Hello….Are You Listening?

How to Communicate, and after sitting on shelf for who knows how long, I finally picked it up and started reading it. I might as well have picked up a sling shot and turned it on myself because it pegged me right between the eyes.

It starts with a lesson on how listening is key in good communication. When we listen, we have deeper relationships, friends are drawn to us, and we are able to learn valuable information for business. The book moves on to the Blocks to Listening. There are 12 of them: Comparing, Mind Reading, Rehearsing, Filtering, Judging, Dreaming, Identifying, Advising, Sparring, Being Right, Derailing, and Placating.

Advising is a block that, as a strategic thinker, I am guilty of because I am trying to figure out the issue being shared and solve it instead of getting deeply involved in what the person is feeling and acknowledge their pain.