legal sanity

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I’ve written about the ways lawyers can benefit from engaging in reflective practice and boosting our listening skills. I’ve been a student and practitioner of active listening for much of my legal career and I’ve found it pivotal to connecting with people and building authentic, rewarding and lasting business relationships. Ron McDaniel of Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing (flagged by blogger Dave Lorenzo) echoes my belief and experience in a recent post captioned Your next conversation: 6 Things that will make it different. Ron challenges us to make the following “minor changes” the next time we converse with someone we know:

1) Listen 50% more
2) Ask twice as many questions
3) Hold eye contact 50% more
4) Make slight contact, or hold contact slightly longer
5) Show sincere sympathy or enthusiasm for something they say
6) Ask them if there is anything you could help out with

These are practical and sound active listening tips that we all can follow. But I would recommend that lawyers take the challenge even further and employ Ron’s advice each and every time we converse with current or prospective clients. Since most of his tips - like many aspects of active listening - are readily adaptable to different modes of conversation, it doesn’t matter if we’re connecting in-person or by e-mail, blackberry or telephone.