How often do you find yourself in a conversation that seems to go around and around?
You can't seem to get the person to understand your point and they probably feel the same way.
The biggest challenge we face is communicating with each other!
Strong communication requires you to listen.
When you listen to your people, not only will you learn from what they have to say, it gives them the space they need to grow and contribute.
This is why you should learn the skills required for active listening.
Active listening is a way of listening and responding to another person that improves mutual understanding.
In today's video David Brennan, Co-founder of Safety Evolution discusses active listening and how it will make you a better Safety Professional.
He explains the four main aspects of active listening which are:
- Being attentive - This means you need to stay focused on the person that you are speaking with. Look them in the eye, watch their body language and be present in the conversations
- Open-ended questions - ask open-ended questions to learn more about what they are trying to tell you. Open-ended questions require an answer that is detailed. They often start with why, how, or what.
- Request clarification - The request for clarification allows you to get more details. It also gives the person the opportunity to expand on what they are trying to say. Take the time to make sure that you get all the information. This is incredibly important for safety professionals because often when being asked about safety-critical topics, a small miss in the context could get someone hurt.
- Summarize - Finish the conversation by summarizing their points back to them. If you can't repeat it back, then you need to keep asking clarifying questions to understand what you are not capturing.
Most people think they are above-average listeners, but research shows that the average person only listens at about 25% capacity. This means that we can all improve immensely in this area.
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