Masterful Listening

Some masterful Listening Tips from ‘Communicate or Die’:

• ‘Listen without a point of view. Avoid immediate free-association to your own experience put your tendency to evaluate on hold.

• Listen and mentally re-create exactly what the speaker is saying.

• See things from the other person’s point of view.

• Listen for the speaker’s underlying intention.

• Listen for ‘gold’: hear whatever the person is saying as the solution to the issue being discussed.

• Listen one minute longer than may be comfortable.

• Experiment with listening. What results can you produce through listening rather than talking?

• Remember that your advice is usually noise to their ears. People are not eager for your speaking they are hungry for your listening.’

‘Communicate or Die – Getting Results Through Speaking and Listening’, Thomas D. Zweifel, Ph.D, SelectBooks, Inc., 2003.