“One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say.”  ~ Bryant H. McGill

The most important skill you can build on in your life is your listening skills.

And yet…the single biggest issue negatively impacting most work environments and relationships is poor listening skills. Which begs the question…

So Why Is Listening So Hard?

Listening requires that we stop our internal mind chatter and focus on listening to the other person. Listening means we need to get past ourselves and our egos long enough to listen to what the other person has to say, think, or feel.

The paradox that listening creates is that most of us don’t feel heard or listened too. In order to be heard, we feel the need to speak first and speak often to make sure the other person is “getting” us! Which just so happens to be because we fear we won’t get our needs met if we don’t put them out there first.

The truth of the matter is that when we listen first with the intention to understand the wants and needs of the other person, they are then more likely to help us get what we need.

It’s the old if you want something give it away first and you will get it back in bucket-fulls!

Next Time?

So the next time you have an opportunity to speak, what if you instead turned it into the possibility of listening first? What if you focused on seeking to understand before attempting to be understood?

Now, imagine if everyone in the world listened before they spoke for just 1 day?

I know what you’re thinking, who would talk? Won’t it too quiet out there?

To be honest, I really don’t think we have to worry about that…

and that’s all I have to say about that!