If You Aren’t Listening, You Aren’t Communicating

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Have you ever had this experience? You are having what you thought was a “conversation” with someone else…you ask them a question and their response has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with what you asked or what you were talking about? Guess what? You were NOT involved in a conversation!What was missing from your so-called conversation is a concept called “active listening”. “Active Listening” is a way of listening and responding to another person that improves mutual understanding. Believe it or not, not many people use this art in their communication… but I bet this does not actually surprise you.
Many times people are planning what their response will be to a particular point made by the person they are conversing with – sort of planning their “attack”. Other times they might be distracted by their list of to-dos for the day, the weather, what they want to wear, or any other things on their mind that have nothing to do with the conversation. This is common both in personal and business interactions and of course, does not lend itself to successful communications. What is the result of not using active listening skills? A lot of misunderstandings and potential trouble in that relationship. In order for communications to be effective, the communicator needs to really LISTEN to what is being said and they need to care about how the other person perceives the message he/she is trying to send. Personal relationships usually disintegrate because of poor communication skills. Misunderstandings and misinterpretations lead to resentments and walls are then put up between the involved parties. These resentments and walls grow over time and eventually the relationship falls apart.

Business relationships lacking in effective communications will also suffer in many ways. Bosses who don’t communicate effectively with their staff can’t expect their employees to be able to read their minds and deliver the desired result, yet often they blame the employee rather than look to their own poor communication skills. Clients who are not clear regarding job specs are often surprised and angry when the person they hired to perform a job or task doesn’t deliver what they were looking for. Sometimes the same clients are asked very specific questions by the consultant, yet they either don’t respond at all to the questions or don’t actually answer the questions. Have you ever been in a situation where you very clearly state each question in an itemized list yet the client doesn’t respond? It is not fun! It is even more important in today’s marketing and economic environment, for sales people, small business owners, customer service representatives, and anyone involved in relationships with those who affect the bottom line, to be effective communicators. The massive influx of social media marketing sites is leading businesses towards the new model of marketing. This new model demands building relationships, engagement and two-way communication channels. “We have two ears and one mouth so we can LISTEN twice as much as we SPEAK”

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Comments

Ashish Thapa says:

Good i like it

priya Dhanpat says:

Interesting and helpful video☺

Andy T says:

What did you use to create the video?

GrowMap says:

I really like this video about improving communications, Julie. The video is interesting to watch. This is one we really should be sharing frequently.

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