Become A Good Listener .
LALIT BERRY
Nature has given us one tongue and two ears. Do you know why ? Answer is very simple but meaningful. So that we can listen twice as much as we speak.
Become a good listener. You will learn a good deal from listening carefully. It is an irony that most people never listen.
The more listening we do, the smarter we will become , the better way we will be liked and the better conversationalist we will be.
A good listener always winds up far ahead of a good talker. It's a true fact. Because a good listener wins the heart of people.
Keep in mind : Listening is win/ win
However, being a good listener is not a matter of chance , there are certain rules which make a good listener.
1. Keep the eye contact. Look at the person who is talking. Looking everywhere except at the person talking can make it seem like you are not listening and the conversation suffers. In other words, listen with your eyes as well as you ears. Anybody worth listening to is worth looking at.
2. Listen intently. Appear as if you don't want miss a single word. When you listen: just listen.
3. Keep the mobile phone away. Browsing the internet while trying to listen usually leads missing some part of the conversation. The person who is talking feel like he or she is not listened to. So put the mobile phone down while listening to.
4. Ask questions. This lets the person who is talking know you are listening. Asking questions while listening to someone is a high form of appreciation. Questions can be simple as :
" What happened then ? "
" Then what did you do ? "
5. Stick to speaker's subject. Don't change subjects on a person untill they are finished, no matter how anxious you are to get started on a new one.
6. Don't switch the focus from the speaker to yourself. Use the speaker''s words --- "You" and " Your." If you use " I", " Me" , " My" , "Mine" , that is not listening. It will take a shape of talking.
7. Summarize what was said. Take a few seconds to summarize what someone just said. It would add the perspective in a better way.
DON'T JUST HEAR , LISTEN. GIVE A LISTENING EAR.