A is for… Active Listening
What is active listening?
Active Listening is an important soft skill to have in your networking toolkit. It can help you in both your professional and your personal life. In particular, it can help you with your networking and relationship building.
‘Active listening‘ means, as its name suggests, actively listening. This means fully concentrating on what is being said rather than just passively ‘hearing’ what the other person is saying. Active listening is more tricky than it sounds, but the good news is that it is a skill that can be practised and developed.
How can you demonstrate and develop this skill?
There are lots of non-verbal and verbal signs of active listening. Examples of non-verbal signs of active listening include smiling, nodding and eye contact. These are all small signs of active listening and confirm to the speaker that you are engaged and listening to them.
As well as this body language can also show others that you are listening for example through your posture and the way you are holding yourself etc. It is also important to avoid distractions as you want want to be giving the speaker your full attention.
Verbal signs of active listening can be as simple as giving positive reinforcement. However, it can also be by asking questions, asking for clarification on specific points, repeating and reflecting on what has been said and perhaps most importantly remembering what has been said.
Action Point: When having conversations with others make sure you actively listen to the conversation. Note to yourself what techniques you are using and if they are working.
Skill Development Plan: Active Listening
Experience is really your only teacher with this skill, you cannot force it. You just need to practice it when you are having conversations with others. You need to be patient. Practice and assess how your skill is developing over time and through conversations.
An important part of active listening is remembering things after the conversation. This should be used to follow-up and develop your relationship with the speaker/other people in the conversation.
You can also use your networking planner to record your conversations and follow-ups. This can help you make sure you were, in fact, listening (not pretending to listen). It also has the additional benefit that you can easily refer back to the conversations in an organised way.
WFH Action plan: The great thing about practicing active listening is that you don’t have to do it all in person. You can also practice your skills when networking remotely and when having video calls while you are WFH.
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