Listen to Hear – Part 3
Listen to hear—not to defend. Do you to listen with the intent to reply or are you rehearsing a response instead of listening to understand?
As a listener, don’t offer solutions, advice, apologies, etc. until the other person has completed speaking and you show that you have been listening and that you understand what was said. It is important not to be influenced or distracted by your own internal chatter. You can’t be listening while you are “speaking” to yourself.
Empathic listening is the best gift you can provide the speaker. It is your ability to put yourself in the other person’s shoes and understand where they are coming from. Don’t be attached to “your” outcome—be open for a mind change and let your ideas be influenced by the speaker.
Active, mindful, listening goes a long way in building and strengthening personal and professional relationships. Active, mindful, listening helps solve problems and conflicts. Active, mindful, listening builds strong collaborative cultures.
In today’s global and multicultural world, the need to be listened to and understood is more critical than ever. Misunderstanding too often comes from language, cultural and contextual differences. Stereotypical influences are also a major factor in people tuning out, or listening poorly.
Today’s bombastic, vitriolic and vulgar political atmosphere in the United States is triggering more people’s intent to provide knee-jerk responses when hearing the idiotic, racist, sexist, nonsensical banter. My hope is that people are really listening and hearing what is and isn’t being said by leading and trailing presidential snake oil salesmen.
Sadly, I’m being stereotyped by people I am in contact with from different countries who don’t want to listen to my professional communication contributions. They are more interested in my opinion while sharing their thoughts about the presidential debacle flooding the world media. My advice to them is to listen carefully to determine if they are learning anything new, hearing positive solutions.
Listen to hear, listen to learn, listen to understand takes….
PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE
As a coach, trainer and consultant, Larry Blumsack partners with people and organizations on the move and those already there to accelerate their communication, presentation and speaking skills to be on par with their ambition. Through one-on-one coaching and group training Larry helps leaders and aspiring leaders elevate their presence and communication skills to influence more people, sell more products-services-ideas and inspire others more successfully than they ever imagined.
Larry is the bestselling author of Face-to-Face is The Ultimate Social Media and founder of Zoka Institute and Zoka Training®. Zoka Training® — Mind/Voice/Body/Mindfulness in sync — is the result of Larry’s 45 years as a coach, acting teacher, actor, voice-over artist, theater and TV director/producer, radio & TV commentator and show host, speaker, trainer, serial entrepreneur, and syndicated columnist. Larry was a founding member of the theater department at Northeastern University.
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