Are you paying Attention???

Guys, I‘ve always heard people giving this advice: “whatever your problems are, leave them at the door”.  Well, I never appreciated this advice until recently when I was caught unawares by my coordinator day dreaming during a training session. Let’s just say I was going through some personal issues. Paying attention is crucial. “The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention” Rachel Naomi Remen. Guess that’s why coordinator is pissed right now…

The worst case scenario is not having paid attention for a while and then asked to make a presentation on a topic you know not very well. Of course you have bits and pieces of information but imagine being asked to do it hapo hapo.Kuchanganyikiwa nayo…Ok I’m sorry coordinator, my bad.

So, guys, today I will be talking to you about steps to Effective Listening. So, without further ado

Face the Speaker and maintain eye contact

Eye contact is considered a basic ingredient to effective communication.

Be attentive

I realized that this is very easy to do as long as you follow the previous advice of leaving your problems at the door as you enter. Make sure there are no distractions around. Put your phone in silent mode coz the vibration is just as bad as having your ringer on.

Listen to the words, visualize and relate with what is being said

This will go a long way to making the concepts and ideas stick in your medulla. Human beings learn stuff best if most of their senses are involved in the process. Therefore, creating a mental image, and imagining the color, feel and any other characteristics based on your prior experiences will improve your chances of remembering.

Wait for a pause to ask clarifying questions

Asking questions is the best way to get the speaker to elaborate on his concepts.

Try to feel what the speaker is feeling

This is closely related to the visualization process. By feeling what the speaker is feeling about the topic at hand will assist you to remember the topic much later because you involved other senses.

Pay attention to nonverbal cues.

This is done by associating the speaker’s body language to the topic being discussed. Through the association, you will be able to remember concepts just by the mere thought of how the speaker moved and posed while he/she was making the presentation.

I don’t know about you guys but these are great tips to remember the next time you sit to listen to somebody making a presentation…Lesson learnt.