• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

THE LAWYERS WEEKLY D ECEMBER 7, 2012 • 21 Business & Careers Get strategic when growing your network From small talk, conversations can come big things hope to gain from today?,” “What brings you to this event?,” “What other events do you attend and why?,” and “What other organiza- tions do you belong to and why?” Not only will you be gathering Gary Mitchell general information about the market, you will begin to get a bet- The Coach ter understanding of who they are, and what are some of their trust you read the first part of challenges. The approach will I this column in the Nov. 9 issue. alleviate the pain most lawyers If you didn’t, you would be well feel with engaging in small talk. advised to go back and look for it. You will initiate real and genuine So you have done your research conversations. Questions to learn and you know where to find your more about them include: “What target audience. This column will has been your biggest challenge serve you in becoming more stra- this past year?,” “In working with tegic in your approach to network- law firms, what have you valued ing, and then becoming disci- the most?,” and “What have you plined with your follow-up. valued the least?” When you take Remember TSD: targeted, stra- this approach you are demon- tegic and disciplined. strating a real and genuine inter- est in them. Networking Using your “Story”: This is often RONTech2000 / ISTOCKPhoto.COM referred to as your “elevator speech,” Before: Ask the organizers for a although I prefer the story term. list of attendees. Identify those on LinkedIn. Try to set up coffee way he knew a little something While networking, get started Craft a message that tells the firm’s specific people you would like to meetings or other (depending on about them and also what they by asking questions to get the story as well as your own. This is meet. See if you know anyone nature and timetable of event). looked like. The more you can do conversation going. This is also a where you can include feedback who knows them who could make One client used his BlackBerry to to prepare and become strategic further opportunity to continue from your clients that support the an introduction, your current cli- e-mail himself the profiles of the in your approach, the better with your target market research. firm’s key messages. Don’t be afraid ents and contacts, partners and people he wanted to meet. That results you will achieve. Ask questions like: “What do you Growth, Page 22 Message: Writing skills seen as being weaker in younger lawyers Continued from page 20 with clients. In any case, any- need you to produce, we need you The do-not list thing he has written for the firm to wear a different hat.’ ” has been proofread at least once. Simon Chester, a partner in the However, he concedes it’s pos- litigation and business law Five corporate communication mistakes employees should avoid at all costs, courtesy of Joel Postman, sible that younger lawyers do not groups at Toronto firm Heenan principal of Socialized PR: write as well as lawyers did in Blaikie, says that there is a built- the past. in editing system at his firm. 1. Misguided humour embarrass the company and possibly result in loss of “What you might see in their With lawyers often working in “It’s okay to be human, but so much humour skirts or business to the company and termination of the formal writing is that they do not teams, there is the opportunity to directly confronts controversial and offensive areas, like employee or agency.” have the vocabulary or the dic- have work read critically by col- gender, religion and politics,” Postman observes “Many tion of, say, a lawyer 25 years ago, leagues, which helps improve the recent social media gaffes are the result of humour 4. You are the firm because there may be less occa- quality of work. gone awry.” “Whether using a corporate social media identity or a sion to use those words today.” He says the firm will also send personal one, people sometimes forget they are identi- South of the border, Bryan Gar- staff to courses or seminars on 2. Getting too personal fied with, and seen to represent, a company,” Postman ner, the president of LawProse effective legal writing, and artic- “One of the biggest advantages of social media communica- says. “We are in the ‘always on’ era and everything a cor- Inc., says that when he is teach- ling students and interns attend a tions is the human element. People really like the idea that porate communications professional says, writes, blogs, ing at a seminar, he is often asked series of continuing education they can talk to ‘a real person’ through social media chan- tweets or posts to Facebook, can be seen as representa- by more senior lawyers to specif- programs run by both lawyers nels. Keep in mind, though, your first responsibility is the tive of the company.” ically mention that the firm has a within the firm and external writ- company. You can talk about the Super Bowl, or the coming policy against using text-speak in ing consultants. weekend, or the weather, but keep references to alcohol or 5. It’s out there. Forever written communications. Chester, chair of the ABA Law wild parties out of your communications when you are repre- “Everything you post online can be instantly seen by, “People with a weak grasp of Practice Management Section’s senting the company. commented on and passed on to millions of people. grammar or punctuation I think editorial advisory board, doesn’t Even if you delete it, it still lives on in archives, cache, see the new formats as a way to not agree that the issue of poorly 3. Ethical missteps screenshots and blog posts. Think very carefully before have to worry about their natural crafted arguments can be “Anonymous blog comments or slurs against com- posting anything remotely controversial or risky. You weakness,” Garner said. “They blamed entirely on the younger petitors, for example, will be discovered and will cannot take it back.” think people will just let it slide. generation or on the influence of “I assure you there are people social media. He says that jar- who will not let you slide,” said gon is the “bane of legal” prose whether that’s a judge or it’s a with the advent of social media. Heenan Blaikie in September, and the editor-in-chief of Black’s Law and argues that lawyers have client,” Chester said. “Historic- “It’s not necessarily something I was “extremely pleased with how Dictionary. “There is a profes- always struggled to explain ally, we’ve always had the chal- would lay on that generation.” well his prose fitted with mine.” sional cost to nonstandard usage.” themselves clearly. lenge of persuading lawyers to Chester recently co-authored an Del Gobbo had studied English “I find lawyers writing, gener- say it more clearly, to communi- article with Daniel Del Gobbo, and says he has never encoun- We want to hear from you! ally, to be problematic because it cate more effectively, and that who was called to the bar in July tered one of his peers adopting Send us your verdict: doesn’t serve the audience, challenge hasn’t really changed and started as an associate at text speak in communications [email protected] 22 • DECEMBER 7, 2012 THE LAWYERS WEEKLY Business & Careers Growth: Having a simple approach always works better Continued from page 21 always go that way. Perhaps your pline to do it. I use the term Nike you. You can keep in touch easily straight forward, that’s because it to get a little personal. Include conversations will veer more to a with my clients. When I say Nike, on LinkedIn, until such time as is. You have likely heard of the things that could be of common personal level, or vice-versa. The what comes to mind? Just do it. they become a decision maker. expression “Keep it simple stu- interest; family, travel, hobbies, idea here is to walk away with n When? 24-hour rule. Why That’s when you will have the pid,” or KISS. Well, I know for a etc. I refer to these as “touching some reason to follow up. wait? Follow up with them while potential to land the “big one.” fact that none of you are stupid, points.” They keep the conversa- The most basic goal is to meet you are still fresh in their mind. n What next? The idea here is to far from it. So how about this, tion flowing in a natural way. And new people that may have the n How? E-mail and LinkedIn. move the relationship forward. “Keep it simple, smarty pants.” they can become a point of connec- potential to hire you, find out as Send them a quick and SHORT Is there a pressing need you Until next time, I wish you tion you can refer to later in your much as you can that will provide e-mail after the event and refer- learned about? Why should they great success. follow-up. But in using this infor- you with an effective way to move ence something you learned about meet with you? What’s in it for mation, it’s not all delivered as a the relationship forward, (find a them while talking. This will show them? Is this a matter of simply Gary Mitchell is the author of ‘Rain- speech.

Load more

  2

Copy Link