All my life I have been told “you have two ears and one mouth… you should listen twice as much as speak”. And it is true, I think most (if not all) of us can do a better job of listening.
In a great deal of our mentoring and consulting services we focus on learning to listen to learn than to listen to reply. Basically what this means is that most of us listen to the other person and our mind is running a million miles an hour trying t figure out how we will reply and respond. We do it in our personal lives and our professional lives. When what should be doing when we are listening is to try and understand what they are truly saying. Take in what they are saying and process that… not how you will reply. Forget about the reply, listen to what they are saying. This will make you a way better listener which will make you a way better partner / parent / professional.
We have been espousing the philosophy above for over a decade. Then recently in a daily meditation I read I saw this captured. I could not have said it any better…
Really listening is deceptively difficult. The scene of a group of teenagers (or really, people of any age!) lost in their own minds, nodding along in the middle of a lecture or conversation but not really hearing any of it, has risen to the level of overused movie cliché for a reason. Our world is filled with “conversations” that are actually no more than two people giving prepared monologues in turns.
True listening requires both serious attention and concerted effort. To really listen, we need to get out of our own heads; we need to set aside thinking through what we have planned later. Really listening asks us to put aside what we want to say and what we think should be said so that we can listen to what’s actually being said.
Relationships are only possible with true listening. Our sponsorship industry is built on relationships. It is truly critical we all become better listeners to be successful in our profession.
If you want to improve your listening skill and learn how to build deeper relationships, then register for Canada’s #1 sponsorship marketing conference, the Western Sponsorship Congress® – Alberta Forum
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