Be a great listener………it is easy to be the one who is always talking, offering ideas, making suggestions, demonstrating knowledge, but it is infinitely more difficult to listen. Covey taught us “seek first to understand, and then to be understood” and we need to practice the art of understanding others by giving them respect through listening. If your mind is wandering, comparing other ideas to your own, and you’re thinking about your response, then you are not listening to understand, you are listening to respond.
There is no greater impact than the one you create when you truly listen to another person. When you listen without proffering your own ideas all the time, your humility shows up, and with that the opportunity to engage another person in a way that will bring out the best in them. Ultimately we are known as much for our silence as our ideas because you don’t learn anything when you are always talking. The truth is the more you say, the less people remember. So be a good listener, that will never get you in trouble.
Robin Sharma said “People ache for good listening. Do you give it to them? Seems like simple stuff, this listening business. But it’s outrageously hard in a world where we can be so self-centred, where we feel we have to prove what we know. No organization can get to extraordinary without excited, engaged, and enthusiastic people. And no human being can ever find authentic success without the help of people. And people need listening, crave it, hunger for it. More than you may imagine. Want to be an outstanding leader, get to your next level of listening.”