Active listening and giving feedback can be challenging. People perceive the best listeners to sit quietly and occasionally ask questions that tell them all they need to know. Sitting there silently nodding does not prove that a person is listening. Good listening is much more than being silent while the other person talks.

Listening Skills are the quiet soft skills “sauce” that can make or break a career. Have you ever had a client, customer, boss, or colleague have to repeat things to you several times or look at you as if they needed clarification on whether you were understanding them or even paying attention?

When you read, you are listening, but when you are reading, you sometimes are not thinking about what the words mean. Understanding what the words you read are intended to convey is listening also.

6 Skills

that will help you listen and understand

1. Paying attention

2. Withholding judgment

3. Reflecting on what was said

4. Clarifying what is being said

5. Summarizing what you thought was said

6. Sharing what was agreed on