My client Sarah, a talented corporate partner, stared at her BD plan from January. Three networking events were circled. Zero attended. A list of 20 “warm” contacts to reconnect with. Two actually contacted. Her weekly BD time blocks? Consistently hijacked by “urgent” client work.
Sound familiar?
Here’s what most lawyers miss: your personality style doesn’t just influence how you practice law — it shapes how you approach business development. And when your BD habits fight against your natural wiring, they fail.
The Science Behind Style and Habit Formation
Research in behavioral psychology shows that sustainable habits align with our core motivational drivers. When we force ourselves into approaches that contradict our natural preferences, we create what psychologists call “cognitive load” — mental friction that makes habits feel exhausting rather than energizing.
The DiSC Profile Assessment reveals four distinct behavioral styles — Dominance (“D-Style”), Influence (“i-Style”), Steadiness (” S-Style “), and Conscientiousness (“C-Style”) — each with unique strengths and blind spots that directly impact BD success. Understanding your style isn’t about excuses. It’s about designing habits that work with your brain, not against it.
How Each Style Sabotages (and Can Supercharge) Your BD Results
D-Style Lawyers (Decisive, Direct, Competitive)
- Your strength: You’re action-oriented and comfortable taking risks. You’ll pick up the phone when others hesitate.
- Your trap: You skip the relationship-building steps that convert prospects into clients. Routine follow-up feels tedious.
- Your habit hack: Tie BD to measurable outcomes and competitive benchmarks. Track weekly relationship nurture outreach targets in a dashboard and aim to beat your own record. Turn relationship-building into a game you can win.
i-Style Lawyers (Outgoing, Persuasive, Relationship-Focused)
- Your strength: You excel at initiating conversations and building rapport. People genuinely like you.
- Your trap: You avoid the follow-up details and get distracted by shiny new opportunities. Your pipeline looks impressive, but lacks depth.
- Your habit hack: Build habits around quick, personal touchpoints with social accountability. Schedule 15 minutes daily to send “warm” outreach messages and log them in a tracker shared with a peer.
S-Style Lawyers (Patient, Dependable, Supportive)
- Your strength: You’re an excellent listener and trusted relationship builder. Clients stay loyal for decades.
- Your trap: You delay outreach to avoid feeling pushy. You’d rather wait for referrals than actively prospect.
- Your habit hack: Use a relationship nurture list to guide weekly touchpoints. Commit to three meaningful check-ins each week with existing contacts and focus on adding value, not “selling.”
C-Style Lawyers (Analytical, Detail-Oriented, Precise)
- Your strength: You’re well-prepared and provide high-value insights that prospects remember.
- Your trap: You overprepare and delay action, waiting for “perfect” conditions that never arrive.
- Your habit hack: Set time limits for preparation and anchor BD to recurring events. Every Monday before 10am, send one insight-based article to a key contact and spend no more than 15 minutes of prep.
The Real BD Breakthrough
Here’s the counterintuitive truth: the most effective rainmakers don’t fight their natural style. They leverage it while building complementary skills. A D-Style partner learns to slow down for relationship building. An S-Style lawyer develops comfort with proactive outreach.
The magic happens when you design BD habits that feel natural to your core style while gradually expanding your comfort zone.
Your Next Step
Look at your current BD approach. Are you forcing yourself into habits that drain your energy? Or are you building on your natural strengths while addressing your growth edges?
The lawyers who crack the BD code aren’t the ones with perfect personalities—they’re the ones who understand their wiring and work with it, not against it.
