Last week I was at the Barnstable County Fair in Cape Cod. At the midway, there was a game called “Dunk the Clown.” Let me describe it for you.
A clown sat on a ledge over a tank of water. People paid a few dollars and received three baseballs to throw at two large buttons on the walls adjacent to the clown. If a button were hit, the clown would fall into the water.
Now this was not just any clown. Oh, no. This was the meanest, most opinionated, offensive, clown within many, many, miles. His job was to inflame the crowd so that people would part with their money in order to try to give him the dunking which he so richly deserved.
To a young girl he shouted that this was a game for boys and she should have her brother come to throw the baseballs. He commented on a man’s really big nose, and on another woman’s hair style. He had something to say about blondes being dumb and another thing to say about a man’s physique.
And then he turned his eyes in my direction and started to address someone as “grandpa.” I pretended that I did not know that he was speaking to me, and slowly turned around to see who he could be talking to. He then shouted that if I was looking all around me and the only people who I saw were at least twenty years younger than me, it was possible that I was the grandpa that he was referring to!
Well, I am in fact a grandpa, and at 69 ½ years old, I may well have been the oldest person standing in the crowd that day. But that does not mean that my self-image is that of being ‘the old guy.’
Back in college, I took Psychology 101. At one class, the professor handed each student a one-page summary of their personality type based on his observations. After we all agreed that the summaries were remarkably accurate, he told us that they were all identical, although they had been styled and paginated to look different at first glance. His point was that since we all like to see ourselves in a certain way, we are quick to agree that we are likeable, friendly, empathic, and compassionate.
I, for one, know that I am all of that, and boyish and young-at-heart to boot, and I resent that f***g clown for suggesting differently. Grandpa, my a*s.
Meanwhile, back at law firms, there are some people who are truly supportive of their colleagues and subordinates, and many more who are not (as one might expect in a high-pressure environment.) Strangely enough, those who are unlikeable often believe that they are universally adored. Should their billings and client origination numbers be low, they will hear plenty from management about where they fall short. Should their numbers be high, they usually get a pass.
Looking for a positive law firm culture? Try to figure out whether management holds up a mirror to all of the lawyers, including the high performers, and asks them to do better. Or is management happy to have them stand there, as I did, saying, “who me?”
This article was originally published by Law360 Canada, part of LexisNexis Canada Inc.