Am I listening?..

I have been such a pathetic listener in the past that I’ve never really cared about what the other person had to say and this insensitive flowed into work till I got strong feedback from a mentor once about paying attention to the tone of the voice of the person on the other end. He said that he would know if a person was ready to talk or not just from the way he/she said hello..

I had an clarification call to make yesterday and the moment the person picked up, I sensed something was not right.. and that was the case. Luckily, I always say ‘Hello – would you have a minute now for…?’ which has helped greatly..

But, picking up a non verbal cue yesterday from a person I didn’t know so well was not a bad thing at all. Just shows how much communication is non verbal.. There are cues all around us..

So, Are we listening?