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As you are growing your business, you have so many new people to get to know, interact and negotiate with - customers, investors, team colleagues. To truly hear and understand all these needs and demands in the best way, you require a focused form of listening. It is called active listening.
So, if you are thinking "well actually I've been listening all my life so what's so different about active listening?" The International Institute of Directors and Managers defines active listening as:
"Active listening is making a conscious effort to hear your customer's words as well as to try and understand the total message being sent, both verbally and nonverbally. It requires you to listen not only with your ears, but also with your eyes"
Although it sounds so simple, it really is a muscle that you must train like you would train any other muscle. In my experience, it is one of the hardest skills to do well and this is why we need to work on it as part of our core intrapreneurial skill set to ensure the success of our future business. As a coach I recommend the co-active coach listening model . The model has 3 simple levels and the key to it, is to be to be aware of which level you are in when having a conversation so you can ensure you get the most out of it.
Level 1: Internal Listening — Listening to your inner voice or listening to speak.
This is the lowest level of listening and this is what most of us tend to do every day in our busy lives. We are mostly in our own heads and focused on our internal dialogue rather than the other person. Although it is what most of us do daily, be aware that this type of listening has the most potential to create misunderstandings and it might means you miss key information in conversations.
Level 2: Focused Listening — Listening intently to another person or listening to hear.
At this level we are more focused on the other person and are actively paying attention to what they are saying. At this level we are not already thinking about what we want to say next or distracted by devices or other things, we are totally focused on the other person. If you want to know how this feels like? Think back to the first time you were in love; I am pretty sure you were practicing focused listening on the person you were with. 😉
Level 3: Global Listening — Listening in the context or listening to understand.
This is the highest level of listening and as mentioned already, requires intentional practice. At this level we are listening not only with our ears, but with our eyes and all our senses to better understand what the other person really means. What's their tone of voice? What words are they using to convey their message? What does their body language tell you? These are all elements that form part of global listening and provide additional information.
"Business is all about people. Working with humans to create value for other humans. Listening is the key to understanding the hearts and minds of people in business. It is a life skill that will help you in all aspects of developing your business and will improve the relationships with those you work with" - Lourdes Martins
The 3 levels of listening support you to classify your maturity of listening and where you can further work on. In addition to those there are some additional hacks, which can help make the conversation and relationship much better:
This skill doesn't require you to download or install some software to get started – you can start right away. So here is our monthly intrapreneurship challenge:
🚀Aim daily in one of your breaks, a team meeting or at a networking event to polish up your listening by
I can promise you will be surprised at how richer and more informative the conversation will be!
Here are some further recommendations for in-depth reading or listening 😉
... and a fun fact 🤡
According to research, 85% of what we learn in our lives is through listening (not talking or reading), so let's rocket boost our intrapreneurial learning journey this month with active listening!
About Swisscom Kickbox
Swisscom employees can easily launch and grow their innovative idea at any time with Kickbox. The physical box contains
In the multi-stage process, you will be accompanied by a coach to drive your idea forward, learn a lot and, in the best case, make your idea really big!