LISTENING –

Good listeners are popular people.

         You please more people by listening to them than by talking to them.

         You cannot listen if you are doing all the talking – and if you are not listening you are not learning.

         For better listening don’t talk so much and concentrate on what the other person wants to say.

         Listening to staff and clients is one of the most important tasks for good managers and leaders.

A Handful of tips to improve your  listening skills

* Remove distractions

        Set the scene.  

        If possible, choose a quiet area away from others.             

        Remove distractions.

        Your first task is to establishing a rapport with the person so allow time for this. Encourage them to chat. Start the conversation with easy open-ended questions. “Have you had a good year?””How is your family?”

* Give the speaker your undivided attention

        Turn off your cell phone.

        Empathise with the speaker  – think of similar situations and how you would feel.

        Concentrate and listen carefully to what they have to say.

* Be patient

          Do not  interrupt, even if you disagree with what is being said.

        Let the speaker finish. Keep calm and avoid arguments.

* Review and summarise

          Try to summarise what you have heard. “What issues were not clear? What did you not fully understand? What other things should have been mentioned?”

* Ask simple questions

          Ask questions that require definite answers so you learn more about what the speaker really thinks.

       Good listeners are very popular people. Start practising to improve your questioning and listening skills today.

-Geoffrey Moss(mossassociates.co.nz)

“A wise person talks little, an ignorant one talks much.”

Source: For amplification of this topic see “Persuasive Ways. ‘Tricks of the trade’ to get your ideas across”. First published by  Moss Associates Ltd., New Zealand and in Chinese by the Shanghai People’s Publishing House, the Singapore Institute of Management, Kogan Page Ltd, U.K and in Hungarian by Bagolyvar Konyvkiado.  Also published as the “Secrets of Persuasion” by Cengage Learning Asia and as an e-book and sold by Amazon.com.

For those in need see our FREE book “NO JOB! – WHAT NOW?” available from our website mossassociates.co.nz.

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