How to Become a Better Listener with These 5 Skills | Ep. 134 | Mind Podcast
Summary
Becoming a better listener will surly make you a better business owner, boss and more likable. That all translates into more sales and profits for your business.
In this episode Brandon breaks down five skills with tips on how you can get started becoming a better listener today.
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Hello Friends. Welcome to the show. Today we’re talking about five skills of really amazing listeners listening is one of the most valuable skills you can develop as a business owner, whether you’re interacting with customers, employees, investors in all walks of your life. If you can work on these five skills, it’s going to be better for your business. Here we go. Welcome to build a business success secrets. The only podcast that provides straight talk for entrepreneurs, whether you’re an entrepreneur starting with an idea or growing your business. This show is for you. We’ll teach you how to build a strong mindset, powerful body and profitable business so you can achieve success and here’s your host, Brandon. See White five skills of really amazing listeners. Number one be present.
Now, look, this isn’t just for our yoga people, this isn’t just for people who go to Burning Man, this is for us as business owners. Think of it this way, even if you’re talking to someone who isn’t quite interesting or think about it, you’re talking to a customer who is just ranting at you and you just don’t want any part of it and you start checking out, don’t do that. And here’s why you’re already there. You already have some sort of interaction with this other person. You might as well try to discover why you’re having this conversation and you’re going to learn that why, by listening to them. And I bet you’re gonna learn something along the way, even if it’s a bad it might not even be something you want to hear or you care about. Change your state of mind when you hear your inner voice talking like that and give them the gift of you being present number to turn down your inner voice. I am terrible at this.
I’m listening to someone and they’re describing a problem or something like that in my mind starts working, it starts running. And what happens is is you tend to interrupt the person, the person gets frustrated and then they don’t believe that you’re listening. They believe that you’re hearing them, but you’re processing it in your head and you’re not paying attention.
You’ve got to catch yourself and I’ll catch myself in that and I’ll say listen to what they’re saying, because as soon as you start processing, you’re not listening and that person is likely gonna look you in the eye and you’re going to have this glare that just is really a stair and they’re gonna know you’re not listening and you can’t do two things at once. So when you when that starts to happen, just catch yourself, use the keyword, create something where you touch yourself on the body.
When that happens and create a trigger for yourself. And this way you have something that causes you to get back into the moment, stop that inner voice and you’re going to have plenty of time to do the processing after you’ve heard what they’ve said, number three, Mirror them. When the opportunity in the conversation happens, that could be a pause, natural pause, you’ll sense it, ask them, hey, could I say back what I think you just heard and rephrase it and what that will do is they will feel like you’re listening because you are listening and it’s going to clarify if you really understand what their messages, you can say things like it sounds that you feel X.
Or if I get this right, your position is this and here’s an interesting thing that happens, even if you get that wrong, they will correct you. And you can even use this as a tactic sometimes. Well, what I’m hearing is is that you’re unhappy with this and they’ll say no, I’m actually unhappy with that and now you’re interacting with the person. So mirror back what they’re saying, when the opportunity in the conversation naturally occurs, don’t interrupt people. Number four asked for clarification.
One of the techniques that I use is I’ll say, well, why is that interesting? People use this word interesting, interesting isn’t even descriptive and people don’t do that to be elusive. They actually in their head, No, why it’s interesting, but they’re not conveying that. So one of the things that you can do to interact with people and say, what do you mean by interesting? Say it just like that with that inflection and that they’re going to come back very quickly and say, well, what I mean is X, Y, Z. Or you can say why do you think that’s so important when they’re making a point about something and then they will elaborate on that. Now you have the dialogue going and you’re interacting here too. So you can turn off that inner voice if it’s happening or it gets you present.
Really, if you find yourself drifting, you can bring yourself back by saying one of these types of phrases number five, establish some sort of follow up or closure to the conversation. Follow up could be a, hey, let’s get together and have coffee in two days and talk more about this. This this could be really interesting if we could find a solution to X, Y. Z or something like that, a closure could be, hey, thank you so much for sharing that.
I really feel like you opened up there and I’m grateful for that. And what that will do is it will show your appreciation, the other people, the other person will feel heard and you’ll end on a positive note. You can use this even when it’s a heated discussion because if the other people, other person feels like you were listening and at least acknowledging, even if you didn’t agree, then it’s going to end on a more positive note. Put these five skills to work and you are going to become a really good listener until the next episode. I’m rooting for your success.
Thanks for being generous with your time and joining us for this episode of build a business success secrets Before we go, Let me ask you a quick question. Are you the type of person who wants to get 100% out of your time? Talent and ideas. If so, you’ll love our monthly built a Business success Secrets newsletter.
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