As a follow up to my post on listening on Monday, I remembered that I had done another post about listening last year, and thought it might be useful to run it again in case you missed it. So, in addition to the the International Listening Association that Jim Hassett told us about, here is my encore presentation with other resources.

What Did You Say? How Are Your Listening Skills?

Listening is a critical skill needed for effective legal marketing, not to mention for meaningful communications for any reason with anyone you encounter in life. But as to law firm marketing, it is vital to understand the wants and needs of clients and prospective clients, if one hopes to provide effective legal counsel. One can’t do that well without listening well.

Not being one of the world’s great listeners, and too often asking others “what did you say?”, I recently dug out of my garage (literally) a four cassette tape set on “Listening Powerfully” by Brian Battles (click here for the only place I could currently find the tapes) that I hadn’t listened to in years. Using a free trial version of Media Digitizer by Digitope, I converted the tapes to both CDs and to my iPod, and have been listening while driving around the last couple of days. It is well worth getting the set.

And thanks to a Monday post on the importance of listening by Patrick Lamb at In Search of Perfect Client Service, I have discovered a blog (part of Hill & Knowlton’s professional blogging community) called Client Service Insights, and a post by Leo Bottary on the issue of listening.

Leo’s advice on “arguably the most valuable skill you can develop”:

  • Concentrate on listening,
  • Don’t be thinking about what you will say next ….or being doing later,
  • REALLY listen to what the other person is saying, and
  • It is a skill that needs to be worked on and improved upon ceaselessly.

Further, he lists and links to several resources for developing listening skills. Take a look.