Ways of improving your listening skills

The process of listening at work (e.g. internal communications, meetings, advocacy etc) it’s essential to accomplish your tasks. Below there are few tips on how to improve your listening skills: 

• Concentrate on what the speaker has to say by avoiding distractions (eg. looking out the window or thinking about how you might accomplish the task at hand).Adopt the attitude “I must hear what the speaker has to say now!” and take notes. If you listen well when needed the notes will fill in the gaps later.
• Don’t involve yourself emotional with what the speaker says. You might not agree with what he says but you can build later strong arguments in your favour.
• Try to be “open minded” to what is been said. If you adopt an offensive attitude from the beginning you will not be able to listen well.
• Ask questions when you don’t understand something. Listening should not be seen as a passive process. Interrupting the speaker might not be the best approach in all the situations but at least the speaker can see that you pay attention to what’s been said. 
• Position yourself at the table closer to the speaker and have direct eye contact with him. If you stay far from the speaker it’s easier to get distracted. 
• Pay attention at the ways in which the message is delivered: tone of voice, body language, words which are repeated, breaks between ideas, etc and take notes.  
   

Related sources:

“Listening to others in meetings” 

“Listening skills”  

“Improve your listening skills”

“Are you really listening? How to improve your ability to listen to others”

“Better listening skills help you pay better attention”