Business Efficacy

The effective listener achieves greater success and respect because:

1. They connect with the speaker and the message.

2. They adapt their listening style.

3. People appreciate being heard.

Complete listening requires eye contact, focus on the speaker, suspended judgement, clarification to understand and waiting until the speaker is finished before any response. All signals the speaker’s message is important. A justifiable complaint is, ‘no one pays any attention to me or my ideas’. Effective listeners do pay attention and, the speaker feels respected and valued, even if the listener does not agree with them.

Listening and communication style differences create many interpersonal problems. Every person has a specific style. Connect positively: recognize, understand and respectfully adopt the speaker’s style. This may be word speed – rapid delivery versus slow and thoughtful; or orientation – social or factual. A serious listener identifies the speaker’s style and adapts to it.

Let the speaker complete their statement before deciding what they are saying. This is one of the most difficult aspects of effective listening and one of the most crucial. Even if you ‘know’ what they are going to say, you have to hear them out; they may be coming from a new direction and they will never trust you to listen again.

Effective listening has many parts. All are critical to connect and communicate with others. Effective listeners know their own listening/communication style. They recognize different styles, when to use them and want to learn what others try to tell them. They respect people’s right to be different and embrace that in order to make total connections with others.

The most successful people do all they can to learn effective listening skills and use them. It takes time and patience, but the rewards are great.