legal sanity

Over the years, when considering how law firms can fix their client service problems, I’ve looked to different sources of ideas and inspiration. I’ve tracked the movement to educate medical doctors on treating the patient as a whole  – body, mind and spirit. I’ve also looked to the marketing world to gauge the latest thoughts on creating client evangelists (pdf) and avoiding negative word-of-mouth.

One often-cited key to building successful and enduring client relationships is authenticity – the desire and ability to lay down our shield, open up and let our clients get to know who we are, what’s important to us and where we stand.

Steve Pavlina offers a great post on authentic communication. In it, he points to John Kinde’s commentary on the power of authenticity. Kinde, in turn, forms his message around inspiring footage of the late Fred Rogers speaking at a 1969 senate hearing about funding for the newly formed Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Click here to watch the clip. As Kinde points out, what’s remarkable about this interaction is how Mr. Rogers’ authenticity affects the hard-nosed politician he’s addressing. It’s moving and, yes, instructive, to see a person who's so genuine and crystal clear in sharing why he’s here and what he stands for.