- November 14, 2020
I think people are really interesting if you do one thing – LISTEN to them! I’m confident we all thing we do. But take this quick inventory of your listening focus: Do you look them in the eyes when they’re speaking? Do you ever check your phone or watch when speaking with someone? Are you ever distracted, and your eyes drift to something or someone else in the room occasionally? OK, the real clincher – do you begin formulating what you want to say even before someone has finished talking? The reality is as a human being we want to feel important and significant. We want to tell OUR stories. I’ve read that 95% of our time thinking and talking is done so about ourselves! So how do you feel when people don’t listen to YOU? Small? Unappreciated? Unimportant? Well, that’s how YOU make others feel when you don’t listen to them. Practice in, the building of habits, and the learning of focused listening skills will dramatically improve all of your relationships whether personal or professional or in selling. Napoleon Hill wrote in one of his famous books about having an hour conversation with someone new he’d met. He only spoke about 5 minutes. But a mutual friend told him this person said that Hill was an incredible conversationalist! Former President Bill Clinton was known for making the person he was speaking to feel like they were the only one in the room regardless of how many actually were. So what can you do? What’s required of us if we want to become a genuine and skilled listener? One thing is empathy. Put yourself in the other person’s shoes or situation. Another thing is focus. Turn off the distractions in your mind and around you. Lastly, be patient to listen to everything the other person said. Don’t interrupt or talk over someone. Then pause, collect your thoughts, and then respond. SO… TRY IT! And learn how interesting the people around you really are!