You front up to meetings, keep coffee dates with friends and
call your mum at least once a week –but how much of the
conversation are you really taking in? Meg Mason stays
focused long enough to uncover why conscious listening could
be the key to strengthening your relationships and getting aheadW
e’re in a cafe. I’m describing a work issue involving company tax, internal
auditors, something. You’re tired, and at the table next to us is a pair of
loud talkers, one of whom has the cross-body bag you’ve been thinking
ǯȂĚ ¢
MatchesFashion.com it’s $800. Feel like another piccolo? You probably
shouldn’t because of that headache you’ve had for days and, oh, that’sright, you were
going to make a doctor’s appointment. Anyway, shit, what was I saying?
“So then, I realised the spreadsheet just couldn’t be showing the right totals...”
“That reminds me, I still have that headache I was telling you about, remember?”
Um. No. Because I wasn’t listening and neither were you. We might be hearing, we
might even be giving each other sweet, sweet eye contact, but admit it – you barely
caught a word of my killer accounting story and I have no record of said headache.Still,
we shouldn’t feel bad. Neither my monologuing or your wandering mind is to blameTHE
ART OF
LISTENING
78 ELLE AUSTRALIA