Sunday, 18 January 2009

I found the first session very interesting, especially the example about active listening. I have several doubts and questions concerning this method but I believe (hope) it works. I think it is worth at least paying attention to the basic rules, like trying not to judge the other person and not to come up with solutions when the other person is talking to us.

My major concern with this method is that I don't think this always works. Sometimes just listening is not enough and you have to tell your opinion especially if a person is underperforming. By always listening you support your subordinate instead of giving critical feedback.

However I realized that I try to listen to the people I manage as individuals but not as a team. Every Monday we have a team meeting which is more of an operational meeting as we discuss current jobs and workload. Next time I want to try to ask the team's opinion about issues going on in the office (like how to motivate people more, how to increase efficiency). I realized that it was a big mistake not doing this before. I will let you know how it went :-)
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3 comments:

  1. Nataly Anderson22 January 2009 at 13:58

    Hi Rita! How about, if you have to give someone negative feedback, instead of telling the person they're doing wrong, asking them how they think they're doing? If they come to the conclusion themselves in this way, maybe it will have a more powerful effect on changing their behaviour? I knew a guy once who was coaching people in this way, he said it was like holding a mirror up to the person and asking them if they really liked what they saw...

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  2. Kosmas30 January 2009 at 07:40

    Hello, I would also agree with Nataly's example.
    The main idea behind active listening is to be able to understand the real underlying issues and problems that your interlocutor has.
    Based on my personal experience, I believe that most of the people especially in a corporate environment are not willing or sometimes able to communicate properly with their seniors for various reasons.
    Then it comes the ability of a good - active listener, who with the help of inquiries (as far as I understood it something similar to the Socratic debate) will be able to extract from the other person the real underlying issues and help him/her to overcome them.

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  3. rita zempleni4 February 2009 at 11:09

    Thanks guys, I will try to follow your advices.

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