Effective Communication

Effective communication is key to success as a people leader and also underpins all interactions with legal clients.

“Lawyers are often good talkers – but that’s not the same as being an effective communicator. Improving your communication skills will maximise your impact and effectiveness!”?Therese Linton

Effective communication skills are essential to the practice of law. Lawyers spend a significant proportion of each day communicating with clients, colleagues, team members, opponents, and the courts. Effective communication skills reduce misunderstandings; increase effectiveness; remove inefficiencies; and underpin success.

There are many methods by which information can be exchanged, some of these are deliberate and others may be unconscious, including –

• written form – physical or electronic
• spoken – face to face
• remote, real-time, or recorded
• formal or informal – controlled artefacts versus uncontrolled media such as social media, text messages, etc
• physical expression – gestures, body language, tone of voice, facial expressions
• media – written, spoken, diagrams, etc
• written expression – language, style, choice of words, and meaning.

Effective communication is the transferring and understanding of meaning. It is NOT waiting for someone to finish talking so you can make your contribution!

Communication skills

The following communication skills will improve your people leadership skills –

1. listen actively and effectively
2. question to ensure better understanding
3. educate to increase team knowledge and effectiveness
4. fact-find to identify and confirm information
5. set and manage expectations
6. delegate effectively
7. persuade someone to perform a desired action
8. motivate to provide encouragement or reassurance
9. coach to improve performance and achieve desired results
10. negotiate to achieve mutually acceptable agreements
11. resolve conflict to prevent disruption
12. summarise, recap, and agree on the next steps

Active Listening for successful communication

Carl Rogers and Richard Farson coined the term "active listening" in 1957 in a paper of the same title (reprinted in 1987 in the volume Communicating in Business Today). It is the practice of listening attentively by observing the verbal and non-verbal messages and providing confirmation of understanding.

Here are the basics -

1. Focus fully on the speaker – includes the actual words as well as non-verbal indicators, such as tone of voice and body language. If you are thinking of other tasks or distracted by doing emails or responding to text messages, then you may miss something vital to your understanding of the message or situation.
2. Take notes – these assist with the understanding and recall of key messages as it provides an alternative cognitive channel. It also conveys a sense of interest in what is being said.
3. Test your understanding – this can be applied in both directions. You can test that you have correctly understood a message and check that someone you are communicating with has correctly understood your message. It involves analysing the messages and repeating them using words that are like those used by the speaker, or by paraphrasing (converting the message into your own words).
4. Avoid interrupting or redirecting the conversation – you cannot concentrate on what someone is saying if you’re forming what you’re going to say next. Often, the speaker can read your facial expressions and know that you are not paying attention.
5. Neutralise emotions – in particular, avoid seeming judgmental by adopting a positive or neutral attitude and body posture. To communicate effectively with someone, you don’t have to like them or agree with their ideas, values, or opinions. However, it is helpful to set aside judgment to create rapport and to fully understand a message.
6. Show interest – gestures and small verbal comments can be very powerful in conveying interest and attention without interrupting, such as nodding and smiling, as well as ‘yes’ or ‘uh huh’.
7. Recap and summarise – do this at the end of a conversation to ensure you have correctly understood the key messages and assigned actions. This technique also improves the action orientation of communication by reinforcing agreements and next steps.
8. Listening with questions in mind – the following questions can be used to assist with the extraction of more interest and meaning out of presentations or verbal communication -What is the speaker saying? What does it mean??What point are they trying to make??????How does it relate to previous messages??How can I use the information??Does it make sense??Am I getting the whole story??What emotions are they experiencing??What outcomes are they trying to achieve?

Non-verbal communication

When people communicate about things that are important to them, much of the meaning is conveyed in the non-verbal signals that accompany the message. Non-verbal communication is wordless communication and includes concepts such as –

• body language – posture, body movement, body position, muscle tension, breathing, and heart rate
• facial language – eye contact, facial colour, expressions (smiling, frowning, etc.)
• emotional language – feelings about the interaction, the person doing the communication, and the topic
• vocal language – this is not the actual words that are being used but rather the pitch, tone, speed, complexity, and meaning behind the words that have been chosen.

In a famous and often misunderstood study conducted in 1967, Mehrabian and Ferris found that the likeability of a presenter was determined by the following factors – 7 per cent content, 38 per cent vocal, and 55 per cent non-verbal (Mehrabian & Ferris, 1967). The study related to likeability and rapport creation rather than the actual conveyance of correct understanding.

Developing the ability to understand and use non-verbal communication can help you to connect with others, convey accurate messages and build better relationships. This is particularly important when developing team-based relationships and managing the expectations of clients.

Find out more…

Just for fun and because only last week I had to give my intellectual property lawyers feedback on the indecipherability of their legal advice. Here are the Ten Rules of Plain Language by former Australian High Court Justice Michael Kirby from the Plain Language Conference Sydney in October 2009.

And because I’m a passionate advocate for Plain English and plain legal language, here is a useful official site provided by the US Government What is plain language? and a great resource from the Canadian Bar Association - Plain Language Legal Writing: Part I – Writing as a Process

Plain legal language will definitely improve client communication and the accessibility of legal advice.

My aim is to inspire you to transform your working life and achieve great things.