Jeff Gee’s Blog

Paying Attention

June 29th, 2007

When your mind is elsewhere it’s difficult to pay attention to what other people are saying and a great way to overcome this is to use active listening techniques such as “Repeating what the other person has said before you say your own thoughts.”

That’s right repeating what the other person just said. I know it sounds simple and it doesn’t mean you have to repeat them word for word, in fact that would be really annoying for everyone involved. It’s just about paraphrasing what they just said like for example, “You like people to be on time….” or, “So if I understand you correctly you just said….”

Other technqiues include looking people in the eye (without being in a staring competition), focusing on the meaning behind the words, or on their tone of voice, and of course noticing their body language and mirroring it so they feel comfortable. So whatever technique you use today….make it active, positive, and enthusiastic. Have a great day. Rock ‘N Roll Jeff & Val