Law People : Law Practice Management, Organizational and Personal Dynamics; Talent Management : Ronda Muir of Law People Management, Inc.

Lawyers suffer from a high rate of depression--the highest of all professions--and the peak time for depression to hit is around the holidays.  Add to that the stress that many are feeling now over the economy and whether they will have a job come the first of the year, and you have a recipe for poor performance, strained relationships and general year-end blues. 

Positive psychology is the study of what drives optimal functioning.  It focuses on the positive emotions, individual traits and institutions that improve productivity and satisfaction and that also have been determined to lengthen longevity by 20%.  But lawyers are world-class pessimists, a trait so clearly aligned with their profession that law students who score the highest on pessimism also have the highest grades.  So practicing positive emotions seems sentimental and unrealistic to many lawyers.

The proof, however, is in the pudding.  Don't let moping through the holidays be your "realistic" approach.  Here's a list of things that positive psychology research has found can help you beat back the depression demon. Even though it may sound too much like kittens and flowers and light, you might just find that one or more things on this list can help make your holidays happy. 

1. Keep a gratitude diary.  Spending even 5 minutes a day writing down what you are grateful for has a demonstrated positive impact on satisfaction, physical health and energy levels. For a bigger kick, send a note to someone you are grateful to.
2. Start the day with a smile.  If you can maintain a positive attitude through the first hour, you have a much better chance of keeping it all day.  Research shows that even if you don't feel positive at first, the positive feelings will follow that physical smile.  Laughter is good for you too, And a positive mood is contagious.
3. Perform an act of kindness.  One daily act of kindness, regardless of how small--like complimenting a coworker, bringing someone coffee, or large--volunteering at a food bank, mowing an elderly neighbor's lawn, builds strong connections and adds a sense of purpose and meaning to life.
4. Spend time with friends and family.  Plan regular time together.  And even if a late brief or closing keeps you physically away, phone calls and emails can keep you connected in the meantime. 
5. Replay those special moments.  When you're stuck in a conference room late at night, give yourself a break to replay those special memories you have--visualizing the moment and exactly how it felt.  It's a mini-vacation in the mind.
6. Manage your physical health--eat well, sleep well, exercise and stretch daily. The positive effects of good physical health--on your immune system, heart and dopamine levels--is the foundation for high functioning and lasting satisfaction.
7. Just minutes of meditation daily for as few as 6 weeks, using music or chanting to further the relaxation, has proved powerful in developing the ability to cope with stress and lighten mood.
8. Visualize!  Imagine vividly your goals and aspirations. Write down the specific details of your ideal life and incorporate them wherever you can into the life you have now.
9. Upgrade your self-talk.  Stop trash-talking to yourself--remember to congratulate yourself for your accomplishments and remind yourself of your strengths.
10. Release yourself from responsibility for what you can't control or change. Keep a discerning eye on what those things are and don't beat yourself up over what you can't do.
11. Forgive. Staying angry is like trying to kill someone else by drinking poison.  It only hurts you in the end.  Unburden yourself from the weight of resentment and anger over what others have or haven't done. Forgive their weaknesses, their bad intentions, their failure to be who you thought or want them to be.  Then embrace your lightened life.

 Happy holidays!

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Goleman Clarifies

In the emotional intelligence ring, there have long been two theories—those who think that EI counts for 80% of success and those who don’t.  Daniel Goleman’s 1995 blockbuster book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ is the source of much of this scrapping—he asserted in the original edition that IQ accounts for 10-20% of business success, leaving a big 80% gap attributable to other factors. Many think that EI fills that entire space—some contending that Goleman himself essentially said that at the time. 

As we have reported, over the years there have been a number of rounds on this question, with Goleman saying that he has been misinterpreted and others accusing him of retreating from his own findings. This past week, Goleman finally came out firmly with the declaration that “people seem to jump to the conclusion that EQ alone makes up that 80% gap—and it does not… As the person who put the concept on the map, I can tell you that they are dead wrong.”

While chastising consultants for over-selling emotional intelligence, Goleman also restates the importance of EI in the business world:

“It typically takes an IQ about 115 or above to be able to handle the cognitive complexity facing an accountant, a physician or a top executive. But here’s the paradox: once you’re in a high-IQ position, intellect loses its power to determine who will emerge as a productive employee or an effective leader. For that, how you handle yourself and your relationships — in other words, the emotional intelligence skill set — matters more than your IQ. In a high-IQ job pool, soft skills like discipline, drive and empathy mark those who emerge as outstanding.

Companies know this. Corporate surveys find that more than two-thirds of major businesses apply some aspect of emotional intelligence in their recruiting, in promotions, and particularly in leadership development.”

Emotional intelligence is critical to productivity, effectiveness, leadership. And businesses are smart enough to recognize that in their recruiting, professional development and leadership development. Except of course in the business of law.

Is It Your Blood Pressure?

In another corner of the EI world comes results announced last week of an interesting study : "the emotion-recognizing ability [is] reduced in people with high blood pressure, even after taking into account medication use and other factors."  Leading to "emotional dampening," hypertension evidently "reduces the ability to recognize anger, fear, sadness, and other emotions in people's faces."

According to the authors of the study, published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine:

"In complex social situations like work settings, people rely on facial expressions and verbal emotional cues to interact with others. If you have emotional dampening, you may distrust others because you cannot read emotional meaning in their face or their verbal communications.You may even take more risks because you cannot fully appraise threats in the environment.”  

The authors believe emotional dampening also may be involved in disorders of emotion regulation, such as bipolar disorders and depression.  

This theory of emotional dampening also evidently applies to positive emotions.“Dampening of positive emotions may rob one of the restorative benefits of close personal relations, vacations and hobbies."

While there is no hard data on this that I am aware of, I would put bets on our lawyer population having outsized blood pressure, consistent with the pressure, stress and demands of the job.  And then there are those well-documented low scores in emotional intelligence that lawyers historically get.

Lack of trust, risky behavior, depression, heart disease, lack of close personal relations and little or no restorative time?

So that's it!

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