5 common sense rules for active listening
Although it’s a well known subject and everybody has something to say about it, relating to the project presentation, I thought it will be a good chance to put yourself in the audience’s place. Is it easy to be a good listener? I will show you that if you aren’t, there are things you could do to become one, or at least to improve your listening skills.
I usually attend to project presentations, and it happened more than once to notice someone who mistook the boardroom for the bedroom. So I think the first and more important thing is to get your rest at home and be prepared to endure at least an half an hour without snoring like an asthmatic camel. At least act like you are listening, or, even better, stay at home and watch Nascar while drinking a Bud.
Now, for the awake part of the readers, the real rules:
1. Always try to ignore any form of distraction, like your cellular phone, the talkative people around you and any other things that can disturb your listening process. The only thing you should pay attention is the presentation and the presenter.
2. Try to put yourself in place of the person in front of you and use your body language to express your interest to raise the morale of the speaker, if you were in his place you surely didn’t liked to see a bored and uninterested crowd.
3. If you have a question for
the speaker, or an answer to some of the speaker’s questions, wait until the pause or the end of the presentation, don’t try to formulate it during the presentation, because you will definitely lose your concentration. Also, do not interrupt the speaker, even if he is making a pause, let him start the discussion.
4. If you feel like arguing about some idea in the presentation because you don’t agree, I advice you to keep it to yourself, you are there to hear what the speaker has to say, not the other way around.
5. Another important thing is to provide feedback, to let the person in front of you know that you are listening and understanding what he had presented.
If you think that these are useless advices, try to observe next time you are attending to a presentation the people around you. You will be surprised.
I usually attend to project presentations, and it happened more than once to notice someone who mistook the boardroom for the bedroom. So I think the first and more important thing is to get your rest at home and be prepared to endure at least an half an hour without snoring like an asthmatic camel. At least act like you are listening, or, even better, stay at home and watch Nascar while drinking a Bud.
Now, for the awake part of the readers, the real rules:
1. Always try to ignore any form of distraction, like your cellular phone, the talkative people around you and any other things that can disturb your listening process. The only thing you should pay attention is the presentation and the presenter.
2. Try to put yourself in place of the person in front of you and use your body language to express your interest to raise the morale of the speaker, if you were in his place you surely didn’t liked to see a bored and uninterested crowd.
3. If you have a question for
the speaker, or an answer to some of the speaker’s questions, wait until the pause or the end of the presentation, don’t try to formulate it during the presentation, because you will definitely lose your concentration. Also, do not interrupt the speaker, even if he is making a pause, let him start the discussion.
4. If you feel like arguing about some idea in the presentation because you don’t agree, I advice you to keep it to yourself, you are there to hear what the speaker has to say, not the other way around.
5. Another important thing is to provide feedback, to let the person in front of you know that you are listening and understanding what he had presented.
If you think that these are useless advices, try to observe next time you are attending to a presentation the people around you. You will be surprised.
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Written by : Liviu Moldovan
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