Vermont Bar Journal, Vol. 40, No. 2 Vermont Bar Journal, Winter 2017, Vol. 43, No. 4 | Page 37

JR: There doesn’t seem to be much writ-
ten in EI materials about narcissism, yet it
is hard to explain how low-EI CEOs tend
to predominate. For many narcissists, it
seems that EI skills like empathy aren’t re-
ally valued but the appearance of empathy
is. Do you have any views on this?
RM: The area of narcissism amongst law-
yers has been discussed a fair amount re-
cently, by Lisa Rohrer and others. Narcis-
sists and others with personality disorders
that I discuss in the book may be very good
at some EI skills, like manipulating others’
emotions for their own purposes, but also
lack emotional empathy, giving them an
unbalanced emotional intelligence. In any
event, having emotional intelligence skills
does not mean that you are “nice” or using
them for “good” purposes. They are simply
effective, regardless of your motives. The
best situation is to couple balanced emo-
tional intelligence with positive goals.
My EI Test Results:
“Reasonably Good”
In order to facilitate the writing of the at-
tached article (and to satisfy my curiosity), I
took an online EI test available through the
magazine Psychology Today. Muir recom-
mends two other tests (see the interview
with her) but those tests do not seem to be
available online; it appears that one must
go to a certified test giver to take either of
those tests. Besides, the price was right
for the PT test --- it is free to take the test
and get a summary report; it costs $9.95
to take the test and get a more detailed
report, which is what I did. The test takes
about 45 minutes. https://www.psycholo-
gytoday.com/tests/personality/emotional-
intelligence-test
Just a bit of brief background on me, I
am pushing 64 years old, have spent the
vast majority of my careers in big organi-
zations (two large law firms and a Fortune
50 corporate in house law department), be-
fore setting up my solo practice in Norwich,
Vermont. I think of myself as relatively shy
and introverted; I come out as an INFJ on
the Meyers-Briggs test. If you’re not big on
Meyers-Briggs, it is a personality classifica-
tion system, and INFJ is supposed an intro-
verted, intuitive but analytical personality. I
have an LL.M. in tax, and I was an under-
www.vtbar.org
graduate philosophy major, so I tend to-
ward analytical/rational activity (if you want
to call the tax code rational) and am some-
what intimidated by extreme displays of
emotion.
The test results I received from the PT
test were a bit shocking at first, but, on re-
flection, they seem overall to be fair. My
overall score was 114, which puts me in
the 84 th percentile (but I’m not exactly sure
what the comparator universe is; it isn’t lim-
ited to lawyers). The test result summary
gave me a “damning with faint praise” as-
sessment: “Your score on this assessment is
reasonably good, but there is some room
for improvement. Overall, you are fairly
skilled at understanding and dealing with
emotions.”
The test assessment breaks out the re-
sults in 5 aggregate categories. I did the
best (90) in Emotional Understanding, al-
most as predicted (since this is a rational/
analytical activity). I did the worst in Ego
Maturity (61--- ouch!). My assessment was
quite high for Emotional integration, Social
Insight, Striving, and Adaptable Social Skills
(all at 90 or above, some at 100). But I did
terribly in some areas: Comfort with Emo-
tions (50), Recognition of Other’s Emotions
(59), Rumination (44), Assertiveness (56), In-
dependence (48), and Flexibility (40). Some
of these results were not news to me--- as
mention, comfort with emotions is not a
strength, nor is recognition of other’s emo-
tions (it’s easier if you just tell me instead
of making me guess). Rumination has al-
ways been a problem: I tend to wake up at
2:30a.m. and think/rethink/rethink again.
But I thought independence and flexibility
were strengths.
One thing I’ve learned about from this is
my apparent “tone deaf” quality in recog-
nizing others’ emotional states. The test
presents several scenarios in which the test
taker is asked to look at a picture showing
several people in the middle of some sort
of event, and the test taker is asked to de-
scribe the emotional state of one or more
of the people in the picture. I answered
without much hesitation and thought I gen-
erally had it right. But my test results show
that I was wrong more than I was right, so
this must be a blind spot for me. This sug-
gests that I should be very careful and not
jump to conclusions based on my (probably
erroneous) assessment of others’ emotion-
al states. And, apparently, I am an inflex-
ible person--- not a great trait for a lawyer
or anyone in this era that calls for flexibility.
THE VERMONT BAR JOURNAL • WINTER 2017
UPCOMING
VBA CLE’S NOT
TO BE MISSED!
It may tend to show what one’s capability
for EI is, rather than the actual current level
of functioning. The other test I use is the
BarOn Emotional Quotient Inventory (Bar-
On EQ i® 2.0), which gauges professional
behavior, although that test relies on self-
assessment (which can be misleading).
January 12th & 13th, 2018
YLD Mid-Winter Thaw
@ Le Sheraton, Montreal
5.25 Credits (including 2.0 ethics)
Join the YLD for Thaw Bowl V to com-
pete for the Big Dog of Ethics title and
attend CLE’s on expert witnesses,
summary judgment, Vermont’s legal
past or business entity organization.
Keynote speaker is Mitch Wertlieb of
VPR and of course there will be cock-
tail receptions both nights, sponsored
by VLS and the YLD.
********************************
March 22nd & 23rd, 2018
VBA’s 61st Mid-Year Meeting
and Basic Skills
@ the Burlington Hotel and
Conference Center (fka The
Sheraton), S. Burlington
Est. 6.0 Credits (including 2.0 ethics)
for the Mid-Year
and 6.0 for Basic Skills
Our mid-year membership voting
meeting is back in Burlington for 2018
and will include informative and time-
ly CLE’s on attorney wellness, sexual
harassment, changes in the tax code,
multi-jurisdictional litigation AND
MORE! Save the date and stay tuned
to www.vtbar.org for more info as the
details unfold.
********************************
May 16th, 2018
VBA’s First Annual Tech Show
@ the Burlington Hotel and
Conference Center (fka The
Sheraton), S. Burlington
Est. 5.5 Credits
Come see a host of law-related ven-
dors demo their wares and attend
substantive, yet practical, CLE’s on
e-discovery, cybersecurity, document
management, time & billing, law of-
fice accounting, CRM technologies,
hardware, auto-notifications and
more. Can you ask Alexa to record
your time or can you have a bot re-
mind your clients of hearings? Abso-
lutely! Remember, as so artfully and
repeatedly blogged by Bar Counsel
(and Past-President) Mike Kennedy, a
lawyer’s duty of competence includes
tech competence! Save the date and
get your credits before June 30!
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