effective personal and professional communication skills
by Bruce Fernandez
1. Try to set aside judgment.
1.1. set aside your judgment and withhold blame and criticism in order to fully understand
2. Focus fully on the speaker
2.1. stay focused on the moment-to-moment experience in order to pick up the subtle nuances and important nonverbal cues
3. Provide feedback
3.1. Paraphrase, summarize are two of the greatest methods of showing feedback. Other ways would be to ask questions about what was said or simply answer questions that have been asked.
4. Avoid interrupting or trying to redirect the conversation to your concerns
4.1. empathize with the conversation but do not direct it towards yourself, such as "yeah... let me tell you bout what happened to me!" Actively listening grants favor to the conversation by simply bringing regard to its interest. If we only listen to answer then we miss the conversations true nature.
5. Show your interest in what's being said
5.1. Make some physical gestures/ nonverbal's to show your involvement in their conversation. Make eye contact, nod, add an uh huh, or yes and even a nod. These small gestures can express a lot of intent and create value.
