“I didn’t mean to say this; rather, I was trying to tell you to understand my situation,” I said.
One fine day, my best friend and I were having a conversation, and suddenly the topic was diverted due to a short misunderstanding and led to disrupting whole communication.
We both talked after a few days. I said the above line in an explanation of our previous disruption in communication. We could have saved this time with proper listening before.
I thought on this and realized that one great psychological thought is true:
Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.
Stephen R. Covey.
Listening is an essential communication skill. Listening lets us receive the message and interpret it in the communication process.
We meet several people in our life. We do talk to them, but most of the time, we don’t listen to them to understand what they’re telling us; instead, we try to get ready with a reply as soon as they talk to us.
Most of the time, we listen to what our mind wants to hear. In this particular process, we lack the primary significance of listening as a part of the communication process.
Listening is an easy skill. You need to pay attention to what the person is saying with words and understand what he can’t tell by the phrase through his body language. Here, you need to care about the person you’re talking to by understanding through his place.
If we observe, most great leaders and entrepreneurs have the ability to listen thoroughly to their employees, subordinates, customers, and investors. They make listening a priority, and that skill makes them different from all others.
Those who listen to criticism without the hurry of replying to it with words always win the space.
Good listening skills also help us in personal relations. When two people make it a habit of listening to each other before a reply can lead to a more prosperous and healthy relationship.
This also leads us to help others in the best manner possible.
Now, there’s a difference between listening and hearing. Most of the time, we can hear many things automatically and leave them, but we listen to understand. Listening is more alert and focused action.
Adopting excellent listening skill will allow us to unleash the great potential in our human relationships and lead us to path of success.
Sometimes, listening to someone is the greatest gift we can offer to someone.
So, let’s make society more beautiful and positive by being a good listener.
