“Listening is one of the highest compliments we can pay to anyone.”
People don’t want to hear what you have to say. All they want is an interested listener. What is the secret, the mystery, of a successful business interview? According to former president Charles W. Eliot,” There is no mystery about successful business intercourse…. Exclusive attention to the person who is speaking to you is very important. Nothing else is so flattering as that.”
World’s very important people prefer good listeners to good talkers, but the ability to listen seems rarer than almost any other good trait. People don’t really want an advice. What they want is merely a friendly, sympathetic listener to whom they could unburden themselves. That’s what we all want when we are in trouble. That is frequently all the irritated customers want, and the dissatisfied employee or the hurt friend. Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler said, “People who only talk of themselves can only think of themselves, those who think of themselves are hopelessly uneducated.”
So, if you aspire to be a good conservationist, be an attentive listener. To be interesting, be interested. Ask questions that other persons will enjoy answering. Encourage them to talk about themselves and their accomplishments. A person’s toothache means more to that person than a famine in China which kills a million people. A boil on one’s neck interests one more than forty earthquakes in Africa. Think of that the next time you start a conversation.
PRINCIPLE 7: Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
Comentarios