“The more you practice listening and simply saying less, the more you will learn.”
Those braniacs at Brains on Fire are at it again. Their blog is full of simple wisdom, including this post called Shhh. Listen.
Keep track of how many times you choose NOT to speak today. Chances are you’ll learn so much that you’ll make silence a part of your daily ritual.
Let’s solve your listening and learning problems together!
Photo from iStockphoto.
I think David calls it “Mutual Understand”. When you think of it that way, listening takes on a different perspective. You must work on it every day at home and at work.
Hey, I like that your post reflects your point!
So, as an extrovert, the whole “listening thing” has been a learned behavior, because it’s not my nature. Nonetheless, it can be learned. When I choose to be quiet and listen it’s fascinating what I discover about others (our society doesn’t support silence, so when faced with it people feel a need to “fill the space”…that’s when the good stuff comes out!) Cheers to being quiet!
I love the tool from Scott Richards book the power of questions… he says to think WAIT (why am I talking?)
That is the subject of a new post – coming soon!