by Kathleen Bradley

Many of us buy into the notion that “genius is born, not made.”  For those who don’t consider themselves to be geniuses, that’s just an excuse not to work hard to develop expertise in an area that they may feel passionate about. The reality is, according to those who have studied top performers in disciplines ranging from music to medicine, there is no correlation between most genetic factors (including IQ) and expert performance.  Yes, sports might be an exception.  There are certain genetic physical characteristics that can be significant indicators of elite athletic performance.  But even here, the physicality of an athlete is not, in and of itself, an indicator of success in a chosen sport.    True expertise is not so much a matter of innate talent or skill, but rather a product of years of deliberate practice and coaching.

If you question the research, look no further than your professional colleagues.  We all know one or two law review editors who excelled in school but crashed and burned during their first two years on the job.  Or a graduate from an elite law school who is great at writing legal briefs but can’t communicate effectively with a client.  So what is it about those elite lawyers who excel both in their area of expertise and in building their practice?  Here’s what the research on experts suggests:

• Practice, of course, factors into the pursuit of peak performance, but not all practice makes perfect.  It is not a matter of practicing what you already know how to do.  Instead, practice must be deliberate and entail considerable, specific, and sustained effort to do something you cannot do well, or even at all.  This seems obvious to lawyers seeking to build their substantive legal expertise, but what about those skills that are essential to a successful practice — your business development and leadership skills?  Just like an elite racer who has a tendency to be slow off the starting block will focus his training on improving his reaction time, so must lawyers train themselves to be elite legal practitioners by developing muscle in the areas of business development and leadership.

• Just like any elite musician or athlete, lawyers need mentors and coaches to support them in their pursuit of peak performance.  Good mentors and coaches will build you up and, more importantly, they will give you constructive and sometimes painful feedback.   They will also help you identify aspects of your performance that will need to be improved at your next level of skill and challenge and drive you to that higher level.

• It takes time to become an expert.  “Overnight sensations” are rare and, on a closer look at top performers who seemingly became famous overnight, it is apparent that they practiced their craft for years before they were “discovered.”  The same holds true for lawyers.  There is a reason why most firms have a partnership track that is 7-10 years in length.  That is the amount of time that researchers have found to be necessary to achieve elite performance.

So, what does this mean for you?  In order to be classified as an “expert” in your legal practice, you need to put your head down and hone your craft through deliberate practice over a 7-10 year period, seek out constructive and even hard feedback from your mentors and coaches, and stretch yourself beyond your comfort zone in order to acquire the skills that you don’t do well.  And, then, once you get to the first level of expertise, you set your sites on the next!