Improve your listening skills by practicing a few basic tips. These suggestions come from our listening skills training course. None is too complicated. But few are practiced all the time. Have one to add? Send it our way. Enjoy!

1. EARS WIDE OPEN
Ten Kernels for Better Listening

2. ENGAGE
To listen is an effort, and just to hear is no merit. A duck hears also.
Igor Stravinsky
Recognize
listening is
work!
To do it well, you
need to focus on
others and not
yourself.

3. STOP TALKING
A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he gets to know something.
Wilson Mizner
Be quiet.
Having a hard
time with this?
Touch the roof of
your mouth with
your tongue.
Photo: Kristy Hall

4. PUT THE PHONE DOWN
It is the province of knowledge to speak, and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Texting while
others are
talking is
distracting and
RUDE.
Period.
Don’t do it.

5. LOOK PEOPLE IN THE EYE
I like to listen. I have learnt a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.
Ernest Hemingway
Practice good
eye contact.
But remember,
more than 20
seconds at a
time is “death-
stare” territory.

6. DON’T INTERRUPT
Listen. Do not have an opinion while you listen because frankly, your opinion doesn't hold much water outside of Your Universe. Just listen. Listen
until their brain has been twisted like a dripping towel and what they have to say is all over the floor. Hugh Elliott
Unless the other
person’s hair is
on fire, let him
finish speaking.
Photo: Sean Loyless

7. PARAPHRASE WHAT YOU HEAR
I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
Robert McCloskey
Repeat what
others say.
Doing so shows
interest and
confirms
understanding.
Photo: Thomas Hawk

8. A FACE IS WORTH 1000 WORDS
Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of
which have the potential to turn a life around. Leo Buscaglia
Use appropriate
facial
expressions.
Nods, smiles,
and similar
gestures show
you are paying
attention.

9. ASK QUESTIONS
If you spend more time asking appropriate questions rather than giving answers or opinions, your listening skills will increase.
Brian Koslow
Stay engaged by
asking: What?
Where? When?
Who? Why?
How?
Photo: Orin Zebest

10. WAIT YOUR TURN
The opposite of talking isn't listening. The opposite of talking is waiting.
Fran Lebowitz
Be fully engaged
in the moment.
Do your best to
be present
rather than
focused on what
you will say
next.

11. PRACTICE
Most of the successful people I've known are the ones who do more listening than talking.
Bernard Baruch
Remember good
habits develop
from consistent
practice.
Start each day
committed to
better listening.