The Art of Being a Good Listener
Published on: 06 Jan 2025
Well most of us, sometime or the other, in our life have been chided with “Will you stop staring outside/at the phone and listen to me for once?” Listening is definitely an art, and without a listener, communication is incomplete. While some of us are great at expressing ourselves, most of us find listening to others pretty challenging. Listening comes rarely to people and therefore we must inculcate it intentionally. While undoubtedly, listening has numerous benefits like improving relationships, building trust and reducing misunderstanding, what should one do when listening doesn’t work for him.
Well one can pretend to listen and here are few ways through which this feat can be achieved-
The first piece of advice would be it's better to be attentive rather than only look attentive. After all, in the long run it is you who will miss out.
The second step is creating an impression that you’re genuinely interested in what someone is saying. Look at them and maintain eye contact. You can ask a few questions to convince the speaker that you are listening.
Also, let your head do the talking. While pretending to listen to someone, sprinkle in some nods of agreement to give the impression that you know what’s going on but don’t stop there. One of the best things you can do is when you are talking to someone, is tilting your head to the side so that you have a little more, exposure of the neck. That will increase chances of perceiving you as receptive.
Get your body into it. Listening isn't all about your head, it's also about your body. However, your ‘go to’ action will depend on whether you are sitting or standing. You can lean forward on your seat if you are seated, or if you are standing and it is very noisy environment you can draw closer. Orient yourself either way towards the speaker so that you are face to face with the person.
And finally, remember acting like you are listening is not without it's risk. Getting caught pretending to listen has a greater negative effect than not pretending to listen at all. Not only that, but if your performance is convincing you will only encourage the person boring you to also continue the talking.
However, make no mistake. I reiterate the fact that listening is a skill that is vitally important, sadly not taught at all, and in the aftermath of Covid-19, it’s more than ever important to develop this skill. So do try and listen to what others have to say.
