Human communicate via different languages, people with good speaking skill tends to in the spotlight.
In today’s topic, I would like to highlight on another skill which is Listening. Communication is 2-way, needless to say, it requires more than one people to start any communication.
A complete communication cycle involve transmit (speak) and receive (listen) . Complete doesn’t mean effective, also an effective communication is not always time-bound, it is depends on how both party interpret and understand the messages.
Most people say speaking skill is very important where it helps to initiate any verbal communication. I agree, in return, I must stress the listening skill is equally important too.
How many times, you’ve met with people who keep saying (instructing) you to do things but refused or failed to accept your feedback? They have good listening capability but they do not want to hear or listen from you. This can be due to many reasons such as social status, corporate ranking, personality, age differences and others. At such, these people often unable to have a very good or smooth relationship with others. Likewise, they are probably not suitable to be a team player.
Listening skill is a gift, you have to equip with a open heart to be able to listen the true voices. Many great leaders are successful because they listen and react accordingly. Many bad leaders failed because they refuse to listen but to keep their direction to the dead end. If Obama didn’t listen the needs of American, do you think he will be able to be the first black president of U.S.A. ?
Frankly, you do not need to react to everything you listen. This is part of the listening skill, some times, it requires more than listening skill to start an action. Well, that would be another topic on how to interpret and understand messages.
Last but no least, I listen to you and I never demand you listen to me. The biggest value of communication is to make one(s) understand the message regardless the language competency of both parties.
I hope you enjoy the reading and discover that being quiet and listen could be the important part of communication.
