Recently I read the below review of the book Win your case; How to Present, Persuade and Prevail – Every Time by Gerry Spence.

This book was written in 2005 and I’m not sure how well it reads today. But the I believe the below Amazon review of the book is worth reading and reflecting on.

Here’s the review . . . 

“I am glad I didn’t judge the book by its title. I could probably boil most of the message down to authenticity. Good speakers are authentic – they don’t hide themselves or, from themselves. This isn’t so new (although a new context) but Spence does something interesting here while delivering the message of authenticity – he reminds you to speak to and connect with the power people, the decision makers.

I would take a scared young woman trembling in fear but with true emotional connection in front of a jury than a slick prosecutor anytime, he tells us. He reminds us that law is an emotional discipline no matter how much we want to take emotion out of it. We lawyers are the chosen champions of a trial by contest.

We stand the best chance of winning when we bring our feelings with us.

He reminds us that most of us decide with feeling and bend our intellect to match it. If you know that, then you remember to connect first and foremost. And connection comes from authentic emotion. I’m glad I bought this book. I practice divorce law – an area many lawyers stay away from because of the emotion in it, but that’s a reason I love what I do (although stressful and exhausting as well).

Having spent the last 30 years believing that “feeling” is a dumbed-down substitute for intellect and reason, I am convinced by this book that, in suppressing feeling, I have been missing an important part of life.”

++++

The points that most resonated with me, were:

• He reminds us that law (business) is an emotional discipline no matter how much we want to take emotion out of it. We lawyers (business people) are the chosen champions of a trial by contest. We stand the best chance of winning when we bring our feelings with us.” 
• You remember to connect first and foremost.”

Own the Conversation

Implementation Idea

• Over the next seven days, select one meeting (an important one) and give yourself a rating on how well you connected with the person(s) on a 1-10 scale – (1) lowest connection (10) highest connection. (but don’t use the number (7).
• Did the number you gave yourself align with the how well the meeting went?
• If it did, consider at your next meeting to aim for a better connection, and then rate the success of that meeting.