Among the effective tools that you may add to improve your performance and skills is simply becoming an active listener. According to research, an average person is capable of only remembering 25 to 50 percent of what he/she hears. Those are actually alarming percentages when you are considering how much time you’re spending every day listening to each other. If you are only able to hear just 50 percent of what the other person told you, then it limits your ability to respond effectively.
If how you are performing your job or how you are managing key relationships is vital to you, then improving your ability to listen actively is a skill that you should further improve on.
You will be able to uncover three ways to become an active listener in the next paragraphs.
Number 1. Practice – for this one, you are expected to practice self discipline but rest assure that the payoff would be enormous. In your next conversation, you should make concerted effort of not just hearing the words being spoken but also, listening to the message you are told.
To make everything a lot easier to understand, try to block things that are going on around you. Whether you like it or not, a big number of people are distracted easily. Whether we are looking at photos in someone’s cubicle or office or there are other conversations going around us, it is so easy to lose focus on the conversation we have at hand. To become an active listener, always remember that focus is crucial.
Number 2. Be engaged physically in what the speaker says – eye contact is important yes but so does the facial expressions made to show that you really are listening. It’s good to nod every now and then and tell the speaker that you have understood their message. Speakers will appreciate that you are actually listening on what they’re saying by simply smiling at appropriate parts of conversation. To make it simpler, give some feedback to the speaker.
Number 3. Defer judgment on what is being said – consider doing this until you’ve totally understood the context of message. Perhaps, using the correct terms or words aren’t used but allow the speaker to finish talking. As much as possible, set aside everything and do whatever you can to absorb information. You need to know that editorializing and constantly interrupting are conversation killers which you should avoid at all cost.
Active listening skill is something that takes practice and you won’t get it overnight so don’t rush things if you feel that you’re not making any progress.