Category «Communication Skills»

When Should Presenters Apologize?

Referencing decades of experience as a presenter and an attendee at presentations, Jerry Lawson cautions us not to begin a presentation with an apology, which can be compelled by a tech glitch or some other reason not within our control. Lawson states that the habit of beginning with an apology is so old that it has a name in Medieval rhetoric, the captatio benevolentiae, meaning an attempt to capture the audience’s goodwill. Most importantly, It doesn’t work. Lawson highlights a range of scenarios for which an apology or no apology, are appropriate. His lesson applies to far more than presentations, as these reactions are common in a work environment where they may indeed not serve your objectives.

Read more

Subjects: Communication Skills, Continuing Legal Education, Education, Presentation Skills

2024 Link Guide to Employment Resources

This employment resources guide by Marcus P. Zillman spans multiple sectors, sources in the private and public sectors, on-site and remote work, job search engines, resume building resources, identifying job titles and respective skill requirements, and is inclusive of a focus on new job seekers and those with years of experience. Some of the sources such as LinkedIn will be familiar, but many will be new to you and will add capabilities to your efforts to develop and execute a successful job search process.

Read more

Subjects: Communication Skills, Economy, Education, Job Hunting

Slide Show Formatting Basics

Legal tech expert and frequent speaker Jerry Lawson affirms that the best substantive presentation material looks even better if packaged well. Formatting slide shows is an art. Compliance with some basic slide show formatting principles won’t make you Monet, but will put you on the road to being a passable PowerPoint artist. Lawson shares his presentation tips and techniques.

Read more

Subjects: Communication Skills, Legal Marketing, Legal Profession, Presentation Skills

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, July 6, 2024

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Eight highlights from this week: US car dealerships are recovering from massive cyberattack: 3 things you should know; Deepfake attacks will cost $40 billion by 2027; FTC – Who’s who in scams: a spring roundup; Cloudflare is taking a stand against AI website scrapers; Microsoft tells more customers their emails have been stolen; Tips to Make Facebook and Instagram Fun Again; and How to Stop ChatGPT Training On Your Data.

Read more

Subjects: AI, Communication Skills, Cybersecurity, Economy, Email Security, Financial System, Healthcare, Privacy, Social Media, Travel

Publishing for Profit: Selecting the Best Publisher

Jerry Lawson offers his expert advise on how lawyers (and other ambitious people) can profit by publishing. One method is to begin by focusing on your desired result. What are the best publishers for you and your work product? Lawson offers a couple of ways to identify the potential publishers likely to provide the most benefit.

Read more

Subjects: AI, Book Reviews, Communication Skills, KM, Search Engines, Social Media

The 2024 ‘Burning Issues’ Confronting Firm Leaders

At the end of December 2023, Patrick J, Mckeena and Michael B. Rynowecer presented 200 Firm Leaders with a selection of over 40 timely and potential ‘Burning Issues’ – and asked of them “what do you anticipate as the highest priorities occupying your leadership agenda going into the new year?” The team received responses representing firms from 200 to over 2000 lawyers in size. This paper distinguishes the challenging issues for firms in 2024.

Read more

Subjects: AI, Communication Skills, Leadership, Legal Marketing, Legal Profession, Management

The Motivation of Manipulating Data and Information to a Desired Outcome

Some recent headlines have reported disturbing news about respected and respectable scholars falsifying or just ignoring data conclusions in scholarly papers. This is another example of the skepticism many of us have with the shifts in misinformation flooding our inboxes and newsfeeds, compelling each of us to exercise our critical thinking skills. And the examples we’re referring to aren’t even results of AI. It is human error, strong bias at play, or manipulative intention for one purpose or another. This leads us to another topic in our continuing explorations of human motivation. Why do we lie? Why do we cheat? Kevin Novak takes a deeper dive on this discussion about the issues and the people and actions that have been in the news recently.

Read more

Subjects: Business Research, Communication Skills, Competitive Intelligence, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, KM, Leadership, Social Media

How book-banning campaigns have changed the lives and education of librarians

Nicole A. Cooke, Augusta Baker Endowed Chair and a Professor at the School of Library and Information Science, at the University of South Carolina, identifies the significant and socially charged work of librarians who are defending the rights of readers and writers in the battles raging across the U.S. over censorship, book challenges and book bans. Cooke states, “as long as there have been book challenges, there have been those who defend intellectual freedom and the right to read freely. Librarians and library workers have long been crucial players in the defense of books and ideas. At the 2023 annual American Library Association Conference, scholar Ibram X. Kendi praised library professionals and reminded them that “if you’re fighting book bans, if you’re fighting against censorship, then you are a freedom fighter.”

Read more

Subjects: Communication Skills, Education, Free Speech, KM, Legal Research, Librarian Resources, Libraries & Librarians

Brevity is the Soul of Profit: What Lawyers Need to Know About Executive Summaries

Elizabeth Southerland writes that Jerry Lawson’s essay Plain English for Lawyers: The Way to a C-Level Executive’s Heart has some good ideas about the best ways to communicate with senior executives. However, there is a key imperative that is not addressed: The purpose of an executive summary is to boil this down to a few sentences that tell the leader what they want to know.

Read more

Subjects: Communication Skills, Communications, KM, Leadership, Legal Profession, Management
➤