Active listening skills

Paying close attention to the words being used

Following up on the active listening skills article where we introduced the concept of really listening for specific words. 

I am going to provide you with some more clues as to what to look and listen for.

Mastering this concept will allow you to rapidly build rapport with anyone.

Below is a list of clues or keywords that will help you pickup on a person’s primary mode of gathering information.

If you can adjust your language and presentation to match theirs you will instantly start building rapport with them.

Now that you know the clues to and you get the concept, here comes the active listening skills exercise.

Have someone read out loud the following three paragraphs.

One house is located on a quiet, peaceful street. Almost any time of day you can walk out and hear the birds singing. It has a storybook interior that speaks so eloquently, it’s hard not to ask yourself how anyone could pass it by. Around twilight, you wander out to the garden just to listen to the birds, the breeze rustling through the branches, and the sound of the wind chimes on the front porch.

The next house is amazingly picturesque. You get excited just looking at it. It’s visually stunning, from the long white porch out front to the beautifully detailed wainscoting on the peach colored walls. There are windows everywhere, so it has beautiful light at almost any time of day. There’s so much to look at, form its winding stairways to its elegant carved oak doors, you could spend a day just exploring every nook and cranny, finding out what new things there are to see.

The third house is harder to describe. You have to go and experience it yourself; you just have to feel it. Its construction is solid and reassuring. Its rooms have distinctive warmth. In a totally undefinable way, it touches something very fundamental in you. It’s almost nurturing. You feel like sitting in a corner and soaking up whatever vapours are making you feel so serene.

Which one of these houses would you buy and why?

Final active listening skills exercise – how many clue words can you find in each paragraph when they read them out loud to you again?

Until next time, keep Discovering your Natural Abilities.