No I don’t mean your sensitive side; I’m talking about “soft skills” --those relationship-building and communication skills that turn a good attorney into a great attorney. These skills are the key to a successful law career. Bernard Marr, in his article, The 7 Ultimate Soft Skills of Truly Successful People, lists the following soft skills that will lead to career success: emotional intelligence, communication skills, decision-making skills, integrity, drive, focus and balance.
Do attorneys need all 7? Maybe not, but it is worth evaluating your strengths in these areas and improving where you can. Here’s why:
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Lawyers need more than just great legal writing or impressive litigation skills to succeed in today’s legal marketplace. Great legal skills are the bare minimum that lawyers should be delivering says Marni Becker-Avin in Developing Lawyers' "Soft Skills"—A Challenge for the New Era in Legal Services. But clients also demand good communication and customer service. The days of a lawyer saying, “I’m not here to hold your hand” are over.
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Even law schools are recognizing the need for soft skills in the profession. The University of Chicago Law School offers its students The Keystone Professionalism and Leadership Program, which teaches interpersonal communication, practical skills, career management, and leadership skills. In her article The Big Impact of "Soft Skills", Meredith Heagney reports that one of the exercises in the Keystone program is for students to participate in a mock cocktail reception where they practice networking and moving in and out of conversations gracefully. The students then receive feedback and repeat the exercise.
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Law firm business consultants recommend lawyers develop soft skills. Feeley & Driscoll, PC, a business consulting firm, explains in a post on its site why a lawyer’s emotional intelligence, is an important measure of the potential future success of that lawyer. In part, the post states that lawyers with social awareness “are better able to recognize when others are emotionally uneasy—such as a nervous client, an emotionally charged colleague or a difficult judge-and are better equipped to respond.” Possessing these and other soft skills means better performance.
How can you improve your soft skills? Interestingly enough, mediation training is a great way to do this. ICLE recognized this long ago when it first began offering its own 40 Hour Mediation Training. It “provides the perfect roadmap to becoming a more effective, [] client-centered, advocate” says Kathleen A. Bryan in her article Use Mediation Training to Be a Client-Centered Lawyer From the Experts (Corporate Counsel). Mediation trainers focus on communication, problem solving, reading emotions and decision-making skills, possibly making mediation training, “the single best investment a lawyer can make in improving their legal practice.” Try it and see!