“ When you don’t have psychological safety, you see the negative impact of that and it hits the bottom line.”


SHARON BLACKMAN OBE, MANAGING DIRECTOR & HEAD OF SERVICES LEGAL, CITI


if people are to do their best work and perform, as well as stay in the role. Leaders with emotional intelligence, who are able to show humility, empathy and vulnerability in a team or organisation where this is supported, and who are trusted to understand what is going on where there is conflict and allow everyone to be heard, are key. Describing the features of a


mature psychologically safe team, panellist Paul Davison, CEO and founder of PPWD, said it is somewhere everyone – including junior members of the team – have an equal voice, feel and are able to ask questions and challenge the status quo, irrespective of their experience. Collaboration, rather than competition, is also evident where people draw on each other’s ideas to solve problems together. “I think it’s about allowing


colleagues and the managers trained to say if something isn’t right and feeling supported,” added Jude Cragg, director of human resources at Capsticks LLP. “It’s about having that dialogue.” “When you don’t have


psychological safety, you see the negative impact of that and it hits the bottom line,” said Sharon Blackman, managing director and head of services legal at Citi.


BALANCING THE INDIVIDUAL & THE INSTITUTIONAL Annmarie Carvalho, a former City lawyer and now award-winning therapist, noted how the profession’s pressures are “baked in” to the workplace structures and again through the people the role attracts. “The way most of us work is


very highly geared,” she said. “That sort of difficult situation when you don’t want to have too many people in your team because if you have a lull, you are too exposed, then when you get busy you’ve got too few people. So we all know about that stuff. The bit we don’t talk about is psychological attributes.” Citing research, she described


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how legal professionals by nature are high achievers. In a precarious and unpredictable working environment, this can impact how people value themselves – especially when their locus of evaluation has been external, through exam grades for example. “What that means is that a


lot of interactions in the office are heightened,” she explained. “You’ve got this combination of managers, supervisors who’ve never been trained in management skills, who have got their own pressures, caseloads and targets, and then a load of younger people who go into things like appraisals wishing ‘please tell me I’m great’, so the atmosphere is very heightened.” To be effective, performance


reviews and appraisals will have constructive advice. But what often happens is that people often focus on the negative feedback rather than all the good points because of this external focus. “It’s not just about seniors being


terrible at feedback,” continued Annmarie Carvalho. “If you can look at that intersection between those two dynamics, then you’re in with a chance.” “My assessment of lawyers is that


they’ve all excelled,” said Sharon Blackman. “You cannot qualify unless there are circumstances where you have done incredibly well. Quite often they’ve been top of the class – 100%, A stars – all the way through. Then that’s the benchmark and it’s how do you distinguish yourself in that benchmark where everyone is really impressive, but with different attributes.”


CHANGING TRADITIONS: CAREER PATHS & CULTURE The traditional legal world is hierarchical and structured around seniority. The “up or out” mentality around career progression, performance and routes to partnership adds extra pressure and competitiveness. The reported stress rate among lawyers is therefore


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