Are You Listening?

How much time have you spent developing your listening skills?

When we think about the time we spend learning how to read, how to write and how to speak, the basic pillars of communication, vs how much time is given to listening, we start to see a significant gap appearing.

I have been listening to the The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R Covey.

How much time have you spent developing your listening skills?

When we think about the time we spend learning how to read, how to write and how to speak, the basic pillars of communication, vs how much time is given to listening, we start to see a significant gap appearing.

I have been listening to the The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R Covey.

One of the areas that really got me thinking was the section on empathetic communication.

Empathic communication, in the simplest definition, means showing the other person that s/he is listened to and that their inner universe (thoughts, emotions, attitudes, values, etc.) is being understood.

Hopefully you are already familiar with the 10-35-55 rule suggesting 10% of communication is in the words, 35% is in the tone and 55% is in the body language.

In empathic listening, you listen with your ears, but you also, and more importantly, listen with your eyes and with your heart. You listen for feeling, for meaning. You listen for behaviour. You use your right brain as well as your left says Stephen.

‘Seek first to understand then to be understood’

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