Listening

Communications is management. Whether your goal is to get others to agree, make yourself heard, instruct, motivate or inspire, communication is key. Many if not most business problems spring from failure to communicate, leading to misunderstandings and mistrust. Whats's usually at fault is failure to start out with the most important element of communication- Listening. If you really want to influence people, you first need to know how they think, and good listening is the building block for everything else in business. The important aspects of listening which one must learn are:

• Listen actively to others
• Ask questions that count
• Identify hidden agendas
• Bridge communication gaps
• Clarify and confirm mixed messages.

The word "Communication" comes from the idea of sharing, or communing, with others. The truly great communicators know that good listening is one of the key weapons in their arsenal of techniques.

Improve Your Listening Skills: 
Great listening is what enables you to talk to people in their own terms, to build bridges, and to help people feel they are being heard and that what you are proposing is good for them as well as for you. However, nobody really teaches us to listen, any more than teach us to breath or run. It's a skill that we are presumed to have naturally, but some natural skills are better than others, and there is always a room for improvement.