Active Listening
Syd Strike
Passionate about releasing people potential at all levels. Helping new managers, develop and experienced managers to build high performing teams. Love to work with teams and team members in personal development.
5 Tips for Active Listening
On Active Listening
Listen with the intention of summarising
And not waiting for your turn to speak!!!!
Listening intently with the intention of genuinely understanding what the speaker is saying and not waiting to jump in with a response. “I really want to understand you”
Listening to people will …
Give you information so you can make better decisions. It will help you earn respect from people and help you make friends more easily.
And listening to someone will earn you the right to speak.
When you take time to listen someone, you make the person feel valued and more comfortable, and then this person is more likely to listen to you. You now have the person’s attention.
To be an active listener you will need to give the speaker full attention, and you can demonstrate this through your positive body language. There’s no need to worry about how to use positive body language. I believe it is simple … just be genuine in your interest in what the person is saying, avoid and ignore distractions – you will have the right body language …then follow these five basic principles of active listening…
Five key considerations about listening are …
1. Listen - Genuinely listen - a common mistake that people make is to be planning their response whilst the person is talking. Use silence to help you as a listener and to allow the speaker time to reflect.
2. Show you are listening - by the way that you sit or stand, by leaning forward, nodding etc – have a positive attitude towards the speaker, otherwise you will appear to be disingenuous.
3. Question - Ask questions of clarification. This helps you to keep alert, shows the speaker that you are interested and helps you to gain correct information. Be careful not to ask too many questions so that you don’t lose the flow of the conversation.
4. Paraphrase - Summarise from time to time. This shows the speaker that you have been listening and assists the process of communication. Misunderstandings can be corrected.
5. Respond appropriately – You now have information that will help you to provide a balanced and appropriate response – when you have finished your response you can go back into listening mode by asking “Did I understand you correctly?” “Have I answered your question fully?”
“Seek first to understand and then to be understood” Stephen Covey
View How I keep my body language positive
View The Golden Rule of Listenin
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