In-House Counsel

Five behaviors highly correlated with failure among newly-promoted lawyers

By Rees Morrison

Actually, Harv. Bus. Rev., Vol. 87, Jan. 2009 at 56, says that these are traps that befall managers who take on new leadership roles and go after ?quick wins.? The managerial mistakes, however, sound all too familiar in law departments. Among the newly-promoted senior managers studied by the authors, between 10 and 15 percent of them exhibited one or more of these pernicious traits.

?Focuses too heavily on the details? ?Reacts negatively to criticism? (See my post of Jan. 4, 2009: general counsel suppress bad news.). ?Intimidates others? (See my post of Dec. 8, 2006: a GC?s chilling effect during discussions.).
?Jumps to hasty conclusions? ?Micromanages direct reports?

Other deleterious tendencies can betray a poor managers in law departments (See my post of Oct. 12, 2006: heavy-handed managers; Aug. 10, 2007: personality disorders; and March 18, 2007: general counsel who are bad managers.).

Full post as published by Law Department Management on January 07, 2009 (boomark / email).