So this has been the year of listening. A few observations
When I told my friends and colleagues that I was doing a series on listening the majority said, "pardon?" (yes humor level Dad...)
Diary
First week of January I noticed that, if you ask someone a question and then look at your phone / tablet, you don't entirely hear what they say. And the other person always notices. You need to focus.
And as I published more posts and had more conversations I became sensitized to the amount of content out there on listening.
The World Economic forum posted an article on Generous Listening which asked listeners to
Be fully present
Set bias and judgement aside
Listen to learn and
Do not interrupt
they also included this nifty little graphic too
As I entered sales kick off season with team dinners and networking events, I realized how many times I needed to ask people to repeat themselves, often because the environment was not conducive to listening. How do you choose your listening environments?
Listening disarms @ssholes (not always but many times) and builds your credibility - who ever complained "dammit, that <insert name> listens too much!"?
And when I found myself not listening I used that to recognize my biases or resistance and to question them, frequently with surprising results (like learning something new or different and expanding my knowledge)
The year has been filled with good conversations and better friendships by listening...