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Leadership
How to Become a Better Listener
Listening is part of our everyday lives. Although listening is an essential component of communication, we tend to focus on speaking. And we often try to raise the confidence of others by improving their communication skills.
However, listening is an act of confidence too. In this short, I will highlight the three components of active listening and what we can do to improve.
1. Clearing your thoughts to listen to others
Before starting any conversation, we should clear our minds of clutter to ensure we are ready to listen to the other person. It is easy to have our minds on other things or begin forming responses in our minds before the person is finished.
2. Fully understanding the person’s desires and points
Taking time to fully understand the other person means being able to express their desires and point them back to them. A lot of us are not able to repeat back the desires of others after listening for the first time. That is why active listening often requires us to ask questions to clarify.