8 Must Have Personality Traits of Successful Rainmakers

As a lawyer, whether you are just starting out or have been practicing for a while, you must have at some point pondered this question: What does it really take to become a successful rainmaker? Is it the knowledge? Or delivering excellent service? Or perhaps some innovative marketing techniques?

Certainly, these are important and yet research by the Carnegie Institute of Technology shows that only 15 percent of our success can be attributed to technical knowledge.

According to the researchers, an overwhelming “85 percent of your financial success is due to skills in “human engineering,” your personality and ability to communicate, negotiate, and lead.”

Additionally, Nobel Prize winning Israeli-American psychologist, Daniel Kahneman, found that “people would rather do business with a person they like and trust rather than someone they don’t, even if the likeable person is offering a lower quality product or service at a higher price.”

Top 8 Personality Traits to Boost Your Success Rate as a Rainmaker

Your business development strategy is your overall approach, your plan of action that will help you achieve business development growth. Strategy includes knowing who your target clients are, how and where to connect with them, and what services you are able to provide to them. It also includes your network and your overall process to win the work and close deals. And of course, your business development plan.

1. Inner Confidence

Knowing and honoring your internal worth as a human being, regardless of what you managed or failed to accomplish or achieve on any given day, is paramount to your success in business and life.

2. Creativity

Creativity nurtures unique ideas that create truly successful solutions. This is because creativity helps you look at things in different, fresh ways and deliver new solutions to already existing problems.

3. Perseverance

Success is not made overnight. At least lasting success isn’t. Your continued efforts are a must to help your practice grow sustainably. Or in the words of Dale Carnegie, “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”

4. Personal Growth & Development

The best and most worthwhile investment you can make is in yourself. As a professional, your focus must be on actively seeking to learn more about not just your practice areas so you can better understand and serve your clients’ needs, but also on finding ways in which you can improve your personal attitude, efficiency, and productivity, while tuning your mindset to the frequency of success.

5. Passion

Always ask yourself about the deeper meaning of why you do what you do, the big WHY.  Your passion for your work, if you let it shine, will help you persevere when things get tough. It will serve as your anchor. Another thing about passion is that it’s infectious. When you are passionate about what you do, chances are so will be your clients!

6. Friendliness

This one is simple – be nice to others and they will be nice to you. Remember, people do business with those who they like and trust.

7. Emotional Intelligence

Knowing, understanding and mastering your own emotions and the emotions of others is critical to your ability to lead your practice and yourself to success. Instead of being triggered and blindly reacting to people or circumstances around you, learn to choose to respond in a way that serves you and those around you best.

8. Positive Attitude

Whether you believe in the laws of attraction or not, the universal truth is this: we attract what we focus on. So if you want to attract more positive results in your professional and personal life, start focusing on the positive side of things. A great way to do that is by doing a gratitude journal.

How many of these traits do you possess?  All 8? Fantastic! A couple or none at all? Do not despair!

It’s been proven that while not all individuals naturally possess these traits, they can be learned if applied and practiced daily.

Do This Every Week and Watch Your Success Soar

So our recommendation is this: pick a couple of these traits to practice each week. Create a list of ways in which you can do that and begin taking action immediately.

For example, if you feel that you could be more passionate about your practice, spend a few minutes connecting to your passion and then start telling everyone you meet that week (your clients, prospects, your family and friends) why you are so passionate about what you do.

You will be amazed at the responses you get!

You’ve got this. Here is to your incredible success!