Good listening is much more than being silent while the other person talks.
An article in the Harvard Business Review cited a study that said people perceive the best listeners to be those who periodically ask questions that promote discovery and insight. These questions gently challenge old assumptions, but in a constructive way.
Good listeners are like trampolines. They are someone you can bounce ideas off of — and rather than absorbing your ideas and energy, they amplify, energize, and clarify your thinking. They make you feel better not merely passively absorbing, but by actively supporting. This lets you gain energy and height, just like someone jumping on a trampoline.
Even Zappos launched a call linethat has nothing to do with shoes, after they noticed an increase in the amount of time customers were spending on the phone with the company’s staffers.
“We noticed there were callers who had concerns and were wanting to talk. We started to see evidence of not just us feeling what was happening in the world, but also that callers wanted to talk about it,”
We need to be listened to, and to listen and grow!