Listening is a virtue

Listening is an art; listening is a craft; listening is a virtue in itself. It has become a rare commodity these days. People with good listening skills are revered everywhere. Gone are the days when experts suggest us to concentrate on oratorical abilities. It is high time most of us realize the importance of silence and communicate more than through just words. Ignore the body language part of communication. Young executives are trained extensively to develop a business oriented and professional body language, that it seems everything is programmed. Silence is the only natural language that conveys more. The significance of silence lies more in absorbing the required information than conveying. To be successful in any business or excel in any workplace, you need to be a good listener. We have enormous literature explaining the traits of a good listener. It is not worth our while to discuss the same here. Indeed, it would be of no use to even list the advantages of being a good listener. We are here to just understand the difference in life that can be achieved by mastering these listening skills.

Yes, listening skills have become an important skill set that cannot be taught anywhere. Patience and perseverance are very necessary to become a good listener. Imagine an angry manager shouting at you. Most of us tend to prepare our statements even before he completes his discourse. We tend to close our ears to what he says as soon as we sense an imminent danger in his demeanor. It is a grave mistake that can rob many chances to prove ourselves. All we need to do through listening is understand and appreciate the concerns of the other person. The moment we get into the shoes of the other person, we tend to get a clear picture of the situation. Instead, if we also set out to losing our temper, there is very little that we can achieve. We can never reach the neutral point of view. The day we reach this point of view with regard to problems and situations, we will become excellent problem solvers.

Yes, problem solving is achieved only when there is an unbiased outlook towards a problem. Perhaps, such an outlook concentrates more on the solution than the problem. If we are busy delving into the intricacies of the problem and its consequences, we get little time to consider the various opportunities and threats that lie ahead for us. There is a hazy picture of the problem. Instead of arriving at conclusions while the other person is speaking, listen to him until he completes delivering his statement. Most interpersonal and relationship problems get solved the moment we allow the other person to vent his anger to the maximum. With a balanced approach, we need to ensure that none of us ends up losing. We can never create a win-win situation if we become defensive in our approach.

Understand that you need not completely accept with what the other person speaks. All you need is to give a hearing to the speaker and understand his point of view. You need to later get into third party view and analyze the problem from three different angles to arrive at unbiased perception of the problem. This helps reach healthy conclusions for one and all. You can later put across the points effectively and even the other party would be more than willing to listen to you as you have done. The healthier chemistry solves interpersonal problems immediately and paves the way to solve other existing problems.

Remember actions speak better than words. You can convey a lot with your actions than mere words that add to the confrontation. Learn to solve problems with consultation rather than confrontation. People will say that you are more amicable and approachable if you just listen to their woes. Managers who fail to understand this basic virtue find it very difficult to communicate to their subordinates. As you move up the corporate ladder, the significance of listening increases because you need to address the issues of a good number of stakeholders.