What Great Listeners Actually Do
1–10 of 205 posts
Re: What Great Listeners Actually Do
#2I had a manager once who would say "mmm-hmm" all the time. It was really distracting and actually made it seem like he wasn't listening at all, even if he was actually hanging on my every word.
Re: What Great Listeners Actually Do
#3Nothing but vague insights that shouldn't be surprising, IMHO.
Re: What Great Listeners Actually Do
#4Nothing but vague insights that shouldn't be surprising, IMHO.
mhm
Re: What Great Listeners Actually Do
#5Honestly, it seems as if the article is just bending the definition of listening. It appears their idea of "the best listener" is the person who engages you the most in conversation. Sure, that person might be a more valuable person to talk to, but I fail to see why that has to be the definition of a great listener.
Re: What Great Listeners Actually Do
#6Honestly, it seems as if the article is just bending the definition of listening. It appears their idea of "the best listener" is the person who engages you the most in conversation. Sure, that person might be a more valuable person to talk to, but I fail to see why that has to be the definition of a great listener.
No, it is not arbitrarily changing the definition. They did a study where they asked people to identify how good others were at listening, and then studied what behaviors distinguished those who got the highest ratings.
Re: What Great Listeners Actually Do
#7Well yeah. If remaining silent was considered "good listening" then people would talk to walls.
Re: What Great Listeners Actually Do
#8Politeness + Insight + Empathy. It's easy as PIE!
Re: What Great Listeners Actually Do
#9As someone who has taught and researched listening skills, I found this article very insightful.
However, let me add that the simple skills they described at the beginning (not interrupting, saying "um-hum," and being able to repeat back), are still good to teach because they are better than what most people do much of the time.
Here's another HN link on listening: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12228062
Re: What Great Listeners Actually Do
#10In my experience building organizations that have totaled over 275 humans: it's a rare, rare person that can truly distinguish hearing from listening. The key to being a good listener is simple: always, to the absolute best of your cognition, meet the speaker in their place.