Suits

I try to avoid wearing a business suit for work - I am more comfortable in sports jacket and trousers, and I think clients and potential clients are more comfortable not dealing with "a suit"

Last week, however, I had to wear a suit on three of the five weeekdays - once for a funeral, once for a meeting at another solicitor's office and once to attend an auction on behalf of a client.

On each occasion, there was no doubt that a suit was appropriate, but it set me to wondering why: where is the distinction between the occasions when it is appropriate to dress down and when it is not? I don't think it is a case of wearing a suit on outside appointments and dressing down when on home territory - though that is a part of the reasoning, I think

The funeral, I think, is obvious - it is a mark of respect and, to an extent, evidence of solemnity

The other occasions are similar - demonstrating, to the client as much as to anyone, that I was treating his business with respect and seriously. As I was representing the client on each occasion, respect and seriousness were both appropriate

This is not to say that, when I am in my own office, dressing down is an indication of a lack of respect or seriousness, but I suppose it is true that, on my own territory, I can set the rules more (I would not dream of trying to do so on "foreign" territory), and I choose to have a deliberately less formal or stuffy attitude - I think it helps remove some of the barriers between solicitor and client and enables the client to accept that we are on the same team.

Otherwise, I feel there is a real danger of a client treating his or her own solicitor as part of the problem - another "suit" - rather than as a friendly expert who is on their side

"Approachability" is an important quality for most professionals, and one I try to display

"Risk" by Dan Gardner

A good analysis of how we, as a society, perceive risk, and how we should perceive it and deal with it. We worry amount relatively small risks, but become blase about much bigger ones, due to various biases - the Von Rorkoff effect, optimism bias, hindsight bias, etc - and errors of logic.

Our initial reaction to a given situation is based on gut instinct - our hard-wiring; if (and it is a big "if") our logical mind then kicks in to modify our reaction, it is normally only partially successful, with the result that most reactions are gut-based rather than logic-based

A genuinely absorbing read - I read it at one sitting - and full of ideas to mull over

Is Twitter useless?

According to Larry Bodine, who should know whereof he speaks, Twitter is "not effective for law firm marketing" and in fact can do positive harm

While his analysis seems sound, I don't use Twitter for marketing, but for fun and, as I read his article, it emphasised how I do not use Twitter as is apparently expected:

1: I do not seek to follow a large number of people - I started using Twitter as a way of keeping in touch with my children while they were abroad, and have added people that I find interesting for one reason or another. I see no point in following people who do not have similar interests, etc, unless they are inherently interesting

2: I do not seek a large number of followers: I'm not trying to change the world or people's opinions - that said, I do use Twitter to "announce" new blog posts, such as this one, so maybe I'm not being entirely honest with myself!

3: I tend to follow local people, rather than far-flung Tweeters - I enjoy collecting (and distributing) local information - or people I know of in another context. It seems that many of those who follow me (for a while) have no particular reason to, but perhaps they are just trying me out (and finding me wanting, no doubt!)

It seems that Twitter has a "miserable" retention rate of 40% - for a networking tool that is tightly limited by its very nature, I'd say that's a pretty good retention rate. And, as Bodine himself admits, Twitter "is just a blip on the radar right now" - it may have staying power or it may not, but if it does I hope it will be as a social tool, not as a marketing one

Giving up on the property dream

According to the Observer's Business swction, 'Young people [are] giving up on the property dream': only a third of 18-24-year-olds think owning a home is right for them'

Good! Home owning has become such a no-brainer that it has encouraged the sharks and the ahysters to predate on the house buying process, while treating the house renting service as unworthy of attention. Perhaps bothe will get their proper share of attention now, with better results for society as a whole

The Apprentice - spoofed

#Apprentice: See the video (sound needed - 6 minutes long) at http://preview.tinyurl.com/ob364k - it's brilliant!