Displaying All Posts tagged with listening

How to Succeed: Listen More

how to listen

Far too many of us talk a lot but listen very little.

That probably means that we aren’t hearing all of the information that people are trying to provide to us.

It might mean that we are actually missing quite a lot.

Active listening can help us to both hear and learn more. It doesn’t mean that we can’t speak, but almost all can profit from listening to what others — especially our work colleagues — are trying to communicate to us.

The fact is that listening is one of the most important and under-rated skills you can have. How well you listen has a major impact on your job effectiveness and on the quality of your relationships with others. Click Here to Read Article …

4 Secrets to Effective Communication

effective communication

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

The inability to clearly communicate is one of the single most problematic issues in life.

Poor communication can ruin relationships, thwart business endeavors, and even start wars. Imagine how much of an impact effective communication can your own life, whether it be in your relationships or at your job.

If you want to communicate better, and subsequently improve your personal and business relationships, you first need to understand how to communicate clearly. Click Here to Read Article …

Listen Up! 10 Great Tips for Better Listening

“I like to listen. I have learnt a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.”  – Ernest Hemingway

Whenever I am in the middle of a discussion, I try not to talk too much and always listen to the person conversing with me. But sometimes all of those words wind up transforming into a garbled mess. At that point, I realize I’m actually impatiently waiting for the other person to stop talking. That way I can start talking again, feeling that I’ve got all eyes on me. Not a good practice, but it happens to the best of us.

In recent studies by Dr. Ralph Nichols, he mentions that almost 40% of the day is spent on listening to others. What amazes me is that the efficiency of listening to what we hear is only at somewhere around 25% — and I’m not talking about the physical comprehension. Is your boss giving you some tasks and you find yourself in the uncomfortable position of asking again what the exact steps were? Do you sometimes find it hard to listen to people that you really don’t care for all that much?

As with many other skill sets, in order to become efficient and effective at listening you need to train yourself to do so. Here are 12 tips that will put you on the road to better listening.

1. Find common subjects and try to stick to them as much as possible.

If you take a positive stance towards a specific subject, you will find that in most cases there is enough information to enrich your knowledge. No matter how sterile the conversation may be, you can still get some valuable information from it. Try to exclude personal elements in these subjects, as this is counterproductive to efficient listening. For example, if you love basketball and the person you are engaged in conversation with is passionately talking about soccer, you will likely find yourself wanting to end the conversation (or leave the room altogether). Try to exclude your personal preferences and be as positive as you can when someone is talking about something that you can tell they are interested in. Look at your conversation as a way to educate yourself — even if it is something you don’t necessarily like. Who knows…you may even change your mind about your feelings on the subject matter by the time the conversation is through.
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6 Ways to Get More From Your Commute Time

According to the United States Census Bureau survey, Americans spend more than 100 hours a year commuting to work. Australians don’t fare much better, as the average daily commute time ranges from 22 minutes up to 35 minutes. And if the infamous opening scene from Office Space is any indication, most workers don’t enjoy weaving in and out of traffic (or being crammed into a public transportation, as the case may be). Click Here to Read Article …

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make the most of your commute