Course Length: 2-days
Course Overview
Learn to listen and focus on the visible – and invisible - aspects of listening, staying focused, capturing the message, helping the speaker, and then asking effective questions. Students will learn to analyze a series of barriers to effective listening and employ methods to successfully overcome those barriers. Learn techniques for accurately interpreting verbal and nonverbal aspects of a message.
Listening makes up much of everyone’s workday and even small improvements in your listening skills can have a noticeable improvement on overall effectiveness. Because listening is the foundation for many other multi-faceted skills such as selling, negotiating, or supervising, improvements in this skill tend to have a positive ripple effect across an employee’s spectrum of responses.
With effective listening, you can turn an ordinary conversation into a formidable ally and learn to stop concentrating on what you should say next in every situation and instead start thinking what should I ask? People remember far more of what they say and discover for themselves than what they are told by others. Learn to ask penetrating questions that are well timed and skillfully formed.
Objective
- Identify ways to become a better listener
- Understand the difference between sympathy and empathy, and when each is appropriate
- Create a listening mindset using framing, positive intent, and focus
- Understand the communication process
- Build relationships to create an authentic communication experience
- Identify common listening problems and solutions
- Ask questions, probe for information, and use paraphrasing techniques
- Learn to identify the Seven Powers of asking appropriate questions and develop techniques for asking questions.