Listening for Personal Effectiveness

Why do you have 2 ears and 1 mouth? So you can listen twice as much as you speak…

To listen well is as powerful a means of influence as to talk well…

It is the province of knowledge to speak and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen. Small men monopolise the talking, great men monopolise the listening.

Do you believe in God? Prove it…Listen to Him
One of the surest ways to success in life is to know exactly what the Creator is saying about your life. Listen to God. I’ll leave it at that.

Listen to yourself
Doubt yourself and you doubt everything you see. Judge yourself and you see judges everywhere. But if you listen to the sound of your own voice, you can rise above doubt and judgment. And you can see forever.

Listen to your spouse
I strongly believe that if you truly listen to your wife, husband, or whoever you are in an intimate relationship with, you stand a better chance, of not just making things work but enjoying your relationship. Listen without any prejudice or preconceived ideas of what your partner is about to say. Listen with rapt attention. Most times we hear, but we don’t listen. When you truly listen, you understand what you have heard, and you respond appropriately. The first duty of love is to listen

Listen to your children
A rebellious attitude can be nipped in the bud when we truly listen to the first signals, in their words, and attitudes. Trust and inspiration are developed during heart to heart communication

Listen to your boss/supervisor at work…
When you pay close attention and listen carefully, you increase your chances of success at work. You minimize the likelihood of doing the wrong things. You improve your chances of meeting or even exceeding your employer’s expectations. Listening can improve your chances of demonstrating superior initiative, showing proactivity when it is required. This is simply because if you’ve been listening closely to your boss, after a while you can predict what he would like you to do. Well done is better than well said.

Listen to people that are worth hearing

Listening takes practice, just like any other skill. Here are a few tips to help you along:
• Maintain eye contact with the person you’re listening to
• Focus on the information being passed across not on the mode of delivery
• Avoid preempting the speaker, listen to what he is saying not what you think he wants to say
• Ask questions to clarify your understanding
• Finish listening before you decide on what to say. Don’t spend the listening time planning your response
• Let the speaker finish talking before you respond, avoid interrupting, if possible
• When there's nothing to say, say nothing

Wisdom is the reward for a lifetime of listening ... when you'd have preferred to talk.