5 Tips to Become a Better Listener

There came a point in my life when I realized that I needed to learn how to become a better listener.

I was raised in a noisy, chatty, opinionated family.  It’s not terribly surprising that I grew into someone who tends to be noisy, chatty and opinionated. 

Probably every single member of my immediate family could have headed a debate team straight to victory.

I still love to have lengthy, in-depth discussions, hashing out different points of view about different topics.

However, somehow, in the midst of all of this opinion-sharing, true listening was not a skill that was ever really modeled in my childhood home.  In our house, listening was something that you did so that you could form your own opinion, as a counter-point to what the other person said.

The problem is that when you’re only focused on your rebuttal, it’s hard to truly hear what the other person is saying. 

Woman at a podium during a debate

When no one truly listens to what the other person is saying, discussions tend to turn in frustrating patterns.  Everyone is in their corner, defending their own point of view, without a willingness to truly listen to the other person’s perspective.  Being able to truly listen to another person means having an openness to possibly admitting that your opinion could be wrong.

Yikes.

That’s a vulnerable position to be in.

The even bigger problem is that many of us continue to be unwilling or unable to put ourselves in that vulnerable position of admitting that we could possibly be wrong.

This means that we can’t open ourselves up to truly listening to another person’s perspective.  We can’t risk stepping away from defending our own corner.

that he made a mistake.

As a consequence, so many discussions – between parent and child, spouses, friends, siblings, colleagues – often turn in frustrating patterns.

When we don’t truly listen, we get stuck.  It becomes completely impossible to step out of these patterns.

The thing is that we can all learn new ways to engage in conversations.  We can learn to become a better listener.  We can find ways to step out of frustrating communication patterns.  Learning to listen more fully can shape new ways of responding to others, which, in turn, can shape how others respond to us.

How Cree culture helped me to become a better listener:

In recent years, I’ve spent an extensive amount of time consulting to the James Bay Cree in Northern Quebec.  Contrary to the family that I was raised in, the value of listening is primordial to their Indigenous culture.  Listening is valued much more than sharing an opinion. 

These conversational rules were new to me, and it took me some time to learn how to navigate them.  To do so successfully, I needed to become a better listener.

The Cree have shaped the way that I listen and connect with others in very profound ways.  I observed how their ability to listen so openly led to very deep, meaningful connections.  I wanted to learn how to do this.  In fact, the longer I worked with the Cree, the more I realized how rare true listening is in conversations. 

Little by little, I’ve tried to incorporate what I learned in my time with the Cree into my own interactions.  This continues to be a work in progress for me.  If, like myself, you wish to become a better listener so that you can connect more deeply with others, some of the following tips may help get you there.  I suggest that you practice one tip at a time, until each skill feels more natural.

1.  Be fully present in the conversation.

Many people listen while simultaneously formulating a reply to what is being said, in their head.  This pulls us away from really hearing what the other person is expressing.

Challenge:  Pick a conversation where you practice being fully present with the other person.  Focus only on what they are saying, and let go of any thoughts that pop up into your head as they speak. 

2.  Accept that the person you’re talking to is capable of finding their own solutions and knows what is best for them.

Your role here is to listen and let the other person explore their own solutions, rather than propose your ideas of what they should do in their life.

Challenge:  Pick a conversation and decide to not give a single piece of advice.  Feels weird, right?  Now notice how this impacts how the conversation evolves.

3.  Let go of judgment.

When we judge someone, we lose our ability to openly listen to their perspective.  We instead listen to them through our lens of how we think they should be, or what we think they should do.  This immediately leads to disconnection.

Challenge:  Monitor your thoughts for any judgments that might pop up.  If you catch any, silently remind yourself, “he/she is doing the best they can right now”.

4.  Keep the focus of the conversation on the other person.

In an attempt to relate, we can sometimes shift the focus of the conversation to things that we have experienced in our own life.  There are times when this can draw a connection to the person, but there are also times when it can cause immediate disconnection.  Whether or not it is appropriate to introduce your own life experience about an event can be quite nuanced. 

Challenge:  In order to observe how often you shift conversations to be about yourself and how this impacts the dynamic, try out some conversations where you decide that you won’t relate anything back to yourself, unless specifically asked.  Notice any differences in how this impacts how you listen to the other person.

5.  Listen more than you speak.

We can sometimes have so many great ideas to share that we can have a tendency to talk more than we listen.

Challenge:  Choose a conversation where you practice giving no replies, other than those which show that you are listening (for instance, “oh, really?” or “tell me more”).  Notice how unnatural this feels. Also notice how much more you learn about what the other person is sharing when you let them speak freely.

By nature, I’m a super chatty, solution-oriented person. Needless to say, the above skills have been a long work in progress for me.  If you’re at all like me, it’ll take time to sustainably shift the way in which you interact with others. Gradually, deep listening will become a part of your natural communication style.

No matter how good of a listener you are, there’s always space to refine your listening skills.

If you’re looking to develop your listening skills so you can build trust and lead the members of your team more successfully, book a complimentary 30 minute discovery call and let’s chat.

If you liked this post, you might also like:

Holding Space: The Value of True Listening

The 4 Foundational Skills for Effective Communication

Stress-Free Communication: It All Begins With You

Lindsay Lapaquette

Lindsay Lapaquette

Lindsay Lapaquette, M.Sc.(A) works with middle managers who want to communicate authentically so they can effectively lead their teams without losing themselves. As a former Speech-Language Pathologist, Lindsay applies her expertise in the neuroscience of communication and connection to help managers foster an environment of trust and respect in their teams, so that everyone can bring their best selves to work.

Lindsay’s approach has been profoundly influenced by her work with Indigenous organizations, her experience as a parent to two neurodivergent children, and the premature loss of both of her parents. These experiences have taught Lindsay great lessons about the power of excellent people skills that extend well beyond her professional expertise.

Lindsay Lapaquette

Lindsay Lapaquette

Lindsay Lapaquette, M.Sc.(A) works with middle managers who want to communicate authentically so they can effectively lead their teams without losing themselves. As a former Speech Language Pathologist, Lindsay applies her expertise in the neuroscience of communication and connection to help managers foster an environment of trust and respect in their teams, so that everyone can bring their best selves to work.

Lindsay’s approach has been profoundly influenced by her work with First Nations organizations, her experience as a parent to two children with pervasive mental health challenges, and the premature loss of both of her parents. These experiences have taught Lindsay great lessons about the power of excellent people skills that extend well beyond her professional expertise.

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