Does it matter how much you’ve heard or how well you’ve listened, if you don’t retain a major portion?

Your people my love you for your listening skills, and they want to respect you for paying attention to (that means remembering) what they’ve shared.

Here are three quick Tips to Improve Your Verbal Recall:

• Wrap Up with Specifics. Ego too often prevents our telling the other person specifically what we have heard: I don’t want them to think I doubt my own listening skills or my memory. I don’t want to be way off in what I play back.

Those are not good reasons to avoid a verbal wrap-up. It proves you were listening. It proves you value what was said enough that you want to be sure you got it right. It provides you the chance to be accurate in the information you take away. And it never takes more than a minute or two.

• Create A Word Outline. Practice building and using organizational skills as you listen. Distinguish the words/phrases that signify the speaker’s central idea. Make mental note of the speaker’s main points. You can probably select a key word to label each main point. Support ideas and information then become more memorable. You more readily remember the two or three facts that support her point needing to design a new staffing strategy.

• Practice Heavy Listening. The more we experience and rehearse something, the easier it becomes. This is true of listening. This is especially true of listening that isn’t easy. Heavy listening. It’s easy to listen to, enjoy, and recall conversations that entertain, strike our special points of interest, and have emotional significance to us. Some listening, however, is weighty. That’s not so easy to listen to; it can be even harder to remember.

Practice listening to books on CD, radio stations, or cable channels that deal with topics you would not normally listen to. Concentrate on listening > understanding > recalling. Start with small doses: 2-5 minutes. Gradually, increase your practice time. And be sure to recognize (and reward) your success as you notice how easily that kind of listening is for you, in real time.

These tips–and dozens more–will be explored in much greater detail on April 24 (4-5:30 PM, EDT) in my LISTEN! An Audio Conference.

 

Tags: Communication, Employee Engagement, listening skills, Management