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    Five Tips For Listening Well

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    The document provides five essential tips for improving listening skills: be prepared, remain silent, focus on the speaker, empathize with their perspective, and ask insightful questions. It emphasizes the importance of mental readiness and concentration in effective listening, as well as the value of empathy and curiosity in communication. By following these tips, individuals can enhance their listening abilities and avoid missing opportunities in both personal and professional settings.

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    Five Tips For Listening Well

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    The document provides five essential tips for improving listening skills: be prepared, remain silent, focus on the speaker, empathize with their perspective, and ask insightful questions. It emphasizes the importance of mental readiness and concentration in effective listening, as well as the value of empathy and curiosity in communication. By following these tips, individuals can enhance their listening abilities and avoid missing opportunities in both personal and professional settings.

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    Listen to converse

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    The document provides five essential tips for improving listening skills: be prepared, remain silent, focus on the speaker, empathize with their perspective, and ask insightful questions. It emphasizes the importance of mental readiness and concentration in effective listening, as well as the value of empathy and curiosity in communication. By following these tips, individuals can enhance their listening abilities and avoid missing opportunities in both personal and professional settings.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    0 views2 pages

    Five Tips For Listening Well

    Uploaded by

    latshare
    The document provides five essential tips for improving listening skills: be prepared, remain silent, focus on the speaker, empathize with their perspective, and ask insightful questions. It emphasizes the importance of mental readiness and concentration in effective listening, as well as the value of empathy and curiosity in communication. By following these tips, individuals can enhance their listening abilities and avoid missing opportunities in both personal and professional settings.

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    Download from msn.

    Five Tips for Listening Well


    by Thad Peterson

    Calvin Coolidge once said, “No man ever listened himself out of a job.” You
    certainly know people have talked themselves out of work, and perhaps some have
    missed opportunities because they weren’t listening closely enough. Don’t let this
    happen to you. Refine your listening skills with these five tips.

    Be Prepared

    “Where observation is concerned, chance favors only the prepared mind.” -- Louis
    Pasteur

    Be mentally and physically ready to listen. Prep yourself by reading appropriate


    material and doing research before meetings. Don’t show up only to find yourself
    lost after the first five minutes, and then scramble mentally to catch up or just zone
    out because you’re lost.

    A great athlete doesn’t become a great athlete on game day; he prepares himself to
    be ready for a great performance on game day. You may have thought being a truly
    good listener was going to be easier than this. Sorry.

    Shut Up

    “I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.” -- Publilius Syrus

    How’s that for straightforward? Clearly, you’re a far more effective listener when
    you’re not talking. Sure, it’s important to speak up, but remaining silent the majority
    of the time can put an exclamation point on the things you do say. Being quiet and
    listening intently brings with it a good aura.

    The Focus Factor

    “Concentration is my motto -- first honesty, then industry, then concentration.” --


    Andrew Carnegie

    This is the most obvious -- and most broken -- rule when it comes to listening. Be in
    the moment. Put other thoughts out of your mind. You can feel when people aren’t
    truly listening to you, and you know when they are. Make sure whoever’s speaking
    feels you are really listening.

    Focus on what people are saying, and don’t let yourself get stuck on any one point.
    Don’t try to answer your question in your own mind while the person is still
    speaking. If you have to, make a note on a piece of paper about a question
    regarding what’s been said, but don’t let it debilitate you from listening to the rest of
    the conversation.

    Likewise, conquer your own defensiveness. If someone says something that sets
    you off, let it go. Move on, and continue to listen to what he’s saying. This is a
    challenge to the most mature among us. Being able to mentally process criticism
    openly and maturely is one of the best career moves you’ll ever make.

    Walk a Mile in Someone Else’s Shoes


    841892683.doc Created on 01/07/2002 13:18
    Download from msn.

    “Everyone and everything around you is your teacher.” -- Ken Keyes Jr.

    You may absolutely despise your coworker, but to be a good listener, you must
    always listen with empathy. It’s easy to let your mind chew on a point of
    disagreement if you hear something that bothers you -- or if you just don’t like the
    person who’s speaking -- but you’ll miss what’s being said. Try to see the world
    through the speaker’s eyes. Think of it as a practice run for when you’re in
    discussions with people you like and respect.

    Ask and You Shall Receive

    “He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool
    forever.” -- Chinese Proverb

    Reporters often say their jobs require them to be experts for a day depending on the
    story: one day an expert in aviation and the next an expert in politics. The truth is,
    their main expertise is asking insightful questions. And it’s the same for successful
    listeners. Like a reporter, you must learn to put people at ease and ask questions
    that illicit revealing responses.

    Here are some tricks for asking good questions:

     Ask “how” and “why” questions that require a certain amount of elaboration
    as opposed to questions that can be answered with a yes or no.
     It often times helps if you share a little bit of yourself while asking questions.
    Example: “I have been having a hard time getting productivity out of my
    workers. How do you suggest I deal with it?”
     Ask tough questions, but do it with a smile. You can ask difficult or even
    awkward questions without being confrontational. When you’re asking killer
    questions, kill them with kindness.

    841892683.doc Created on 01/07/2002 13:18

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