Harry Beckwith, in his book What Clients Love, contains a short blurb about how to listen. In the field of serving others, I thought it was worthy of mentioning on the blog. Effective people helpers know how to listen well. Beckwith offers some good advice. Here's an excerpt from that book:
"Don't just listen to what the person is saying. Picture it. As he speaks, create a visual image - a movie, even - of his story. This will help you understand, follow, and remember his story - and even help you remember it a month later. It can help you remember that Sue Crolick's daughter Jessie is living in a well-worn Victorian near Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco, and that Jessie's boyfriend is training for the Olympics in the triathlon after switching from rowing. If you retained only the words of that story and not the images, you'd forget it the next day.
Don't listen with your ears. Listen with your eyes."
Keep up your skill of listening and you'll be Serving Strong!
Barry Banther gave me these three:
1) Listen to Care (Empathy)
2) Listen to Learn (Comprehension)
3) Listen to Value (Appreciation)
Posted by: Bill Couchenour | July 13, 2010 at 11:09 AM
Thanks for visiting and commenting, Bill. Those are 3 great ways to look at listening.
Posted by: Scott Couchenour | July 13, 2010 at 07:36 PM