According to CIO, “Listening well is a crucial soft skill and can help a manager get more ROI (return on investment) from his/her staff.  Don’t make these critical mistakes.”

Here is a list of the sins directly from the CIO article:

  1. Interrupting the speaker  to tell your own story or give advice.
  2. Not making eye contact.
  3. Finishing the speaker’s thoughts or asking too many questions about details.
  4. Rushing the speaker.
  5. Answering the phone, texting, e-mailing or paying attention to something else.
  6. Forgetting what the speaker says.
  7. Waiting for the speaker to finish so you can “top” the speaker’s story—”That reminds me of…” or, “That’s nothing compared to…”

Now, I have to say that we are guilty of these sins not just in the workplace but also at home and with our loved ones and friends; I am guilty as charged at times, especially when I have a to do list from hell.  Women especially are guilty as charged because we are known and even brag about our multi-tasking ability.   So, the question that comes to the forefront is that if we are doing these things at home, how can we avoid doing them at work?

Congruity is the key – behaving consistently with our listening will garner positive results in our relationships every time.  Giving another person the gift of pure listening is the largest and most expensive gift they will ever come to know and experience, even if they don’t acknowledge it.

Let me take these 7 sins and convert them to ways of being that can be implemented today:

  1. Listen attentively by facing the person who is gifting you by speaking to you.
  2. Make complete eye contact.
  3. Wait until the speaker is finished talking, even if there is a pause, stay with the pause, pausing your mouth.
  4. If it appears that the conversation is going to be a long one, and you have some other commitment, gently let them know and ask for another time to revisit the conversation and ensure it is on both calendars.
  5. Leave the cell phone alone, let it ring and go to voicemail.  That excuse of missing a call nowadays is just that…our cell phones for the most part provide us with the caller’s phone number, you can call them back if they did not leave a message.
  6. Remember what the speaker says during the conversation.
  7. Be patient in your listening.  Once the speaker finishes, as how you may be of service to them or simply thank them for sharing.  This will pay huge dividends in your relationships.

A special thanks to Dawn Leitner at www.coachu2lead.com for pointing me to this relevant article.

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Related Posts