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Tips on becoming a better listener
Merlin Mann | Jul 10 2006
When we meet, you and I, you will see for yourself one of my most humiliating traits. No it's not my acromegaly, my plaid pants, nor my atrocious hairpiece. No, friend, you will be deeply annoyed to hear me ask you to repeat your name at least twice, and possibly five times, during our inaugural conversation. And, in subsequent meetings, even though your face will be forever etched upon my brain (a skill at which I absolutely excel), I will probably call you "Champ," "Chief," or possibly "Tex." Because, yes, I will have completely forgotten your name. And it's not just a bad memory that's to blame here (although, of course, my memory sucks, too) -- I'm convinced it's because I am a terrible listener, and because I suffer intermittent encoding errors at the time data is written to disk, so to speak. In working to improve this socially-crippling liability, in general -- to hear what people are really saying rather than just using the down time to formulate a pseudo-clever response -- I've begun skimming the web for advice. I have these sites and tips to share with you so far, so listen up! From Becoming a Better Listener:
From The Top 10 Tips for Becoming a Better Listener:
From BookRags: How to Be a Better Listener Article:
From How can you listen better? - workopolis.com:
How'd you become a good listener? Got a good trick that put you on the right track to hearing people more and better? 33 Comments
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Admittedly this is only for...Submitted by gawp (not verified) on July 10, 2006 - 6:49am.
Admittedly this is only for initial meetings, but my favorite "trick" when I meet someone new is to see how much I can learn about them without talking about myself. I'm still working on it but I find it really helps me focus on listening: anything I do say tends to be a question to further their self-exposition. It's amazing how long you can get most people to talk about themselves. As for names, I have the same problem Champ. » POSTED IN:
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