Essential Soft Skills for Lawyers

Every so often, a book is published which you know will become the ‘go-to’ text in its field.For lawyers, L&D and HR professionals, trainers and coaches, Kim has skilfully crafted a definitive guide to essential soft skills for lawyers. It contains a wealth of resources offering a research-based overview into the importance of soft skills. With real life practical examples from leading law firms, it is well referenced with a comprehensive list of sources. Easy to dip into for an understanding of different soft skills, or to broaden knowledge of a familiar topic.

• Acknowledgements 7I. Introduction 9II. What do we mean by ‘soft skills?’ 111. Technical legal and technology skills 112. Is it practical intelligence? 123. Is it commerciality? 124. Are they emotional or people skills? 125. Are they attributes? 14III. The importance of soft skills for lawyers 151. World Economic Forum’s Future of Work report 152. Management experts 163. Client perspective 174. Solicitors Regulation Authority 175. Legal sector commentators 186. Commercial and trusted advisers 207. T-shaped lawyers 248. O-shaped lawyers 259. The Delta Model 25IV. Emotional intelligence for lawyers 271. What is emotional intelligence? 281.1 Self-awareness and personality assessments 281.2 Self-management 301.3 Social awareness and empathy 311.4 Relationship management 321.5 Being politically astute 322. Client views on emotional intelligence in lawyers 343. The link between confidence and perfectionism 364. Stress, resilience and wellbeing 375. Decision making 406. High-performance environment 41V. Methods of developing lawyer soft skills 431. Approaches to training and development 441.1 Dedicated learning and development function 441.2 Training academies 481.3 External training suppliers 481.4 Self-managed learning 491.5 Best practice 521.6 On-the-job training 521.7 Case studies and scenario analysis 521.8 Peer learning 531.9 Secondments and shadowing 531.10 Part-time (voluntary) roles 531.11 Digital training and e-learning 541.12 Role models 581.13 Feedback 581.14 Coaching and mentoring 592. Law Society research 613. How to promote learning and different learning styles 623.1 Fear of change 623.2 Fixed and growth mind-set 633.3 Adaptive third 633.4 Change management 633.5 Learning theory and process 633.6 Learning styles 653.7 Reflection 663.8 Retention 663.9 Motivation to learn 684. Competency frameworks 685. Measuring the effectiveness of training 716. Awards for soft skills development 73VI. The range of soft skills required by lawyers 751. Essential soft skills for lawyers 752. Lawyer qualities and attributes 78VII. Five essential soft skills for lawyers 811. Personal skills 811.1 Goal setting 811.2 Making an impact, messaging and personal brand 871.3 Creativity 892. Communication skills 932.1 Non-verbal communication 952.2 Active listening 982.3 Storytelling 1023. Building relationships 1053.1 A model of business relationships 1063.2 Understanding different types of relationships and how they are formed 1073.3 Creating rapport and trust 1123.4 Navigating difference and conflict 1224. Leadership – managing a team 1264.1 Delegation 1284.2 Coaching 1334.3 Feedback 1405. Business development – marketing, selling and referrer management 1445.1 What is business development? 1455.2 Networking 1485.3 Presenting and performing 1535.4 Selling 155VIII. Soft skills in other professions 1591. Solicitors Regulation Authority 1591.1 Core competencies 1591.2 Professional Skills Course 1601.3 Practice Skills Standards 1602. Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales 1603. Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors 162IX. Concluding observations 165X. Signposts to other learning resources 1711. Recommended books 1722. Training organisations 178Appendix I. Illustrative competency dictionary and framework 179Appendix II. Example RICS mandatory competency – communications and negotiation 181Notes 183About the author 189About Globe Law and Business 191