Listening

In our profession, we are trained to read numbers, interpret laws, identify risks and ask the right questions. We are expected to have answers. Clients come to us because they believe we know something they do not.

It is therefore natural that we speak a lot. But the quality of our spoken or written advice depends on an oftenneglected skill: the ability to listen. And listening is not the same as hearing.

A client may spend twenty minutes explaining a problem, while the professional is already constructing an answer in his head. We hear the initial words, identify the apparent issue and begin solving it. But sometimes the real problem is hidden somewhere beyond the initial words.

Consider a client who seeks advice on whether tax is required to be deducted at source on a particular payment. The legal position may be genuinely debatable with arguments on both sides. The professional instinct is to analyse the provisions, examine the decisions and recommend the interpretation that appears stronger in law.

But suppose we first ask: “What is most important to you in taking this position?”

The answer may change the advice. The client may be willing to adopt an aggressive but defensible interpretation because the amounts involved are substantial. An