Quieting the Noise Maker
Inside
“But…”- and interruption starter
Whitmore’s tenth observation is: Listen.
The other day I went to dinner with a friend. Usually my friend is the
center of attention. He loves to engage,
talk and comment. This time he sat quietly and listened.
This was so different for him that I just could not stop thinking about
it. In my eyes he was way more effective
that he listened actively. Yes he did
chime in a couple of time BUT that was over a two hour dinner with two other
people.
I believe the true benefit of being quiet is that you get to understand
what the other person is saying and hopefully “full understand” their
needs. It seems to me that interruption
is another way of showing how smart we are.
But as this example showed me, by being quiet and asking better
questions we are more likely to be seen as “intelligent”.
Interrupting is easy. Hell we do
not even have to let the other person finish their thoughts before we impose
our thoughts on them. By giving them
space to speak we set us up to better understand them and minimize the need to
clarify later.
Today’s question is:
“How do you force
yourself to listen until you fully understand?
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