04/14/2025

How to Improve Your Listening Skills

Being good at it isn’t as easy as it seems

It seems like news from the no-duh files: People trust leaders who listen to them. According to a survey released last fall by the consulting firm Zenger Folkman, listening and trust are highly correlated in the workplace: Leaders considered “poor” listeners wallowed in the 15th percentile in trust, while those “excelling” at it rocketed to the 86th percentile.

That seems straightforward enough. But what, exactly, is listening?

Answering that is a little trickier. You might hear what somebody is saying, but not process it, or refuse to, or get defensive about it, or do nothing in response to it, or take it too personally, or not take it personally enough. As a pair of business scholars recently wrote at the Harvard Business Review, "listening is an intentional activity that requires empathy, patience and the ability to respond to what you hear. And because it can be so mentally taxing... people often take shortcuts or disengage altogether."

Please select this link to read the complete article from Associations Now.