Are You Listening?

I read that the average conversation in America is interrupted every 17 seconds.  Wow.  That means we listen for 17 seconds then think, it's our turn to talk. How many times a day does someone ask you are you listening?  or did you hear what I said?.  If you hear that often it is probably time to work on your listening skills.

Listening is one of the greatest gifts you can give to another person. By improving your listening skills, you will be a better friend, colleague, or supervisor. People will naturally gravitate towards you, and appreciate you. It is your responsibility to continuously work on improving your listening skills. It may take time and effort, but the rewards will be worth it.

As freight brokers, we can only provide what a customer needs after we truly understand what they need.  Understanding comes through listening intently.  After listening we need to verify that what we thought we heard is what they meant.  They get this at fast food restaurants.  They ask you what you want, then repeat what they thought they heard you say, then ask if there is anything else they can get you.

Our tendency is to half listen while we are thinking of what we will say next.  Or we stop listening when we assume we know the end their story.  We may choose to only pretend like we are listening because we are not interested in whatever they are talking about.

We have a lot of things competing for our listening in this major age of information overload.  I believe in trying to be interested in however is talking to me.  As we listen to others we gain some of their knowledge base.  And we gain respect from the speaker because of our courteous listening.

Today analyze your listening and purpose to improve.

Moving forward,

Jeff Roach
www.brooketraining.com