Entries Tagged 'Skills' ↓

Legal Village, over at Legal Week, has a useful article on conference call etiquette. It includes one of my personal bugbears - punctuality!

It seems that there is an expectation that people will be late for conference calls and so the real time for the call is 5 or 10 minutes after the scheduled beginning.

But why continue with this fiction? If we all just turned up on time, then we wouldn’t have to spend the first 15 minutes calling around to see where everyone was…

In my opinion, it really shows a certain level of arrogance in those that arrive late - their work/meetings/calls etc are so important that they cannot possibly build in the time to be on time, unlike those that they expect to wait for them. Internal meetings are the worst, where a number of lawyers will be sat around waiting for some time before the protagonists arrive, wasting cumulative hours of chargeable time. Now, does that make good business sense for the firm?

Legal Village: Don’t you just love conference calls?

Is it time to dump powerpoint?  Many advanced presentation skills courses suggest that you should consider it, but many of us still use it in all our client-facing training.

I agree with this post - the problem isn’t powerpoint per se, but the way that it is used.  Your slides should not be your crib notes - as the post says, if your slides give the full picture without you being there, what’s the point of your presence?  Slides, if used, should be there to address the needs of the audience, not the speaker, and therefore should be a learning aid.

Presentation Zen

…or the fear of public speaking (no - I didn’t know that either. I found it here - http://www.phobialist.com/, and apparently it’s from the Greek glosso-, meaning tongue, and phobia, fear or dread.

Anyway, in a vain attempt to encourage more lawyers to give internal training in law firms, I’m pointing you towards an article which aims to help those who are scared of speaking in public - and the key tip is practice, practice, practice.

All joking aside, preparation really is the key to confident public speaking - not only do you have to practice the physical side of the presentation, but you need to be comfortable with the subject matter and the structure and timing of the presentation, otherwise you will falter.

There are plenty of courses available if you would like to hone your skills in this area - or alternatively, just get up and try!

How to get over your fear of public speaking - lifehack.org

Not of a legal nature, and please excuse the subtle hint, but this article gives some really useful tips on how to avoid being late. More importantly, it highlights the effect that being late has on the people around you - something that I think is important to recognise when everyone is so busy.

There are often just too much to do in any given day - the tips to be honest with yourself and to prioritise are key - but don’t keep this a secret - if you have decided a meeting isn’t worth your time, let the other attendees know so that they don’t waste theirs waiting for you…

5 Ways to stop being late [Brazen Careerist via lifehacker.com]