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Have you ever found yourself zoning off when someone is speaking? Well, that’s because the average person has an attention capacity of only eight seconds.
With so many electronic stimuli vying for your attention and so many duties at the workplace, it’s difficult to truly focus on someone else’s words.
Listening is also difficult since we are frequently preoccupied with ourselves. When you go into a conversation with only your target in mind, your goal is to control and manage the conversation so that you come out on top of the other party. But it’s critical to be receptive to new knowledge, even if it’s not what you’re seeking then.
Here’s how to become a better listener.
Ask questions
Asking more inquiries than you offer answers is one of the easiest methods to improve your listening skills. When you pose questions, you create a friendly environment for others to tell you information. Listening with genuine intent implies you will be open to being completely wrong, and you should be okay with that in a discourse.
Don’t interrupt
We’re sure you wouldn’t want to be in the midst of a statement when the other person opens their mouth repeatedly, breaking into your unfinished sentences. It’s anxiety-inducing and probably made you feel compelled to speed up what you’re saying just to get your message out.
When a speaker is interrupted to agree, dispute, or debate, the speaker loses track of what they are expressing. It’s quite aggravating. Thus, in a conversation, try postponing whatever you want to say until the other individual is finished. Wait for your time to come if it’s not something that urgent that you must disrupt.
Put judgments aside
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When done correctly, listening is an act of sensitivity. You’re attempting to see the world from the perspective of another person and to comprehend their feelings. That won’t happen if you’re passing judgment on the other person while they’re speaking.
Because you will be conveying all kinds of minute nonverbal signs that you have a viewpoint about what they’re asserting, it will stifle the dialogue. Folks will start opening up to you if you approach the conversation to discover their point of view without passing judgment since they will have the confidence over time that you will always appreciate what they have to say.
Be comfortable with silence
Silence might be uncomfortable, but it doesn’t have to be. We frequently try to fill the void left by silence by talking non-stop, but this just serves to keep the conversation from progressing any further or more meaningfully.
People can think and acquire insights regarding whatever is being talked about when there are pauses. It allows us to process new data and evaluate how it affects us. It also enables us to think about what to say next and what follow-up questions to ask. This gives us the ability to feel and be honest with our innermost thoughts.
Because we communicate so much more online these days, listening might feel like a lost skill sometimes. That’s unfortunate, because being an active listener may benefit you in all aspects of your life, including your interaction with pals, family, and coworkers. Do you want to improve your listening skills? Review the advice we’ve provided in this post and see if you can start implementing them in your conversational routine.
