Listening
- 1 minA value ever so important yet often forgotten. An ability that makes us, our thoughts and decisions better. Listening can almost be considered a superpower. It’s that good.
I try my best to be as patient as possible when having a discussion with a person and listen carefully to what they say. The challenging part is that my brain is, naturally, trying to also process those pieces of information so that I can not only understand what they want to express but also formulate a response. Here’s the catch though; maybe I don’t need to formulate a response. Maybe that person is simply releasing some thoughts without wanting a response back. Making this distinction is not easy, especially when you often feel like your response could help someone.
Something that I am guilty of is talking over the other person. I like to think I don’t do it often but when I do, I am aware it. Most of the times.. During an interview I was doing today, I did it again. Maybe it was excitement. Maybe it was the urge to help that person. Well, it doesn’t matter what it was. Suddenly and magically a piece of paper was pushed over to me with a simple note:
“Don’t talk over her :)”
Humbled, I nodded in agreement. Duly noted.
Personal blog of Makis Otman