It’s hard to find a good leader who doesn’t have first-class listening skills. Good listening skills have a huge impact on your effectiveness and efficiency, because they are the building blocks for everything else. The consequences of not listening carefully can be disastrous.
Active listening puts the focus firmly on the person speaking. It involves engaging with the speaker, encouraging the speaker to voice his or her views.
It also means paraphrasing the speaker’s message, putting it into your own words to ensure you have understood correctly.
If you want to improve your effectiveness, make it a top priority to develop your active listening skills. You will reap huge rewards when you do so. Your productivity will be increased, you will be a better negotiator, you will avoid conflict and misunderstandings, and you will build great relationships.
Don’t wait until you are in a critical situation to practise your active listening skills. Start today!