How Legal Professionals Can Train Their Inner Saboteur

markhope61
Jul 16
6 min read

Updated: Aug 13

Every legal professional carries an internal voice that often goes unnoticed. It is the quiet critic that questions your decisions, urges caution and undermines your confidence. This is your inner saboteur. If left unchecked, it can affect your work, your client relationships and even your long-term wellbeing.

What is the Inner Saboteur?

The inner saboteur is the voice that says you should not charge that much in case the client walks away. It is the voice that insists a draft is not ready even when it is. It is the one that says you are not ready for promotion or that you will lose a client if you charge too much.

For those in the legal profession, this voice often disguises itself as due diligence or caution. But it is not. It limits growth. It chips away at confidence. And it can hold you back professionally.

Why Legal Professionals Are More Prone to It

Lawyers are trained to look for what can go wrong. You are taught to reduce risk and think through worst-case scenarios. This makes you more likely to give the inner saboteur credibility, because it often sounds logical.

However, the inner saboteur does not understand growth. Its goal is to keep you safe. Safe from embarrassment, failure or rejection. That safety often comes at a high cost.

Perfectionism and the Cost of Delay

In the legal sector, perfectionism can look like a strength. But when it goes unchecked, it becomes an obstacle.

The saboteur thrives in perfectionist environments. You may feel the need to redraft a document repeatedly. You might avoid finalising something because it does not feel good enough. Over time, this slows down delivery and creates unnecessary stress.

One solution is to use outsourced transcription. Rather than typing, speak your first draft. Services like OutSec Legal transcribe your spoken words, allowing you to edit a finished document. This helps you avoid overthinking and improves turnaround times.

Avoiding Work Due to Self-Doubt

Have you ever turned down a piece of work because you were not sure you could do it well? That is the saboteur at work.

You might feel unprepared, even when you are capable. This blocks career development. You only take work you feel 100 percent ready for, which means your growth never outpaces your confidence.

Readiness is not always a clear milestone. If you wait until you feel entirely prepared, you will miss valuable opportunities.

The Saboteur and Promotions

When the subject of promotion comes up, the saboteur often becomes louder. It tells you others are more qualified. It suggests you are not good enough. You might worry that putting yourself forward will be seen as arrogant.

This can be worse in firms where feedback is vague or inconsistent. Without affirmation from leadership, self-doubt fills the gap.

Over time, only the most confident individuals apply for promotion. This means firms lose capable talent and individuals lose momentum.

Fee Discussions and Undervaluing Yourself

You may be excellent at billing others but hesitant to bill your own time at full value. Do you reduce your rate without being asked? Offer extras just to avoid conflict?

This is not about pricing strategy. It is about fear. Fear of seeming greedy or being challenged. The saboteur convinces you that peace is more important than value.

The result is underbilling and a loss of confidence in your worth. If you want to explore this topic further, Vanessa Ugatti offers excellent insights. Her article, Worth Every Penny, is a helpful read.

How to Train Your Inner Saboteur

1. Build Awareness

Start by noticing when the saboteur appears. Is it after meetings? Late at night? Keep a short log for one week. Track what you were doing and what the inner voice said. This will give you patterns and clarity.

2. Give it a Name

Naming the voice helps create distance. Call it something like "The Doubter" or "The Perfectionist". This reminds you that it is a part of you, not all of you.

3. Set Boundaries

When the voice shows up, ask what it is trying to protect you from. Then decide if that protection is needed. If not, acknowledge it and move on. Say, "This is not helping right now" and return your focus to something productive.

4. Focus on the Effort

You cannot control every outcome. You can control how you prepare. Change the question from "Was it perfect?" to "Did I act with care and professionalism?" This shift encourages growth over fear.

5. Speak About It

You are not the only one dealing with this. Next time you talk to a trusted colleague, try asking, "Do you ever second-guess yourself after a big case or meeting?" The conversation might surprise you.

6. Prepare Self-Talk

Have a few phrases ready for when the saboteur starts. Try:

I have faced bigger challenges than this
Growth requires learning
It is okay not to feel perfect

These may feel unnatural at first. With time and repetition, they become easier.

Final Thoughts

The legal world values excellence. But it does not expect perfection. You will not avoid doubt completely. What you can do is lead yourself with awareness and balance.

By managing the inner saboteur with clarity and simple strategies, you improve not only your confidence but also your performance.

About OutSec Legal

At Outsec Legal, our services are designed to support legal professionals by providing reliable and high-quality legal transcription, allowing your practice to focus on clients and fee production. Whether your practice needs help with day-to-day transcription or support during busy periods, our pay-as-you-go option enables legal practices of all shapes and sizes to access support as and when they need it.

So What Are The Benefits?

Sole Practitioners/Barristers/Small Law Practices:

OutSec Legal is the perfect solution for sole practitioners, small law firms or barristers who need typing assistance on a pay-as-you-go basis, as it provides a cheaper alternative to employment.

Medium to Large Law Practices:

Medium to large law firms use OutSec to:

Reduce secretarial staff (completely or partially). This reduces the need for expensive office space (or enables space to be utilised for more productive use/fee generation);
Allow fee earners to concentrate on chargeable hour targets, rather than typing emails or amending documents;
Provide an effective solution to enable your fee-earning staff to work remotely. Therefore providing further opportunities to reduce expensive office space or increase your fee earner headcount with less space. It enables flexible working and makes law firms more agile;
Provide a business continuity solution to enable law firms to access secretarial staff in times of absence.
Enable firms to upscale support as the firm grows or at times of high workloads, without the need for employing additional staff.

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