Top 10 Icebreakers offer guide for blogging

Being an attorney from my perspective goes way beyond the law and documents…it’s connecting with you and everyone else I get the pleasure to meet. For many attorneys, this is kind of a pain and a “necessary evil” as I talk with others around the country. To me, it is the BEST PART of what I get to do as an attorney…interact with my clients and other people I might be able to help. Take this blog for example, it is important to me because it’s another way I get to help you and anyone reading it understand the law just a little bit better and hopefully lower their personal risk and have more peace of mind.

So it’s very important to me to continually develop my skills in asking good questions and understanding my clients. It’s my way of really being able to learn about what is going on in their life so I can offer some assistance inside and outside the law to help them in any way I can. Because this is just who I am as a person, another subject that I wanted to bring to your attention is a book recommended by one of my colleagues.  It helps with the starting points for getting and keeping good relationships. I found it to be very insightful and helpful and I thought you might find these “icebreakers” to be helpful suggestions as well.

Debra Fine, author of The Fine Art of Small Talk  offers a lot of helpful advice on networking and connecting with people while networking.  In her book she includes a list of her top 10 icebreakers. She suggests using them at any occasion where you have few established relationships.  We’ve all been at those types of events – school meetings, business events, fundraisers, cocktail parties, dinners, and conferences/conventions where you need to start a conversation with people you don’t know well or those “strangers” you would like to meet.

Top Ten Icebreakers

1.            What is your connection to this event?

2.            What keeps you busy outside of work?

3.            Tell me about the organizations you are involved with.

4.            How did you come up with this idea?

5.            What got you interested in  … ?

6.            What do you attribute your success to?

7.            Describe some of the challenges of your profession.

8.            Describe your most important work experience ….

9.            Bring me up to date.

10.         Tell me about your family.

According to Fine, the theme to these ten icebreakers is that they are personal, but not too personal. “Your goal is to build a business relationship,” she says, “while still getting to know more about a customer or potential customer. If you are talking to an existing customer, they probably already know you are good at what you do, so you just want them to see you on a more human level.” Thinking about this –when you establish that comfortable connection on the human level, they are more likely to refer you to a friend or associate.

The other thing to note about these icebreaker guidelines is that they give the new person control to decide just how much information they are willing to share and where they want to set the parameters of the conversation.  On your part,  your job is to help the other person feel comfortable with you as a person.  You never want to overwhelm them with complex topics.  You never want to slip into insider jargon.  And you never want to put your audience on the spot regarding religion or politics.

Many of our friends and acquaintances could be more effective using these 10 icebreakers, so I encourage you to share this link to them.  You can click on any of the sharing buttons on the bottom of this post and share it the way you would like from e-mail to social media. Let’s all communicate more effectively.  And I invite you connect with me on my social channels as well…let’s start to share things that help others improve their life, lower their risk, and increase their peace of mind!