“No one ever listened himself out of a job.”
—Calvin Coolidge, former President of the United States-
Mentioning INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION Issues-LISTENING - You have noticed that your situation at work has changed. You are learning about important events too late and everything is an emergency. You are constantly putting out fires and you are receiving large amounts of written communication that is cluttering up your desk. You notice that managers and other employees talk to each other about projects but not to you and when they do talk to you they seem to be repeating information unnecessarily. One day a co-worker repeats important information to you three times and you lose it and say: “What is the problem? I don’t understand what’s going on here. You only have to tell me once!” Your shocked co-worker says: “I told you three times because you finished my sentences and just kept talking around everything, I tried to tell you. You aren’t listening to me or anyone else around here?”, and then storms off. You are dumbfounded. You consider yourself an excellent communicator. You never thought that your listening skills need work. You decide to talk to your supervisor directly. Your supervisor apologizes for not bringing the issue up with you sooner since it has been an issue for a while. Your supervisor suggests the following tips to you:
Try to spend more time listening than talking
Do not finish the sentences of others when they are speaking
Do not answer a question with a question
Try to control your biases when you are listening
Try not to dominate the conversation
Provide feedback but do not interrupt incessantly
You also mention to your supervisor that you would be interested in attending a workshop on interpersonal communication. You and your supervisor have a plan and you hope things will improve.
The Minute - Being mindful of our Interpersonal Communication scenario on LISTENING-What do you think about this? How do you feel about this? What do you do about this? What would you like to do differently about this in the future?
The Meeting of the Mindful-for fuller minds and moving organizations…
Debra Gould & Associates, Inc.
Phone: (504) 460-9641
Email: djgould@gouldassoc.com, website: www.gouldassoc.com
