Well, as a professional speaker I have learned a new appreciation for silence. It is not effective to talk nonstop and at a fast pace. People need time to process information. After you have said something significant or asked a good question, be silent, let them process the thought. When dealing with your clients, or any one else, you must mentally control your impulse to fill long pregnant pauses of silence with your own voice.
Silence is a beautiful thing.
Attorneys are trained to never ask a question unless they already know the answer. The more you study people the better you will get at making accurate assessments. A new book that discusses this idea is Reading People, by Jo-Ellan Dimitrius, Ph.D. and Mark Mazzarella. They make the following observation. We have to watch the way people behave toward others if we want to get the fullest sense of who they are.