Listening

A good listener is hard to find. We’re great responders. We can tell people why they are wrong before the even finish saying anything.

Stephen Covey talks about it in his amazing book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. It’s been around for many years. It’s still right.

Here’s a question for you….”do you know everything?” If the answer is ‘yes’, then I’d like to meet you because I have a few questions.

If the answer is ‘no’, then the follow up question would be, “are you trying to learn?”. You don’t learn by talking, you learn by listening. You can listen to people talk, read their words, watch their video, hear their music.

If you’re spending all of your listening time trying to formulate the correct response, then you’re not really listening. Spend your listening time trying to understand. Odds are the person you are listening to isn’t an idiot, and you can learn something, even if you don’t agree.

Give it a try.

You can do this.