Last week I ran “Heavy Weight Listening” classes for Three Mobile as part of their pioneering Social Fitness hub, to help people improve their active listening skills, build deeper connections and grow their conversational confidence .
Most of the time when we listen, we are stuck in our head formulating a reply, or commentating on “what it means to me”. Active listening is the ability to get out of our own heads and get attentive to what the other person is saying, tuning in beyond their words to their tone of voice, body language and facial expressions.
Here’s some tips I shared on how to get into this zone:
1) take a moment to pause and don’t rush a response. Let your breath and senses get focused in the moment.
2) listen to understand not to respond. Use all your senses. Notice words, tone and body language. They all convey messages in their own unique way.
3) hold off on judgement and advice, take the time to listen. When they’ve finished, reflect back or paraphrase.
When people feel heard without judgement, they feel more deeply valued and supported. This deepens the feeling of social connection
As you strengthen your social fitness muscles, this will allow you to concentrate and retain more information. It will improve your conversational confidence.
You can see a small video interview with me discussing this here on my linkedin or instagram feed.
