Tuesday – Time to ramble. This week I’ll focus on a quote I heard recently. Here we go:
- Heard this recently: Do you listen to understand or do you listen to respond?
- I wish I had this perfect! Obviously, it is better to listen with an ear to understand, rather than to respond.
- I struggle most with listening due to the amount of conversations I have in any given week.
- It’s hard to stay focused, especially in shorter conversations.
- I have been in meetings and situations where hours have been wasted due to the lack of effective listening.
- If you listen to respond the conversation is about you. Sounds similar to what happens in the typical internet comment section debate.
- If you listen to understand you open up the possibility of effective communication.
- No one will walk away from a conversation with us feeling heard until we do our best to listen.
- How? How do I listen to understand? How does someone know I’m doing that?
- Ask questions. If you can’t relate to what someone’s saying, ask them to describe.
- Show someone you’re interested. Balance how much you talk about yourself or your point of view: do you listen more than (or at least as much as) you talk?
- I have certain people who stick in my mind because they listen really well. When I talk to them I feel like they’re trying to understand. Their body language and the types of questions they ask give away the honest heart they have to understand what I’m saying.
- How about a challenge today to begin listening to understand? What if everyone we talked to really felt like we were listening?