From the title, you might think this is an article about romantic relationships and how “listening” can be a secret to a happy couple. While it’s definitely good advice for love as well, I believe I’m more qualified to discuss it from a professional impact perspective. So, if you were looking for relationship advice, I’m sorry to disappoint you. However, you might as well keep reading, communication skills are useful in all types of relationships! 😉

Listening is a critical skill that can make a difference in someone’s professional relationships and career success. Besides being a skill that has helped me multiple times in my journey to build strong and long-lasting relationships (hence why I dedicated a text to it), it’s one of the key lessons from a fascinating article I recently found: “The Art of Listening” by Harvard Business Review. This article highlights the importance of listening actively and with an open mind to build better relationships and make more informed decisions.

We are used to believing that what makes us interesting and authoritative in the eyes of our interlocutor is what we communicate when we express our ideas and opinions. While this is absolutely true, it’s only a part (and often the more strenuous part) of what is needed to build a successful relationship. The other part is, indeed, knowing how to listen.

^{Active listening requires effort and commitment.} To be a good listener, you must actively focus on the conversation and pay attention to what the other person is saying, not just the words, but also the non-verbal signals like body language and tone of voice. Do you know how much the non-verbal communication impacts? The most famous study in this area states this breakdown: verbal communication 7%, para-verbal communication (tone, pitch, and rhythm of voice) 38%, non-verbal communication (gestures, postures, facial expressions) 55%. Incredible, right?

Moreover, to truly listen to someone, you must be open to their ideas and perspectives, even if they differ from your own. Often, the mistake is made of listening only to have a better response or express a better opinion. This type of active listening, however, can help you build stronger professional relationships and build trust among colleagues. You’ll be surprised at how much you can learn just by listening to others' viewpoints and reflecting on them with a real critical spirit.

You read that right, ^{active listening can help make better decisions.} By gathering information and perspectives from others, you can make more informed decisions based on a broader range of views. This can be particularly useful when facing complex situations or difficult problems. Additionally, considering others’ ideas can greatly benefit you in group dynamics and corporate environments, especially if you are generous in publicly sharing credit for your ideas. In large companies, the concept of ^{“visibility”} is very important: if you show you listen to others, you’ll be liked by many more people, even more so if you publicly acknowledge others' contributions in celebrating one of your successes or achievements.

Many more examples of the importance of active listening come to mind, but I fear I’ve reached the character limit recommended to avoid boring the reader. 😃
Therefore, I highly recommend reading the aforementioned article with great attention, but I’ll leave you with some simple and quick tips to apply when you’re listening to someone:

• Avoid any kind of distraction
• Try to maintain eye contact
• Ask questions to get more information
• Try not to interrupt the speaker
• Make a strong effort to understand the other person's point of view

If you enjoyed this article or if you’d like to delve deeper into this skill or other communication abilities, let me know. You can contact me immediately via email or LinkedIn! 😃