Every Relationship Matters: Using the Power of Relationships to Transform Your Business, Your Firm, and Yourself

by Peter E. Rouse

Overview

Learn how to harness the power of relationships—with yourself, clients, and colleagues—to help you define and achieve professional and personal success. In this updated second edition, author Peter Rouse provides a framework to guide you in instituting reflection and change in your life in order to build and maintain relationships. Although the author uses lawyers and law firms as examples, anyone interested in utilizing relationships with clients and colleagues to improve their business or themselves will benefit from this book. Topics include:
·Identify your firm's true values and discover what qualities are needed to develop them further
·Learn to value and appreciate clients as a means for positive change
·Discover how to handle responsibility and blame in a client-focused perspective
·Change your self-perception and improve your perception of the world
·Learn how your workspace can effect client-perception
·Recognize and embrace change as an opportunity for growth within the firm
·Understand important skills of self-management and learn to listen to physical signals
·Learn simple behavioral techniques to build trust and lasting relationships
·Promote the conditions within your firm that will allow relationship building to flourish

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781627224604
Publisher:	American Bar Association
Publication date:	05/01/2017
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	5.94(w) x 9.01(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Peter Rouse began his career in the Law in 1978 as a clerk working for a small 3 partner firm in Henley-on-Thames, England. In 1979 he became an Articled Clerk to a Mr Nicholas Blandy of the firm of Blandy & Blandy (founded in 1733) in the nearby market town of Reading, moving to London and the City firms of Lovells in 1983. It was at Lovells that Peter was introduced to the world of Intellectual Property that was to become the focus of his legal career, one that took him to Asia with Baker & McKenzie and eventually to a leading international role as a specialist in anti-counterfeiting at the head of his own firm, Rouse & Co International. Alongside his passion for practice Peter was always fascinated by the human and business dynamics of the very different firms he worked in. Once told that the only firm he would be happy in would be his own, Peter decided to begin his own firm in 1990 and went on to experience first hand the business and personal challenges of running a modern legal professional business on an international scale. In the event, happiness proved more elusive than material success and after 10 years Peter left his firm embarking on a period rich in personal discovery and reflection from which this book has emerged. Peter is now engaged in an entirely new career as a writer, motivational speaker, coach and consultant to businesses and individuals. He is involved in a wide range of work, interests and projects all of which seek to serve others in one way or another as well as express his personal vocation and authentic self.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 Relationships 7

Business Imperatives 8

Cost of Conversion 8

Cost of Sales 8

Cost of Recruitment 9

Every Relationship Matters 9

Trust 10

Fair Exchange 12

Volunteers 12

Leadership 15

Self Management 17

Soft Stuff, Hard Stuff 19

Chapter 2 The Impact of Artificial Intelligence 21

Sentiment 23

The Five Ps 25

The Importance of Story 25

Chapter 3 Our Human Condition 29

Consciousness 30

Perception 31

Getting to Know "Me" 33

Self-Worth 35

Scarcity 36

Control 37

Vulnerability 39

Past, Future, Present 39

Flow 41

Autotelic Experience 42

The Limitations of Attention 43

The Lawyer Self 45

Positive Psychology 46

Chapter 4 Body Matters 49

Heart Intelligence 50

Neurogenesis 52

Breathing 53

Chapter 5 Integrity 57

What Is Your Law Firm For? 59

Machine or Organism? 62

Defending Values 65

Chapter 6 Alignment and Coherence 67

Aligning Individual and Business Needs 69

Resources/Energy 70

Function/Application 71

Interaction/Relating 71

Information/Experience 72

Operations/Skills 72

Revenues/Income 73

Marketing 74

Workspace and Office Architecture 76

Chapter 7 Valuing Others 79

Appreciation and Reassurance 79

Being Valued 81

Equal Contribution 83

Hiring 85

Firing 87

Client Care 89

Chapter 8 Collaboration 93

Interdependence 95

One Business or a "Business of One" 96

Chapter 9 Blame Culture 99

Responsibility 102

Chapter 10 Conditions for Change 105

Commitment 105

Readiness 108

Attitude 109

Intention 109

Direction 110

Energy 113

Chapter 11 Behavior 115

Acknowledgment 115

Attention 118

Do What You Say You're Going to Do 122

Empathy 124

What Can I Do for You? 127

Not Knowing the Answer 128

Honored Guest 129

Punctuality 130

Chapter 12 Capacity Building 133

The IMAGE Model 134

Intentionality 134

Mutuality 135

Authenticity 135

Growth 136

Energy 137

Intentionality and Memes 137

Using the IMAGE Model 139

Afterthoughts 141

Mental Health 141

Success 144

Partnership 145

Simplicity 148

Index 151