Every human being has the innate desire to be heard by the world. S/he wants to voice her/his opinions, views and thoughts to an audience and garner positive feedback regarding them. This desire is the reason why social media is such a popular concept as you can voice your opinions to a large set of audience who can give you feedback.
However, listening is a quality which most human beings lack. Most human beings just gather parts of a conversation they are most interested in and form an opinion or a judgement based on that. Otherwise, we just hear out a person which is an involuntary action.
Hence, being a good listener is a life skill which most people lack but if one can master the art of listening, s/he can hope to improve every relation in the personal and professional sphere. Since, listening is such a difficult skill to master, we have a few tips on how you can actually become a good listener.
Try to comprehend before offering solutions
Everyone wants to be heard out first before receiving a bag of suggestions from the other person. Hence, it is necessary to first offer empathy to their story by simply listening to it and not interrupting. Also, once there story is over, try and go through the whole thing all over again mentally before offering a solution. It might seem like a time-taking task, but, this exercise will definitely help you come up with a more comprehensive and all-round solution for the other person. Sometimes, your friend or co-worker just needs to know that you’re there, so, all you can do is assure them the same.
Don’t interrupt but ask questions one they are done
This is a very easy method through which you can gain the other person’s trust. All you need to do is ask some questions once they are done telling you whatever they needed to. However, don’t interrupt them while they are speaking because it irritates the speaker and makes him/her lose track of what they were saying.
Asking questions after they are done speaking will make them feel like you were actually listening and the attention is bound to flatter them. Asking questions will also make them trust and like you more as a person, in general.