Overview

We listen for many reasons including exchanging and understanding information, to establish or maintain relationships, to build rapport with others through empathic listening, to bridge social and cross-cultural gaps and in general to learn from one another.

Listening, truly listening and not merely being silent or politely waiting for your opportunity to speak or to correct the speaker, is among the hardest work you might ever do. But to truly listen completely so that you are not only hearing but processing what the speaker wanted you to hear and to learn, with your heart as well as with your brain takes practice. However, one must first be aware of this set of listening skills before one can begin to practice and then hopefully perfect one's ability to listen completely. This webinar will identify the proper environment, skills and techniques to assist the participant in continuing to develop and improve their ability in this most important and ancient of arts.

Why you should Attend

The topic will include the following sub-topics: 

• Identifying your current LQ (Listening Quotient/skill level)
• How to create/maintain a “safe listening” environment for the speaker
• When and how to use passive and active listening for the best possible outcome
• Controlling premature or bias based responses, triggers, hot buttons and pain points that hamper listening
• The effective use of the art of questions: When to phrase, when to ask, and what to do with the response
• Using innocent/childlike curiosity to encourage/welcome the speaker and not discourage/bias or shut them down
• When and when not to interrupt
• How to listen to learn
• Identifying and controlling your triggers “hot buttons/pain points”
• The supreme importance of modeling high level listening skills
• If listening is a gift, how to give generously
  

Areas Covered in the Session

• Gaining/maintaining the speaker's trust
• The art of questions
• The role of body language and other cues
• Proper listening courtesy
• Listening= learning
• The benefit/use of silence
• The relationship between listening and instincts
  

Who Will Benefit

• Anyone who interacts with another in daily life including all level managers, supervisors, and executives 
• All Levels of both in-house and outside counsel
• All levels of Union representation and officers (stewards, Business Representatives, Business Managers, Presidents, and all officers/ board members)
• All levels of Human Resources. Organizational or external investigators, Ombudspersons, and mediators (internal and external)