Are we listening?

Sharmila Gautama, Founder of EnglishCoach Services

We are slowly moving to become a culture of impatient listeners. While listening seems to be a fairly simple and easy skill to apply to communication, its impact on building relationships and fostering trust is enormous.

Julie Starr in her book The Coaching Manual shares her framework on how listening happens at four levels.  This framework puts it across simply and is self-explanatory.

  1. It’s easy to understand at what level each one is operating most of the time.
  2. We can engage with people on different occasions at different levels of listening depending on the information and its importance.
  3. What should I practice to move to deep listening?

Deep listening is understanding the other person. One important tip for building meaningful relationships is to stop judging the other person. Avoid pointing flaws in logic says Simon Sinek, Author and Inspirational Speaker. So, the key is to just listen and not jump to conclusions.

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