A Mindset for Success in a Legal Career

One of my favorite books is Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Stanford professor Carol Dweck. The basic premise of the book is that there are two potential mindsets that we all work with: fixed and growth. If you have a fixed mindset, you basically believe that change is impossible (or highly unlikely) and that people have fixed characteristics which are largely unalterable. If you have a growth mindset, on the other hand, you believe that characteristics are malleable and that new skills can be learned with enough time and effort.

As it turns out, the differences between these two mindsets are profound. Having a growth mindset is linked to success, in business and in life. Let’s think about how these concepts apply to a legal career.

How Lawyers End Up with a Fixed Mindset

The fixed mindset is prevalent among attorneys, to their detriment. Many people who decide to go to law school have been told their entire lives how smart and gifted they are. Great sentiments, until 1L grades come out. Suddenly, only a few people are at the top of the class, because law school is graded on a strict curve, where half of the class is suddenly below average. (No Lake Wobegon grading here.)

At this point, the suddenly sub-par law student has a choice:

• Objectively evaluate what went wrong on each exam, ask for advice from more knowledgable sources, make a structured plan of improvement, and execute the plan, asking for feedback along the way and evaluating the results. 
• Decide they’re not really smart enough to be in law school, and give up on trying to do better.

It might sound absurd, but the second choice is actually the more common! One of the reasons law school grades tend to be consistent across semesters is that the students who do well first semester become convinced they’re great law students and continue to work really hard. Those who start further down the curve simply accept their lot and stop trying as much. You can guess how things turn out.

Unfortunately, the lessons of legal education carry over into legal practice. After being beaten down for three years in law school, many lawyers are demoralized and lack faith in their ability to learn new things. (A serious problem in a profession that demands constant learning!)

How You Can Develop a Growth Mindset

If you think you’ve fallen into a fixed mindset (“I’m not good at oral arguments.” “I’ll never be as confident in my writing as opposing counsel.”) definitely check out the Mindset book. But you can also immediately start working to reframe your approach with some simple techniques.  

Say, for example, that you had a negative performance review and got some difficult-to-hear feedback. One option is to think, “I’m a total failure at my job and will probably be fired soon.” That may be true, but it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy if you don’t try to turn things around. What if, instead, you thought, “This feedback was hard to hear, but some of it is probably valid. I’m going to work with my boss to identify specific ways I can learn and practice what I need to improve my work product.” This article on handling a negative performance review has some excellent advice, but — really — any structured plan for getting feedback and taking action will probably work. The key is to recognize feedback for what it is — a chance to evaluate the situation, work hard, and get better. You’re not a “bad employee,” unless you opt to remain stagnant, ensuring your work will never improve. 

Work on adopting a growth mindset, and you’ll see benefits across the board!