DENNIS INSPIRATION: 13. CAREFUL LISTENERS VS FAST LEARNERS

Listening to the world around you is not often a skill that is consciously practiced by everybody.  We often take listening for granted.  Careful listening can help you to better understand other people.  The more careful you listen, the more you will learn.  Few tips being a careful listener:

·         Remove distractions

·         Pay attention

·         Listen to one thing only

·         Stop thinking too much

Hearing is one of our five senses.  Being a good listener can make or break a career.  It is a critical skill in everyone’s life.  If you are not a good, careful listeners, the result can be less than amusing; it can even be damaging of life changing as demonstrated in the game of whispered messages.

As a leader, in order to be able to make better decisions, listen to your people, get their ideas and listen to their inputs.  It can be the biggest asset in the organization.  Most people won’t listen to what you are saying unless they feel that you have listened to them.

You can win more friends with your ears

Than with your mouth

(Harvey Mackay)

We were taught to listen to our elders from when we were still young.  But in actual fact, most of us don’t know how to listen.  When people are not listening carefully and practiced to be careful listeners, many things are being misinterpreted.  Most negative perceptions arise from misinterpretation or misunderstanding from not listening carefully.

Many conflicts can be avoided if everybody is a careful listener.  Listen not only to the words, but also the on-verbal communication.  Careful listeners will almost always have more or better understanding and thus are more productive.

You have to be willing sometimes to listen to some remarkable bad opinions.

Because if you say to someone ‘That’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard’

Then you’ll never get anything out of that person again,

And you might as well have a puppet on a string or a robot

(John Bryan)

 

We should never pretend to know what we don’t know,

We should not feel ashamed to ask and learn from people below,

And we should listen carefully to the views of the cadres at the lowest level.

Be a pupil before you become a teacher;

Learn from the cadres at the lower levels before you issue orders

(Mao Tse Tung)

 

The most basic of all human needs is the need to

Understand and be understood

The best way to understand people is to listen to them

(Ralph Nichols)

Of all the skills of leadership, listening is the most valuable

And are of the least understood

That’s how they get word before anyone else

Of unseen problems and opportunities

(Peter Nulty)