characteristics of effective listening skills

If you’re present, you’ll be able to focus and react with your gut, not with a critical (and often wrong or harsh) mind. While the planners among us might be made uneasy by this quality, these moment-to-moment responses will be great if they’re made with understanding. Like not listening to respond, good listeners use their focus in the present to react on the fly. What would you do if you wanted to remember and understand the conversation without verbally engaging with it? You’d be listening to comprehend, not respond. If you’re having trouble with this, try pretending you aren’t able to react or respond to the speaker. Instead, they listen to process and understand. Good listeners don’t focus on what they’re going to contribute to the conversation next.

If you’re constantly thinking about how you’re supposed to react to what the speaker is saying, you’re not being a good listener. This means you maintain good eye contact to emphasize and demonstrate your focus. You avoid all distractions, including your phone and other people. Instead of harboring on the past (whether your own or the speaker’s) or anticipating what they’ll say next, you’re processing information as it’s told to you. They’re fully presentīeing present means that you’re engaged in the current moment. Listening is much more than hearing it requires active - although mostly silent - participation to create a mutual interaction that builds communication, trust, and even compassion.null 13 qualities of good listeners 1. Learning to be a better listener prepares us to understand the lives and needs of others, as well as absorb information that might be pertinent to our own worldly experience.

Listening is an important part of connecting with and learning from others, whether it’s a close friend, boss or family member.

Characteristics of effective listening skills