Listening

If listening were easy, everyone would do it.

Build up your listening skills.

• Turn yourself to face the speaker.

• Put your computer screen and your phone out of your field of vision, so you are not distracted by notifications.

• Don’t interrupt. Many of us start talking while they are still talking for what seem like good reasons—we want to “land the plane” and get to the bottom line, or we want to help them find the right word, or we want to show them that we understand and agree, etc.

• Don’t interrupt with negative or judgmental nonverbals. Make sure your body language isn’t sending a rude message. This includes the impatient eye-rolls, or crossed arms, or grumpy frown. Effective nonverbals include nodding in agreement or understanding, smiling, and some mirroring of the speaker’s gestures… but not in a mocking way, of course. When in doubt, less is more.

• And, of course, pay attention to what they are saying! You might be outwardly “listening,” but it’s not effective if you are thinking about something else while they are speaking.

(image source: https://itdworld.com/blog/leadership/leadership-quotes/)