How comfortable are you with reading, understanding and executing contracts?

Our reader poll today asks: How comfortable are you with reading, understanding and executing contracts?

• Extremely: I understand contracts well and have no issues executing them 18%
• Very: I’m familiar with most contracts and am mostly comfortable executing them 36%
• Kind of: Contracts sometimes confuse or intimidate me, but other times I’m comfortable 28%
• Not very: Unless it’s a simple contract, I prefer to leave contracting to the experts 14%
• Not at all: I want nothing to do with contracting in any situation 4%

Practicing Law without a License? Slightly over half of you are very or extremely comfortable with understanding and executing contracts. That’s a great skill to have given how prevalent they are in everyday business. If you’re in the minority who aren’t as familiar or comfortable with contracts, that’s fine too as long as you’re represented by competent counsel. In any case, it’s a good skill to have because the better you understand contracts, the more effectively you can point out any “business” issues to your attorneys (who mostly read contracts for their legal implications and not necessarily the business implications). Even if you’re not the one signing the contract, knowing what’s in there can help you identify and mitigate business risks and prevent your organization from entering a bad deal. Stop being intimidated. Read the contract. Get familiar with their structure and terminology. Your understanding of contracts will be an asset to your organization.

Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

Did you enjoy this post?  If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog.  It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!).  SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!

These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 240,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.