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Listening is the more critical half of communication. At least three reasons:
- Listening rounds out the whole of communication. Listening magnifies the value of what one says in response.
- Listening tells the speaker s/he matters. That imparts a sense of value and increases that person’s engagement in the communication.
- Listening increases one’s awareness, perspective, options and intelligence.
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Create for yourself a Listening Improvement Plan. That’s right, give yourself some LIP.
No matter how excellent they are, improving your listening skills will generate more and better engagement in your business. And that’s likely to be engagement by
- Yourself.
- Your employees.
- Your associates.
- Your customers.
What’s wrong with that?
Here are 5 tips to consider for your Listening Improvement Plan:
- Remind yourself to listen…at the start of every conversation. This sets your mind in a listening mode. That is a good place to start.
- Feedback and verify what you’ve heard. Knowing you will do this focuses your attention on listening. Hearing you do this lets the other person appreciate that your listening.
- Spend a few quiet moments after the conversation recalling what you’ve heard.
- Consciously consider, even decide, what you’ll now do with what you’ve heard.
- Score your listening…at the end of every conversation. The human desire for improvement will make you want to improve your score continually.
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You probably have other Listening Improvement ideas and tips. Please share them by leaving a comment below.
Tags: Communication, Employee Engagement, Management, motivation, performance improvement
