Be a Good Listener to Climb the Career Ladder
August 9, 2010 by admin
Filed under Getting Ahead
Listening well and carefully makes you shine on the job. Listening builds rapport, enriches relationships, and can ease a tense working environment.
Being a good listener even makes you a more productive worker, because you better understand assignments and expectations. Good listening is also one of the most important ingredients in being a good leader.
In fact, listening is such a splendid skill it’s surprising that good listeners are as rare as paid overtime. Maybe it’s our hurry-it-up, want-it-yesterday world. Maybe it’s that we’re all busy trying to “brand” ourselves or to impress people. Or maybe it just sounds too simple. But it’s not. Listening well requires an investment of time and effort.
How? Start with these tips:
* Put aside your own thoughts and focus on your speaker.
* Look for the meaningful, the worthwhile, in what the speaker is saying.
* Pay attention to your speaker’s facial expression and body language.
* Ask meaningful, relevant questions.
* Paraphrase what the speaker just said.
Read the original article at usnews