The_Essential_Manager_s_Handbook

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284 / COMMUNICATING WITH YOUR TEAM

Listening to your team


Learning when to listen
Listening is a skill you acquire
naturally, but can improve upon if
you’re motivated to do so. The first
step toward becoming a better
listener is, surprisingly, to stop: you
need to stop talking, stop trying to
carry on more than one conversation,
and stop interrupting. Let the other
person speak. As others are talking,
allow yourself to respond cognitively
and emotionally, taking in the factual
information and the tone of their
remarks, without responding. Then
ask carefully thought-out questions
that will clarify what they have said
and reassure you of its basis in fact.

Studies show that adults now spend more than half of their daily
communication time listening to someone else speak. As a manager,
being able to listen effectively and understand others is at the heart
of creating a team that performs to the best of its ability.

BEWARE WISHFUL
THINKING
Just because you want to
hear something doesn’t
mean it is what the speaker
is actually saying. It is all
too easy to fall into the trap
of selective hearing, so
make sure that you listen to
everything that the speaker
is telling you.

Tip


of what you say to others is


not absorbed or remembered


by them. How can you be sure


that they are receiving the


most important parts of


your message?


75 %


US_284-285_Listeneing_Effectively.indd 284 30/05/16 3:04 pm

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