{"id":385,"date":"2015-08-08T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-08-08T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hub.findingsimple.com\/au\/emotional-intelligence-and-thinking-styles\/"},"modified":"2022-08-03T16:04:30","modified_gmt":"2022-08-03T05:04:30","slug":"emotional-intelligence-and-thinking-styles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insight.thomsonreuters.com.au\/legal\/posts\/emotional-intelligence-and-thinking-styles","title":{"rendered":"How Does Your Emotional Intelligence and Thinking Style Impact You?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A high level of emotional intelligence<\/a> is vital for any lawyer, but how does your EQ and thinking style combine to make you an effective practitioner?<\/p>\n

Firms striving to distinguish themselves from competitors in the current market need lawyers who can consistently deliver outstanding performances. But what many don\u2019t understand is that performance is not simply a product of hard work or a high IQ.<\/p>\n

Peter Salovey, president of Yale University, observed, “Law is human interaction in emotionally evocative climates. Any lawyer who can understand what emotions are present and why is at a tremendous advantage.”<\/p>\n

Indeed, \u2018smarts\u2019 will only get you so far as a lawyer. The rest hinges on your ability to navigate social interactions and effectively get what you want out of others. As such, lawyers who want to enhance their communicative ability and their effectiveness as a practitioner should develop not just an understanding of the way people feel (emotional intelligence), but an understanding of how people think.<\/p>\n

What are thinking styles?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Over the course of our lifetime, we accumulate behaviours that dictate how we tend to utilise and apply our intelligence. This shapes our personal thinking style \u2013 a unique fingerprint of our cognitive strengths and weaknesses that determines how we communicate, process information, make judgements, solve problems and socially interact. It also has a major impact on our ability to lead, make decisions, build relationships and influence others.<\/p>\n

How can lawyers use thinking styles?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Understanding thinking styles is an important tool for lawyers wanting to enhance their ability to tackle intellectual work and social interactions and boost their level of influence over others.<\/p>\n

Identifying your own personal thinking style<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Getting acquainted with your own cognitive tendencies not only helps identify your natural strengths and weaknesses, but enables you to achieve optimum operating efficiency.<\/p>\n

The majority of individuals use one or two dominant thinking styles in preference to others, and while it’s possible to become proficient at using a foreign style, this is usually difficult to sustain. Therefore, learning how to approach tasks with your optimum thinking style can help to conserve intellectual energy and avoid frustration and burnout.<\/p>\n

Knowing your thinking style can also help you identify:<\/p>\n