Listening: Summary

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...