Actively Listen to Build Trust

A cohesive and collaborative work team is becoming more important, especially in the complex and volatile business landscape that we face today.   Effective communication with our fellow co-workers is therefore essential to help us understand each other better, so we can work more cohesively to achieve the shared goals for our organisation.

An important communication skill to develop is active listening. It is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication and showing that you value the speaker's inputs.

We can achieve this through a number of ways:

• Paraphrasing: "So, what I'm hearing is that you're feeling stressed about the upcoming deadline?" 

• Clarifying questions: "Could you elaborate on that a bit more?" or "What do you mean by that?" 

• Affirmations: "I see," "I understand," "Yes, that makes sense"  You seem really upset about that," or "That sounds frustrating" 

• Encouraging Prompts: "I see..." "And then what happened?"

• Linking Back: "You mentioned this earlier, can you elaborate..."

• Summarizing: "So, the main points we've discussed are..." 

Add in non - verbal signals by nodding, leaning forward, minimising fidgeting, and maintaining eye contact. These signal you are actively listening, and in turn builds trust and better relationships.

It all sounds logical. In practice, it takes effort and a necessary skill to develop for better communication.

#Communication #Team #Leadership #Adult Learning