Home - Recruitment Techniques - Management Techniques - Online Computer Training


 Free Photography Contest
 Enter Now! Win $10,000! Are you a Winner!

 Is your credit non-existent?
 All American Credit can help you build your
 credit! Even if you have bad credit, they can help.

Please click here to visit our sponsor

Please click here to visit our sponsor

Listening Skills In Relationships


Recently, when out to dinner with another couple, my husband is surprised at what someone says about one of our neighbors. He even comments this to the person about his amazement. Less than one week later, my husband comments to me he wonders about this very situation. After asking him, "Well don't you remember Sean told you that?" "No. I must have been in a conversation with someone else then." I just torque my jaws and change the subject because I just don't want to have this conversation about listening again.

Whether it's with you or friends, it's annoying and rude when your husband communicates he's not listening. "I don't really care," is the message. Listening is different as hearing. We're born with the ears to hear. But listening takes energy, time and practice. There are actions to demonstrate your ability to listen, show you care and reduce stress in the process.

First, give your full attention to your spouse. When my husband was speaking with Sean, he was also carrying on a conversation with someone else. There humanly is no way that you can give your full attention when you are dividing it between two people!

Ask clarifying questions before you do your talking. If you want to understand your wife's concerns, respond to a problem or add to the conversation, ask a question ('So what you are saying is ... .') Then keep quiet while you listen to their reply. Then you are sure to be on track. Listen first to understand, then to respond.

And anticipate keywords. With experience you learn how some comments are familiar. How you have discussed this previously? When you hear keywords about these everyday situations or previous discussions, use them to help you add to the conversation when the time comes. This is sometimes called leveraging your knowledge.

Listen for feelings first and specifics second. Check your understanding of your wife's emotions from her point of view ("It must be frustrating to not get what you think you were getting.") If that perception check is correct ("Yes I am just fit to be tied,") continue with specific facts of the conversation. This type of verbal feedback, particularly on the telephone, can clarify a concern without you saying something there is no need to say.

Identify what bad listening habits you have and begin to minimize and improve them. The top five worst listening habits most of us have are: reacting emotionally, listening only for the facts, getting distracted, faking attention and being critical of the speaker's delivery. Found yours? Know it and do something to improve it. Let's say you find yourself getting distracted by listening in a second conversation when you are out with your wife and a group of friends. You can wear a rubber band around your wrist for 30 days. And every time that undesirable habit pops into your conversation with you wife, or anyone for that matter, snap that rubber band back. Day after day you'll be snapping less because you will be replacing your bad habit with something that is effective.

A famous philosopher once said, "We only hear half of what is said to us, understand only half of that, and remember only half of that." You can reduce misunderstandings and show your spouse you do care when you move beyond hearing to listening.


Copyright© Patricia Weber, http://www.prostrategies.com.

Pat Weber is a coach, certified telelcass leader, and corporate trainer. With her incisive, effective communication skills, her services can help you to accelerate professional and personal results you want, by helping you increase your choices and build your self-confidence. With personal coaching, a teleclass, an online email course or on-site workshop, get what you want, more easily and more often. Visit her website at http://www.prostrategies.com.


Virginia, DC home to high percentage of high-impact firms
Bizjournals.com, NC - 12 hours ago
Virginia and DC ranked among the top 10 regions with the highest percentage of so-called “high-impact” companies, which account for almost all employment ...
High-Impact Firms Best at Creating Jobs WWJ
High-Impact Firms Create Nebraska's Jobs and Growth FOXBusiness
Small Toledo-area firms yielding big job growth Toledo Blade
Milwaukee Business Journal - Bizjournals.com
all 442 news articles


CBN: Is this employment scam?
The Punch, Nigeria - 1 hour ago
A lot of employment agencies now operate in different parts of the country, deceiving people and collecting their money in the guise of getting jobs for ...


Justice Department Files Lawsuit Against the City of Marion, Ala ...
FOXBusiness - 11 hours ago
The complaint, filed in the US District Court in Selma, Ala., alleges that Marion violated USERRA by not reinstating Ms. Davis in her civilian employment ...


Louisiana's non-farm employment grows in June
Forbes, NY - Jul 25, 2008
AP 07.25.08, 3:51 PM ET The growth of non-farm employment in Louisiana continued at about the same pace in June as in May, as the state registered 24800 ...


Economists say that surge in unemployment was inevitable
Winston-Salem Journal, NC - 19 hours ago
The NC Employment Security Commission counts college students, high-school students 16 and older, and teachers in the summertime labor force. ...
Finally … economic news not half bad ENC Today
County's June jobless rate climbs to 5.3 percent Yadkin Ripple
County unemployment rate continues to climb Burlington Times News
Charlotte Observer - Greensboro News Record
all 17 news articles


Citigroup Is Accused In Its Hedge Fund's Flop
Wall Street Journal - 19 hours ago
... specializing in corporate debt, from its 1999 launch until he resigned in December, filed a sealed complaint last month in London's Employment Tribunal. ...
Former hedge fund head files against Citigroup: report Reuters
all 18 news articles


Al Watan Daily

Third mobile operator signs employment agreement
Al Watan Daily, Kuwait - 3 hours ago
KUWAIT: Kuwait''s third mobile phone operator has signed an agreement with the Manpower Restructuring Program''s Kuwaitization project, aimed at employing ...


Employment seminar planned
Jamestown Sun, ND - 10 hours ago
... by the IRS to determine worker status and a discussion of worker status factors used in employment determinations made by the state of North Dakota. ...


You may be in the firing line, but that doesn't mean you're helpless
guardian.co.uk, UK - 2 hours ago
'Redundancy is the number one employment law issue for employers right now,' says Jon Taylor, of Milton Keynes-based Emw Law. 'Companies right across the ...


Long-term unemployed need makeovers, say researchers
Scotsman, United Kingdom - 2 hours ago
But the Scottish Centre for Employment Research believes that image problems are a very real barrier to interview success. They surveyed 500 high-street ...

Employment - Google News

home | site map Distance Education at ICS
© 2006 www.elearn-university.com