{"id":42520,"date":"2021-07-12T08:47:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-12T12:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=42520"},"modified":"2021-07-26T12:16:05","modified_gmt":"2021-07-26T16:16:05","slug":"active-listening-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/active-listening-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"Active Listening: Tips + Reflection Prompts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Do you consider yourself an active listener? Do you find it easy to build rapport and understand where people are coming from? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Active listening is an important skill to facilitate effective communication and ingratiate yourself with others. When we actively listen, we listen not to respond, but to understand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This article covers some active <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-improve-your-listening-skills\/\">listening tips<\/a> that you can start putting to practice right now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Basics of Active Listening<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Active listening requires more than merely listening to someone. It includes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Observing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/body-language-crucial-conversations\/\">body language<\/a><\/li><li>Showing your attention with your own body language, such as making eye contact, nodding, or facing the person<\/li><li>Considering the underlying message of what\u2019s being said<\/li><li>Asking clarifying questions<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The main way people fall short of these techniques is focusing on speaking rather than listening. <\/strong>If you\u2019re focused on talking in order to show your intelligence or knowledge, you may fail to listen to what people around you are saying. For example, this could happen if you\u2019re thinking about something that you\u2019d like to say instead of listening, or if you\u2019re mentally arguing with what the person is saying instead of thinking about <em>why<\/em> they\u2019re saying it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To develop your active listening skills, be curious and show your interest in others by asking questions. The benefits of active listening include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Understanding people on a deeper level.<\/strong> Asking questions helps you learn about people\u2019s dreams and fears.<\/li><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-is-trust-earned\/\">Building trust<\/a>. <\/strong>Showing an interest in people\u2019s lives and providing the space to share it creates trust.<\/li><li><strong>Gaining popularity. <\/strong>People tend to like those who take an interest in them. Doing so will increase your popularity.<\/li><li><strong>Reducing your stress. <\/strong>When you focus more on others\u2019 interests, you think about your own troubles less, which can reduce stress.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Improving Listening Skills: A Photographer\u2019s Story<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Canfield once met a photographer from New York City who did photo shoots for a variety of clients. Frequently, clients were unhappy with the results, and they would ask the photographer to redo the photoshoot. The photographer\u2019s impulse was usually to argue with the client about why they didn\u2019t like the photos. After losing several clients, he started taking an active listening approach instead: When a client told him he needed to do it over, he\u2019d agree, and ask clarifying questions such as, \u201cI\u2019m hearing you say that&#8230;Is that correct?\u201d By considering clients\u2019 feedback, he eventually produced work they liked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Take Action: Ask Four Questions to Build Rapport<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>To start a relationship or strengthen an existing one, ask these four questions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>In three years, what will you need to have done to feel happy?<\/li><li>What risks or dangers will you face in the process of achieving that?<\/li><li>What are the most promising opportunities at your disposal to achieve it?<\/li><li>To seize those opportunities, what existing skills and strengths can you use? What skills will you have to develop?<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Try writing the questions down and carrying them with you so you can use them. Consider using them with the following people:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Family or friends.<\/strong> This set of questions will help you learn about the person and feel closer to them.&nbsp;<\/li><li><strong>Potential business partners or contacts.<\/strong> If they\u2019re not willing to answer the questions, then they may not make great contacts\u2014they either don\u2019t trust you enough to answer the questions, or they may not excel at planning their future.<\/li><li><strong>Yourself. <\/strong>Write your own answers to the questions, and talk them over with someone. You might gain a clearer picture of your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/set-goals-and-priorities\/\">priorities and goals<\/a>.<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do you consider yourself an active listener? Do you find it easy to build rapport and understand where people are coming from? Active listening is an important skill to facilitate effective communication and ingratiate yourself with others. When we actively listen, we listen not to respond, but to understand. This article covers some active listening tips that you can start putting to practice right now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":8136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,9],"tags":[423],"class_list":["post-42520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communication","category-psychology","tag-the-success-principles","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Active Listening: Tips + Reflection Prompts - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Active listening facilitates effective communication and helps to ingratiate yourself with others. Here are some tips on how to do it.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/active-listening-tips\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Active Listening: Tips + Reflection Prompts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Active listening facilitates effective communication and helps to ingratiate yourself with others. Here are some tips on how to do it.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/active-listening-tips\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-07-12T12:47:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-07-26T16:16:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/communication-7-habits-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1703\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/active-listening-tips\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/active-listening-tips\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"Active Listening: Tips + Reflection Prompts\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-07-12T12:47:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-07-26T16:16:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/active-listening-tips\/\"},\"wordCount\":598,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/active-listening-tips\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/communication-7-habits-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The Success Principles\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Communication\",\"Psychology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/active-listening-tips\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/active-listening-tips\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/active-listening-tips\/\",\"name\":\"Active Listening: Tips + Reflection Prompts - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/active-listening-tips\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/active-listening-tips\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/communication-7-habits-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-07-12T12:47:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-07-26T16:16:05+00:00\",\"description\":\"Active listening facilitates effective communication and helps to ingratiate yourself with others. Here are some tips on how to do it.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/active-listening-tips\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/active-listening-tips\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/active-listening-tips\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/communication-7-habits-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/communication-7-habits-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1703},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/active-listening-tips\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Active Listening: Tips + Reflection Prompts\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\",\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png\",\"caption\":\"Darya Sinusoid\"},\"description\":\"Darya\u2019s love for reading started with fantasy novels (The LOTR trilogy is still her all-time-favorite). Growing up, however, she found herself transitioning to non-fiction, psychological, and self-help books. She has a degree in Psychology and a deep passion for the subject. She likes reading research-informed books that distill the workings of the human brain\/mind\/consciousness and thinking of ways to apply the insights to her own life. Some of her favorites include Thinking, Fast and Slow, How We Decide, and The Wisdom of the Enneagram.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/darya\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Active Listening: Tips + Reflection Prompts - Shortform Books","description":"Active listening facilitates effective communication and helps to ingratiate yourself with others. Here are some tips on how to do it.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/active-listening-tips\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Active Listening: Tips + Reflection Prompts","og_description":"Active listening facilitates effective communication and helps to ingratiate yourself with others. Here are some tips on how to do it.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/active-listening-tips\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2021-07-12T12:47:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-07-26T16:16:05+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1703,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/communication-7-habits-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Darya Sinusoid","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Darya Sinusoid","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/active-listening-tips\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/active-listening-tips\/"},"author":{"name":"Darya Sinusoid","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46"},"headline":"Active Listening: Tips + Reflection Prompts","datePublished":"2021-07-12T12:47:00+00:00","dateModified":"2021-07-26T16:16:05+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/active-listening-tips\/"},"wordCount":598,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/active-listening-tips\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/communication-7-habits-scaled.jpg","keywords":["The Success Principles"],"articleSection":["Communication","Psychology"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/active-listening-tips\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/active-listening-tips\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/active-listening-tips\/","name":"Active Listening: Tips + Reflection Prompts - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/active-listening-tips\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/active-listening-tips\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/communication-7-habits-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2021-07-12T12:47:00+00:00","dateModified":"2021-07-26T16:16:05+00:00","description":"Active listening facilitates effective communication and helps to ingratiate yourself with others. Here are some tips on how to do it.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/active-listening-tips\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/active-listening-tips\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/active-listening-tips\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/communication-7-habits-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/communication-7-habits-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1703},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/active-listening-tips\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Active Listening: Tips + Reflection Prompts"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46","name":"Darya Sinusoid","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png","caption":"Darya Sinusoid"},"description":"Darya\u2019s love for reading started with fantasy novels (The LOTR trilogy is still her all-time-favorite). Growing up, however, she found herself transitioning to non-fiction, psychological, and self-help books. She has a degree in Psychology and a deep passion for the subject. She likes reading research-informed books that distill the workings of the human brain\/mind\/consciousness and thinking of ways to apply the insights to her own life. Some of her favorites include Thinking, Fast and Slow, How We Decide, and The Wisdom of the Enneagram.","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/darya\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/communication-7-habits-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42520"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43068,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42520\/revisions\/43068"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}