Sussing out the "Tua Kang" personality

 

The great thing about my new life in the legal sector is that I get to meet folks with a range of talents that I would not ordinarily have access to in my old life in IT or investment training. 

One super senior lawyer I know seems to have an extraordinary power honed over many years of training - the moment a client walks into the law firm, he would have an idea whether this person is trying to fish for legal advice for free, will engage a lawyer but cannot afford the final bill, or will engage a lawyer and are happy to pay up. This is a great power to have for a boutique law firm because hunting down payments from cash-strapped clients is a perennial problem. 

Anyway, no one else seems to have this special power, and even this senior lawyer cannot explain how he does it. 

This comes from intuition.

I have a few hypotheses on how to do this. In essence, you are trying to detect Tua Kangs, it means "big hole" in Hokkien. Folks who are somewhat all hat but no cattle.

One possibility is that Tua Kangs have an MBTI of ENTP, which is unduly harsh. 

This was not my idea, but something a professor told me when I was working for a statutory board. He asked us whether we could co-create projects with entrepreneurs, and a few over-eager stat board minions raised their hands. Then the professor went on a rant about ENTP personalities and said that these entrepreneurial folks are the hardest to collaborate with for government workers because they may not necessarily deliver what was promised. If you look at the number of public-private project failure, there is probably a ISTJ-ENTP collaboration somewhere. 

I find this analysis somewhat harsh because I have ENTP friends, and while I will not seek productivity advice from them, they are a lot more reliable in practice and entertaining to hang out with.

A more practical approach can be found in the book The Pursuit of Excellence by Ryan Hawk. We try to give folks the benefit of the doubt, only pulling out all stops when we see the following:

• Constant name dropping
• Scant attention to detail ( Bowl of Blue M&Ms in contract clauses help )
• Self-promotion and over-selling
• NATO
• No attempt to invest in a relationship - throwing someone else under the bus is a sign.
• False flattery - Say you are very good but cannot be specific about it.
• Those willing to break the rules for you are willing to break the rules to hurt you in the future.

While the points mentioned would still not be able to sum someone up with a glance, it gives us lesser mortals something we can hone over time. 

This is one of the better books I read this year, and you will find many tips on how to conduct yourself better as a business owner or employee.