The Power of Listening
Listening means the process of hearing and attempting to comprehend the meaning of sound around you. But listening is also the most essential part of building a healthy relationship and laying the foundation of a strong relationship. Here are some of the benefits of listening to others:
1 Understand the other side
2 Connect with people
3 Convince
We must understand the power of listening as listening is the Golden Key that opens the door to human relationship
In general, we practice two types of listening:
1 Ordinary Listening — Focus is on Us
2 Active Listening — Focus is on Other
Great leaders are great listeners, and they strongly believe in the philosophy of — talk less and listen more. The best leaders are action takers, efficient, and active listeners. They very well understand the fact that knowledge and wisdom are not gained by talking, but by listening. You can think of any great leader and you will find them practicing active listening.
Listening is not about hearing to what’s said, it's about understanding what’s not said or heard!
Listening is about understanding the feelings, emotions & needs behind the words!
Dale Carnegie’s best selling book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, demonstrates the importance of listening as the golden rule to win people. Be a good listener, encourage others to talk about themselves, become genuinely interested in other people, try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view, and be sympathetic to the other person’s ideas and desires.
So if listening is so valuable and it's one of the habits we practice since our birth, why it's so difficult to listen? Some of the reasons are:
1 There is so much of Noise in our mind
2 We listen to agree/disagree & Reply
If You want to listen to others, listen to your mind first!
The process of Listening can be best described by the acronym RASA:
R- Receive. Receive information with empathy
A- Acknowledge to the person you are listening to with your body language
S- Summarize the information you have gathered by listening and seek confirmation
A- Ask questions to understand the complete picture and better details of the message just conveyed to you.
Being a good listener starts with empathy and understanding someone else’s perspective.
In fact, when in the discussion, reinforce what you’ve heard by summarizing their words and repeating them back.
Don’t forget that listening at its core is an active process — and hearing someone as opposed to listening to them are two very different things.
This is the age of communication that needs more of a Listening revolution. Most of the conflicts around us are because of not listening. Listening mindfully can be great way to resolve most of the conflicts around us. Let us Transform our families, Relationships & the whole world through listening, ear by ear!
