Talent Advisory Board's Latest Research Indicates that Emotional Intelligence is Vital in Driving Diversity and Innovation in Silicon Valley

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 23, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Talent Advisory Board, an independent diversity & inclusion research firm, has released its fifth annual research study, Diverse Silicon Valley Attorneys Drive Innovation Through Emotional Intelligence, in conjunction with a meeting of the best practice law firms and their clients at the Palo Alto headquarters of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. The purpose of this research was to understand not only pipeline solutions for under-represented minorities but also other innovative talent management strategies to enable diverse attorneys to succeed at senior levels.

The study elaborates on the best practices of in-house legal departments at five Silicon Valley tech companies – Hewlett-Packard, Intuit, SolarCity, ZELTIQ, and Zynga. The aggregated demographics of the five legal departments in the TAB research cohort exceeded the industry averages for minority and women attorneys at the direct report to general counsel level and above. The in-house legal departments were selected by study co-sponsors Fenwick & West LLP, Latham & Watkins LLP and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC as well as study participants Morrison & Foerster and Skadden Arps. All five firms collectively surpass industry law firm benchmarks for total attorney diversity in gender, sexual orientation, and race including under-represented minorities.

Law firm leaders who sponsored the study commented on the research which shines a light on the relationship between diversity, innovation, and emotional intelligence in the legal sector.

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati chairman Larry Sonsini said: "Diversity is at the heart of successful innovation. We see this fact demonstrated each day, not only by our firm, but also by our clients and other industry leaders. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati is proud to support Talent Advisory Board's important research and we remain strongly committed to the implementation of talent management strategies that promote diversity and innovative problem solving throughout the legal profession."

Ora Fisher, Latham & Watkins Vice Chair, said: "Latham & Watkins and a growing number of law firms are committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace, and we are continually looking for new and innovative strategies to further support diverse lawyers at our firm and in the legal industry at large. Exploring the links among emotional intelligence, innovation and success offers strong possibilities for developing new means of hiring, developing and promoting a diverse workforce."

"We are so privileged to work with our clients on this list because we can learn so much from their success in cultivating a more diverse and inclusive in-house legal team. By sharing best practices, we can work together to increase diversity for the greater good of our respective businesses and the legal profession," said Kate Fritz, Fenwick & West Managing Partner. "Our experience is that greater diversity among both the in-house team and outside counsel increases collaboration and enables us to form even stronger relationships and ultimately deliver better counsel and results." 

High growth companies demand internal innovation in order to remain competitive in the Silicon Valley marketplace. Silicon Valley in-house legal department attorneys play a critical role in enabling such innovation, and along with high IQ, emotional intelligence is critical for working within a team to achieve break-through results. The research found across the board that successful women and minorities interviewed had high degrees of self-awareness, motivation, empathy, and other elements of emotional intelligence that were essential to helping them better serve their business clients, work with colleagues, and effectively manage other attorneys.

Tina Shah Paikeday, Managing Director, of Talent Advisory Board further elaborated on the key findings across the group, "While the entire legal industry has opportunity, in-house legal departments appear to have more gender and racial diversity both at senior levels,"  she goes on to say, "Individual attorneys with a combination of intellectual and emotional intelligence and managers who are effective at and accountable for development enables diverse attorneys to succeed by leveraging their full set of skills." 

Effective talent management strategies highlighted in the study include:

1. Consider emotional intelligence (EQ) in addition to IQ, e.g., candidate pool, evaluation criteria, interview techniques.
2. Develop managers who excel at interpersonal relationships, e.g., knowing about employees' personal lives, work/life goals, individual motivations.
3. Create manager accountability for retention, e.g., organizational structure, aligned incentives, and upward feedback.

The study suggests that the legal industry can benefit from adopting talent management strategies beyond traditional pipeline solutions to increase diversity at senior levels and calls for the legal profession to meet the representation of under-represented minorities in other professions.  

About Talent Advisory Board Inc.
With the social mission of fostering a greater understanding between people of diverse backgrounds, Talent Advisory Board Inc. is a boutique research and consulting firm focused on advancing workforce diversity. The firm's researchers and consultants have experience in human resources strategy, diversity programs and employee research, and they provide leading edge diversity research and management consulting services. The firm uses an analytical approach to solve the most challenging diversity problems including recruiting, retaining and advancing diverse legal professionals. Talent Advisory Board enables diversity to be a powerful asset for clients to leverage for competitive advantage. The firm is a minority-owned and woman-owned B Corporation.  For more information please visit www.talentadvisoryboard.org.

SOURCE Talent Advisory Board