Read an interesting article on listening skills: You’re Not Listening

It reminded me of a great book I read a while ago: Crucial Conversations

Some random insights I took out of both of these are:

• Listening starts with the building of trust / safety
• I love the idea in Crucial Conversations of filling a “Pool of Shared Meaning”
• Listening takes more time initially, but in the end saves you time.
• You have to check your ego and emotions at the door and not make it all about you.  This leads you to ask more questions, leave more pauses and make more connections in the conversation.

Both article and book are worth a read / reread.  Even when you think you’re good at a skill, there’s nothing like going back and doing a refresher to make sure you stay at the top of your game.