How Do You Develop Effective Listening Skills?
Listening is a skill that is deceptively demanding. David Barkan once said that “Easy listening only exists on the radio.” This is more true than we would readily want to believe. In order to develop effective listening skills, you have to put in a fair share of work along with having some proven techniques to improve your ability to be an “active listener”. This article provides some of those techniques. Look at the person who is speaking to you. Eye contact is a definite must. Don’t go overboard to the point of looking weird, but make fairly frequent eye contact with the speaker to let them know that you’re still actively engaged in the conversation. Ask questions. This helps the speaker feel that you are genuinely interested in what they’re saying. Pick out certain aspects of what they’re telling you and “probe” for more information through questions. For example, if someone is telling you about what they did back when they were in college, ask them “What college did you go to?” Sim