How to improve listening skills?

Do you love listening to music? I am sure you do. Most of us love listening to music as music brings a sense of enjoyment. Why the same does not apply during a discussion or an important conversation be it in personal or professional life? People are becoming impatient. They immediately try to jump on their views without trying to understand what the other person is talking about. People should develop effective listening skills in order to be successful in their personal or professional lives.

I play the role of a SCRUM Master as well as a Business Analyst in my professional career. So, having good listening skills is very much important for me to do well in my role. I am listing below some of the techniques that can be applied to improve your listening skills.

Concentration

I figured out that majority of the time, a person’s response is completely irrelevant to a question that is being asked during a meeting. There can be two reasons for this. Either the person did not pay attention to the question fully or he intentionally wanted to avoid the question and instead thought of sharing his own views which will likely divert the discussion in a manner he wanted. In both of these cases, the person lacks listening skills. If it’s the first case, then the person has to work on improving his concentration. Meditation is one of the ways to improve concentration.

Respond

Listening does not mean only listening to what the other person is saying but also responding to the point or the question that is being discussed as accurately as possible. In the example discussed above, when the person tried to avoid the question intentionally and shared his views to deviate from the topic, he never wanted to respond to the question. He reacted to the question being asked without putting together any thought. Since he had a preconceived thought in his mind, he was just waiting impatiently to share those views. If this happens, the person who asked the question will feel completely ignored. Never do this. Listen to the question closely and then respond to it.

Patience

Improving your patience will reap a huge benefit not only in improving your listening skills but also in other aspects of your life. Think of someone constantly intervening in the middle of a discussion just to get his own views heard. What impression will you have on that person? Maybe someone who is impatient or arrogant. Don’t interrupt a person when he is speaking. Let the person finish his talk and then you pitch in. Your views will also be heard. You would just need to wait for your opportunity.

Reduce ego

A person who is egoistic will often have poor listening skills. An egoistic person always gives importance to his own views instead of listening or paying attention to what the other person is talking about. Think of a scenario when you disagreed with someone. Now that person instead of listening to your arguments which are definitely valid was trying hard to justify his own thoughts. His ego is not letting him have an open mind and listen to your thoughts. That is why it is so much important to drop that ego and listen actively to participate in a discussion.

Motivation

Last but not least is motivation. If you are motivated enough to improve your listening skills with all the techniques mentioned above, none can stop you from becoming a good listener. You can click here to know how you can remain motivated. Note that majority of the good leaders in the world have effective listening skills. You can be one of them if you are self-motivated on enhancing your listening capabilities.

Conclusion

A leader needs to have effective listening skills. If you want to excel in your area of expertise, you must have efficient listening skills. I hope this article gave you a glimpse of how to improve your listening skills.

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