Being a better listener can give you a lot of opportunities to grow in your career and change your life dramatically!
Why?
Because when you can listen well, you learn better and make people be more respected to you rather than when you just focus on speaking.
This is a big lesson that I learned from a leader in Melbourne. When I have a chance to meet him face to face in a luxury event in Dockland, one of the most beautiful harbors in this city.
And this is also a character that many employers are looking for from their employees.
As he said:
“With more than 20 years of experience in the recruitment process, I’m sure with you that if you can put your character as a good listener on the top of your CV.
Your CV will get a higher chance to be chosen compared to the others”.
When I heard him say that, I really curious about this because I had never heard about “great listener” that can be considered as the criteria for a good job before.
So I asked him the reason why he says like that…He just smiles at me and said:
“The reason is when you are a good listener, you will understand what your boss says, or if you don’t clear yet, you will ask him to clarify at that time.
It helps your boss to save a lot of time compared to talking with someone who is not a good listener.
Because the person who doesn’t have this skill easily misunderstands the idea and leads to complete the tasks in the wrong direction. This is not what your boss wants”.
This moment blows up my mind because I never think that being a great listener can be considered a good character in work.
Personally, before I just think it is a piece of character that can help you to learn better and faster.
Then I asked him how can I be a great listener, what should I need to improve to achieve this goal?
And from his advice, there are 3 things that will help you to achieve it if you really want to be a great listener!
1. To be a better listener, let: Ask the right question
This is better to not ask if you can’t come up with the right question. Don’t try to create the impression by asking the question if you already have the answer for it but just want to test the speaker.
Let think about the questions that you really don’t know about or can add value to the speech of the speaker. When you can make a good question, it will make you remember better the content of the speaker.
Therefore, it helps to create a good impression about you for both other audiences and the speaker.
Because when you ask the question, it means you are directly involved in the conversation. And turn it into the face to face talk. Therefore, your mind will remember the content better because it is directly related to you instead of just passive listening.
2. To be a better listener, let: Keep Eye Contact
The idea of this action is to build up the connection between you and the speaker.
When you keep good eye contact, the speaker’s mind will be noticed that “Well, this person is really taking care of what I am saying. Therefore, I should show my best knowledge to him/her”.
So, instead of just spend for you a few seconds to answer your question. Good eye contact and showing off your concentration on the topic can encourage the speaker to go deeper question. It will give you more valuable information rather than you can expect!
While you don’t keep eye contact with the speaker, he/she will think that maybe you are not interested in this topic anymore or you already get enough of the information you need. So, instead of sharing for you 2 to 3 more points, now they just share for you the limited answer.
3. To be a better listener, let: Use “Supporting words”
It means that you shouldn’t just stand and listen all the time. Don’t think that you are just a listener. Let be an active listener by using some kind of “supporting words or questions”.
It can make the speaker loses his motivation to keep sharing his knowledge and information for you. If he just speaks all the time and doesn’t get any reaction from his listeners.
In this case, some of the “supporting words” that you use can help the conversation be smooth. Because the speaker knows that you are really focused on what he/she says and have the interest to know more about what the speaker is talking about.
Some good examples of “Supporting words” are:
- Oh, really. I didn’t get it before
- Yes, absolutely. I agree with your point of view
- Uhm, well. That’s true
To sum up,
Being a great listener will take time, but you will get a good result if you can do it well. Because everyone wants to talk about themself more than listen to others’ stories.
Therefore, let others speak, and you listen, learn more valuable things for you. Then, just give you speak when you need it. A good leader will start by being a good listener. So, let try to be one from today!
And if you want to read more about personal development, let check out blogs on “Wiki Personal Development”
P/s:
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