What’s the Invisible Man of Business Development?

This week’s film-legal business development analogy is the 2020 version of The Invisible Man starring Elizabeth Moss from The Handmaid’s Tale. A brilliantly scary psychological thriller about a woman who escapes an abusive relationship and, after her ex commits suicide, is terrorised by something that she can’t see.

But what’s the Invisible Man of business development? Well, that’s mindset: the perception we have about our abilities and qualities, such as intelligence and creativity. That thing we can’t see, but has so much control over our outlook.

If you have a fixed mindset, you believe that your attributes and abilities are inherently fixed and unchanging. You're either good at something or you’re not. You’re either born with an ability or you’re not.

But if you have a growth mindset, you believe your talents and abilities can be improved and developed.

Let’s take two examples from the world of sport:

Christiano Ronaldo and Serena Williams. To see them in action, they make it look so simple, so effortless. But the truth is, they spent thousands of hours, years of hard work to make it look that easy.

Developing your BD skills doesn’t take years – it can actually be picked up much more quickly than that. Yet most professional services fee earners are stuck in a fixed mindset of believing that they can’t do it. That it is beyond their capabilities. You have to change your mindset: you have to tell yourself that you can learn how to improve your BD skills. Once you do that, the Invisible Man can’t terrorise you any longer. So, are you a fixed mindset or a growth mindset kind of person?