Learn4Life: Create Courageous Conversations<–Listen
Post inspiration: The Jan 2010 Compass Coaching Map I choose was Create Courageous Conversations. So, I decided to blog about it.
Day 10: A willingness to listen is a hallmark of the most effective managers, leaders, marriages, partnerships and relationships.
Listening is at least as important as thinking critically, planning thoroughly or being on time.
Kim Leatherdale, in a recent blog post listed listening as an important skill: “Teach yourself how to really listen to others when they are sharing with you.”
Stewart Levine summed it up in his post: Listening is The Critical Most Important Skill The first line is: “The only way to resolve conflict is to listen to what they have to say.”
Listening and being aware of the message, verbal, visual and non-verbal is becoming more and more important to the successful completion of many routine tasks today. Today we use so many different communication channels that understanding their strengths and weaknesses is critical to understanding the real message. We need to know when to choose to switch communication channels. For instance picking up the phone when email or texting seems to be going off course.
Quick internet test. To see how the rest of the world felt I ran two searches
“listening is overrated” 791,000 Generally the posts got specific to an area like social media. Many downplayed listening to highlight another area or skill.
“importance of listening” 27,000,000 I did not read them all, but the general idea of the first 3 pages of hits agreed with this post.
I realize this is not a precise study, but fun.
Jim Sutton
Facilitating understanding in the digital age
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