Every Profession Struggles with Delivering Readable Content

When it comes to writing documents that everyone can understand and use, it turns out that lawyers aren’t the only ones challenged. It’s a problem plaguing financial professionals, too, say Steve Lipin and Adam Rosman in A Plea for Plain English in Financial Documents:

“As insiders, we need to stop writing solely for lawyers and professional investors (many of whom do not understand this stuff, either) and start writing so that anyone with an interest in the topic will understand the news or information.”

Read the post, and the five-point “cheat sheet” Lipin and Rosman put together for drafting news releases and publicly filed documents. Because they'll help you become a better writer. More importantly, they'll help you become the writer that those in a position to hire you will read.

Communication Without Listening Falls Short

It’s easy to forget that listening is precisely what makes communication possible, writes Eric Fletcher in This Is Where Communication Begins. Because we want most of all to be heard, to deliver our message. That’s not communicating, though. That’s delivering a message, and then mistaking the delivery itself for communication. But it's listening that leads to connections and understanding:

“It is a counter-intuitive discipline that works exactly opposite of our practice. As opposed to being worried about what we should say, listening actually informs and gives shape to messaging that connects.”

Read the post. Stop talking. Start listening. And then you can begin to truly communicate.

Active Listening Is More Than Just Paying Attention...

With an ever-increasing number of communications channels – like email and voice mail and texts for starters – the importance of listening has never been more, well, important, writes Kevin McMurdo in From Sponge to Trampoline: Putting the “Active” in Active Listening. Because in spite of the technology, success in the legal profession continues to be built on personal relationships, which in turn are able to flourish when lawyers demonstrate active listening habits:

“Active listening, we agreed, meant (1) paying attention to the visual aspects of listening such as body language, facial expression and tone of voice, (2) listening with intent and (3) repeating what we heard for clarity and understanding.”

But there’s more to it than that, of course. Read the post for an overview of what McMurdo – and the heads of a leadership development consultancy who analyzed the listening behaviors and characteristics of more than 3,400 people – think are the essential traits of a an active listener. Then start doing it.

Getting to the Point: You've Got 30 Seconds. Go.

Ron Ashkenas’ “In Presentations, Learn to Say Less” from his blog on the Harvard Blog Network. What would you do if you had to compress 30 minutes of message into 30 seconds? If every word that came out of your mouth – not every paragraph, not every sentence, but every single word – had to articulate your point? Transmit your material? Tell your story, make your argument, communicate, convince, and change your listener? Could you turn, as Ashkenas writes, “a ‘presentation’ into a ‘tweet’”?

Getting to the point isn’t innate. It’s nurture, not nature, a skill that can be learned and practiced and mastered. That’s where Ashkenas’ post comes in. His steps for refining your message and improving your delivery will start you off right. You’ll need to add time and discipline and hard work. But in the end, it will be worth it. You'll see it in the faces of your audience.

Client Communication: Sometimes It’s Not Just About You

Mark Britton’s “Keeping Clients Through Communication” on the Lawyernomics blog. Britton’s post is based on a premise that you probably already know: the foundation of client service is communication. Meaningful communication, regular communication, open communication. But there’s more to it than picking up the phone to chat about the weather… Communication on its own isn’t worth much when it doesn’t tell your client everything they need to know. Like when you don’t have the expertise they need to solve a particular problem. Or when it would make more sense to bring in someone with more experience. Or even that you represent other clients that occasionally need your attention too.

Good communication is more than a good idea. That much you know. But unless you’re telling your client what they need to hear, the conversation might end sooner than you would like. Britton’s post can help you make sure it doesn’t.

Better communication? It's as easy as 1, 2, 3 (and 4, 5, 6)

Kevin Allen's "Preparing for a job interview? Read these 6 tips first" in Ragan's PR Daily. The title for this post is a bit misleading, because Allen's advice applies to far more than job interviews. He's really writing about communication. Of all shapes and sizes. So it's relevant not only to job seekers, but to everyone who has to sell themselves and their work, in job interviews and client pitches and sales calls and even at the cocktail reception. Allen reminds us that communicating well takes forethought, organization, and self-evaluation, and his post will help you with all three.

Not getting the answers you want? Maybe you're asking the wrong questions.

Martin Baker's "A Manager’s Primer on Asking Better Questions" on his blog Creativity Central. Want to know what your clients are thinking, what they are worried about, how they measure success and failure and essential client service? Ask them. But don't be surprised if your questions don't elicit the responses you want. Not because your clients aren't telling the truth, or aren't giving complete answers, or perhaps aren't being honest with themselves about a question they really don't want to answer. (That's what people often think when they don't get the answers they expect.) Sometimes it's more simple. Because you need to ask the right questions if you want meaningful answers. Baker's post will help. Read it, and see if you can get the answers you need by modifying the questions you ask.

Hat tip to Matt Homann for pointing me to this post, on his blog the [non]billable hour.

Leaving your future to chance is never a good strategy.

Thom Singer's "Telling, Gelling, and Selling: Three Tips To More Business" on his blog Some Assembly Required. Communication, connecting, and closing. They're not just for people in sales. Singer's tips on telling a story, on creating meaningful relationships, on moving the conversation from "this is what I do" to "I'm excited to be working with you" will also resonate with those for whom selling is just a means to an end. Like lawyers (and everybody else). Don't leave your future to chance. Read the post. Think about how you get business, and how you might use this advice to get more. Then get out and do it.

Stop selling yourself short. Own your achievements.

J. Kelly Hoey's "I Am….Narrate Your Career Story" on Kelly's Blog. I've said it before: lawyers should tell stories more often. Stories that convey their passions, their successes, their personalities. Stories that contextualize their work, their experience, their expertise. But most of all, stories that give clients and potential clients a reason to like them, to want to connect with them, to want to hire them. Marketing isn't just about facts and figures, numbers of deals, cases won, dollars recovered. It's mostly about people, and articulating what you do in a way that causes others to sit up and listen. Hoey's post challenges you to turn your bio into a "career story," to inject some personality, to own your achievements. Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?

Sending an email? It's probably too long already.

Leo Babauta's "Your Emails Are Too Long" on the zenhabits blog. It all starts with communication, doesn't it? And it all ends with communication, too. So the next time you're writing an email, focus less on enumerating everything you have to say and more on what the recipient has to read. Be concise. Have a point. Get to it quickly. Use no more than five sentences. Ask no more than one question. Don't make your recipient work too hard, because she probably won't. It's your email, after all: isn't it only fair that you do the work? Read this post, then start cutting. Your clients and colleagues and friends and family will appreciate it.

"Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n'ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte"
                          - Blaise Pascal, Lettres provinciales

Sorry, Edison: for lawyers, it's 99% preparation.

Janet Ellen Raasch's "How to 'pitch' your legal services: The preparation factor" on her blog Constant Content. Winning new work isn't always about being cheaper or being in more cities or having a bigger team. Most of the time, winning comes from just being prepared, from knowing what the client needs, from knowing what your own firm can do, from articulating -- in terms the client understands -- how you can help them achieve their business objectives. This post (and parts one and two in the same series) provide good, practical, advice on doing just that.

There's no built-in GPS for clients.

"Give Your Clients a Roadmap" from David Bilinsky and Laura Calloway on Slaw.ca's SlawTips. For most non-lawyers, the law is uncharted territory. It's typically confusing, occasionally frightening and more often than not simply unknowable. So why not make it better? Why not give your clients a roadmap at the start of your representation? Tell them what needs to be done, when you are going to do it, and what they can expect as a result. Because good client service is all about good communication, and this is a great place to start.

How am I doing up here?

Whitney Johnson's "The Essence of a Great Presentation" on her blog at Harvard Business Review. Worried about nailing your next presentation? About showing the potential client how smart you are, how well you can do their work, how perfect you are for the job? Then read this post. Great presentations are not about perfection, they're about communication. They're not about you, but about your audience and how well you connect with them. Read this before you sit down to write.

Do as you say. Really

Patrick McKenna's "Signal What You Value as a Leader" at Slaw.ca. This post was written especially for new managing partners and practice heads, but it applies to everyone. You are what you do, and analyzing your actions, where you spend your time, what your activity signals to your colleagues and clients is always a useful exercise. Modifying those actions so that they align with your real objectives - and communicate your real priorities - is even better. Read this and get started.

Clients have expectations. Know what yours are?

Cordell Parvin's "How to Meet or Exceed Your Client's Expectations" on his Law Consulting Blog. What's the easiest way to fail to meet your clients' expectations? Not knowing what those expectations are. Talk to your clients before you start to work. Come to agreement on what they need, when they need it, how much it will cost, how they want to be updated, etc. Good communication leads to greater satisfaction. This post will get you started.

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Holden Oliver's "Rule 5: Bombarding the client in real time" from What About Clients? Over-communicating is rarely a bad thing, especially when you're being paid for the work you do on someone else's behalf. Not the "man, I had to work so hard for you today, stayed up all night" variety, but the kind that sounds like "this is what I did today, who I talked to, what I wrote. And here's your copy." If your client doesn't know you did it, you didn't. Make sense? It makes even more when Oliver says it. Read this post.

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Erin Casey's "1-on-1: How to Communicate More Effectively" in Success Magazine. Effective communication is hard. There are no shortcuts. The great communicators, the ones we admire, who engage and amuse us, who make it look so easy, work tremendously hard at crafting and delivering a message that will move you and motivate you to act. This post, an interview with speaker and trainer Terri Sjodin, will has some good advice on how to articulate a message that will be heard.

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Robert Algeri's "2011: The year that content marketing becomes king" from The Great Jakes Blog. Think merely being online and engaged is enough? Think again. Unless you have good content, the kind that clients read, that they print out and share with their colleagues, that they turn to when they need solutions, they're not going to your website, Twitter feed or Facebook page. This post tells you why.

While you're at it, check out Algeri's companion piece, "2011 – The year that law firm websites become 'publishing platforms'" for more good ideas re content marketing.

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Mark Herrmann's "Inside Straight: Business Development (Part 2)" from Above the Law. In this second installment of what we hope will be an ongoing BigLaw-lawyer-gone-in-house biz dev advice series, Herrrmann addresses every lawyer's favorite marketing tool: the brochure. His take? "...I now typically delete them unread." But there's more to this post than poking fun at law firm brochures. See for yourself.

Today's law marketing resource was selected from the nominees to the 2010 ABA Journal Blawg 100. Go here to register and vote (and vote for 22 Tweets).

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Vivia Chen's "Resume Tips for Oldies (That's You--Baby Boomers)" from her lawjobs.com blog The Careerist. Good solid advice for everyone, not just boomers, because the underlying message drives to the heart of client relationships and service: don't assume that the way you think things should be done is the best smartest most logical only way to do them. Most of the time the view from the other person's shoes is more relevant than your own. The message received is the message.

Today's law marketing resource was selected from the nominees to the 2010 ABA Journal Blawg 100. Go here to register and vote (and vote for 22 Tweets).