (my comments in bold below):

20. “Too little or too much self-confidence. Lack of self-confidence can gnaw away at a person’s ability to get things done and become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Conversely, individuals with too much self-confidence may not know when to admit they are wrong or in need of self-improvement.”

- Do I even need to address this? Stories of lawyers who have blown a case or a contract because of hubris are countless.

19. “Lack of balance between critical, analytical thinking and creative, synthetic thinking. It is important for people to learn what kind of thinking is expected of them in each situation.”

- Being a good lawyer requires a fine balance between these two. Often I think lawyers tend towards the critical, analytical side. However, great lawyers bring creative solutions to new problems.

18. “Inability to see the forest for the trees. Some people become obsessed with details and are either unwilling or unable to see or deal with the larger picture in the projects they undertake.”

– I think new lawyers tend to have this problem. It’s very easy to get fired up about being provided assignments at the beginning of a new job and dive right into the thick of things but not being able to view the over-reaching goal of their project.

17. “Inability to delay gratification. Some people reward themselves and are rewarded by others for finishing small tasks, while avoiding bigger tasks that would earn them larger rewards.”

- See my post in regard’s to Aemilius Paullus advice on this topic.

16. “Spreading oneself too think or too thick. Undertaking too many activities may result in none being completed on time. Undertaking too few can also result in missed opportunities and reduced levels of accomplishment.”

- A recent example of a lawyer spreading themselves too thin.

#15 to 11 will come Thursday.

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