Seriously, who knows what a Hashmark is? If you know, stop reading, and hit the like button for me on Facebook or leave a comment in the blog.
My doctor is a female doctor about 33 years old, and she has no idea what a 52 year old woman needs…Yet I stick with her. Why? She cares. She knows who I am when I come in. She knows my history. She asks about it. In a conversation about my issues a couple of years ago, she mentioned she’d had a baby since we last saw each other. She’s a proud, happy mom sharing something about herself in the routine conversation during my appointment.
Then she disappeared, and she’s on an extended leave… A year later I asked her staff what exactly her leave was tied to and found that it was because the baby she is so in love with has special needs and, for the past couple of years, took a priority over her career. I actually care about her, and I even worried about her a little.
I hadn’t quite earned one Hashmark in the Marine Corps a lifetime ago, but I look at this doctor with her compassion and her ability to relate to people, combined with her relative inexperience in the medical field, and I can’t wait until she has a couple of Hashmarks under her belt. She cares about the people she works with, but she’s too young to identify with what they need. When she earns a couple of Hashmarks, she’s going to be a priceless physician. In the meantime, I’d rather stick with her than go to some cerebral, smart/know-it-all doctor who can’t hear me. While she doesn’t have all the experience that she will have, she has the ability to listen and she sees the importance of relating and learning.
What kind of doctor are you in your law practice? Do you use the Hashmarks you’ve earned or are you hiding out behind all the degrees that define you?
Connect with people. Don’t lecture. Don’t pretend that you know it all. Be real. Show people that you’re willing to learn about what they are experiencing. Be that attorney. It’s got to be easy to be the A student. As lawyers, you’ve probably spent your entire life being an A student. Sometimes an A student can miss out on relationships. They get A’s in the concepts of things but not in the real-life things. Anyone can spout accurate tidbits of data – all they need these days is Google. Who connects? Who applies 4 Hashmarks of experience in “how life actually applies to what you know” to what they hear clients telling them?
By the way… “Hashmark [noun] an insignia worn to indicate years of service.” In the Marine Corps, each Hashmark represents 4 years of service and a LOT of experience.
Jennifer Price
Director, Member Services, Marketing & Recruiting
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (800) 846-1555
www.aaepa.com
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