RoadBlocks to Effective Listening

Not many people get excited about roadblocks. They tend to give you fewer choices. You had a plan and knew exactly how it was going to work and someone tosses up a roadblock. There is nothing you can do about a roadblock, you have to take a different view of the current situation.

Let’s take a quick look at some of the roadblocks we face when it comes to listening and understand what is happening in a conversation.

Assumptions

Patience is a virtue and simply waiting until someone has completed their thought and finished talking can make a conversation move easily and not go off on tangents because we believe or assume we know what they are going to say next or what prompted the conversation.

So don’t interrupt. Give them your full attention as you listen. Remember that an interruption can throw them off tract and you may not get to hear the most valuable part of the conversation.

The Speed Gap

This one is very interesting to me because in my home there are three very distinct speeds. It requires stopping the thinking about the speed the person intakes the information and the time it may take them to respond. Pay attention to the differences and you may be very surprised.

Distractions

In the company I work for many of the meetings I attend are in phone-free zones. (Some people actually go through withdrawals during a two-hour meeting.)  It is not hard for me because my phone during work hours is for emergencies only. I leave my phone with staff and if the phone shows red, they know to pick up and take the message of what hospital I have to get to for which family. 

It is amazing how people have to fidget because they have no phone. You see them reach for it over and over. (That in itself can cause a distraction.) After each meeting, we note distractions to try and eliminate them so they won’t be a roadblock in the next meeting.

Hidden Motives

There are always at least two of these types of people in every conversation in the workplace. There is know it all that must share all of their knowledge and will interrupt to get it done.