---

Guest post by: Ric Phillips Become an Author

Tweet

---

---

@font-face { font-family: "Arial"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } Active listening skills are important to utilize in your everyday life in the workplace or at home. Passively listening while multi-tasking several things will give the impression that you are not paying attention, and could cause people to avoid you or maybe even resent you!

If you are an entrepreneur or a manager, then you need people to trust you and follow your vision and direction. People must feel that they are being heard and respected, in order for them to return the favour!

Recently I met a senior manager at a global financial company who has had the benefit of over 20 years of the best sales and management training, and we discussed active listening. He is smart enough to know that we all need a reminder once in a while of the simple communication strategies that work best with others, because do not want our colleagues to think that we are not listening, or do not care about their problems. I recommended this easy to remember tool as we both agreed that ‘simple’ often really does work best. The tool that I shared is R-E-O.

R – Reflect back or ‘paraphrase’ their main ideas, content, key words and ideas. You need not use the exact same phrase or sentences; rather just serve back the message that you got their main points. The beauty of this is that it immediately gives an opportunity to clear up any miscommunication right at the beginning of the conversation, as opposed to getting halfway through only then to realize you weren’t following the whole picture, and you have to start again from the top.

E – Empathy is a showing of a shared feeling and understanding of the emotional impact of the speaker’s situation. Be careful not to judge here, so please hold your own opinion until the other person is finished. If you need to illustrate that you understand, briefly mention the basics of your story, but this is not the time to take over the conversation. Your job is to listen actively and pay attention to their emotional state and body language. This is why you should be making eye-contact during face-to-face communications, so that you can monitor their emotional state and receptiveness.

O – Open-ended questions can be asked to get more information, background, and details that will help you and them discover a solution to the problem. We cannot ask a question that begs a “Yes or No” answer. We must ask questions that get them talking freely, in their own words. E.g. do not ask “Are you going to request a transfer?” Rather ask “What are your options on changing your current situation?”

Also, please remember to be careful with starting your questions with “why”. It usually sounds like you are challenging or criticizing the person. E.g. “Why are you taking vacation now?” could be changed to “What are the benefits of taking your vacation now, as opposed to next month?” or “What are the reasons that you would like to have vacation now?” or “I was hoping you would not be taking vacation during this critical time for us (our company). Could you help me understand your thinking/planning/situation?”



I hope you find R-E-O a useful communication tool. There are many ways to increase your communication skills, and it often starts with understanding other people’s thought processes. The more you listen actively to others, the more you will understand them, and the more you will be able to build up genuine rapport and have a good working relationship.

Related Articles

  3 Time Tested Useful Tips For Effective Listening
  Communication Categories - Which one are you
  The Most Important Communication Skill?
  LISTENING SKILLS IN COACHING
  Are you an Active Listener?
  Learn the Powers of Effective Communication
  Sales Coaching Tip: Change Your Role to Increase Sales
  Listening - The Critical Ingredient In Employee Development
  Improve Your Active Listening Skills
  Listening - The Powerhouse Management Tool
  Jumping to Conclusions
  Promoting New Managers? Tell Them What to Expect
  The Art of Heart-Listening
  Enhance Your Listening Skills
  What They Now Are Teaching MBAs at BSchools According to Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach
  Management Skills
  Soft Skills, Hard Numbers
  How Are Your People-Management Skills?
  Can You Hear Me Now? Great Executive Coaches Are Not Just Great Talkers They're Great Listeners
  Does Your Sales Training Program Pass or Fail the Rope Test?

Referred by: http://www.eslincanada.com

Related Forum Posts

No B.S. Time Management
Re: Five Personality Traits of Successful Business Owners
Re: How do I find a direct mail list of potential customers
Re: How to Get Over Your Fear of Failure, Make Every Second Coun
Napoleon on Project Management

Share this article. Fund someone's dream.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

SEO and the Entrepreneur

Avoid Burnout: Do the Limbo Regularly

Thrilling Thursday - Life After Demotion

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.