Just Shut Up and Listen!

Before we ever learn to speak, we learn to listen: from early childhood on to express our own thoughts we listen carefully to the people around us and make what they say our own.  So why is it that as we get older, we tend to move from the listening side to the talking side?  Do we think we have nothing left to learn?  Are we too old to change?  Why can’t we just shut up and listen?

Rick Liebling of Eyecube (@eyecube) recently wrote an article outlining his advice for young PR pros and the first (and most discussed) piece of advice is to listen.  As he put it, “Not just hearing, but really listening”.  After all, dialogue can often include lots of non-listening: we’re distracted, we’re not interested, we’re thinking about what to say next, etc.  We hear what is being said, but we’re not listening to the meaning because we’re not engaged.

A good communicator will rely upon body language, behavior, tone, and inflection to extract meaning from dialogue.  Now we go about our days in a world in which communication no longer needs to happen in person, but flourishes instead on new media platforms–Twitter, in blogs, through text messages, Facebook, emails, instant messaging, etc.  We don’t have the luxury of actually seeing a person smile in delight, or sigh in frustration, or frown in sadness.  What we get is , :-/, , respectively, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t still listen.  It just makes it more challenging.  And since we’re all in the same boat and are aware of how challenging it can be, make yourself stand out as someone who makes/takes the time to listen.

So, fellow citizens of the Google Age I ask you to put down your blogging and tweeting megaphones and listen to what other people have to say.  Talk back to your readers and followers.  Have a two-sided conversation.  Ask what you can do to help.  Most importantly of all, be engaged.

So what’s listening’s ROI?  People will be more loyal readers of your blog or tweets and provide you greater access to their resources and connections.  You’ll have created a community of people who are genuinely interested in what you have to say, what you think, and how you are valuable because they know that you reciprocate in the same way.

Tomorrow I’ll be listing some important people who already know the value of communication and take it to heart—and keyboard.  Hope you’ll come back to listen.

Any thoughts?  I’m listening.