Listen Up or Lose Out

18

Reflect Feelings and Meanings

-----what you try to convey is reality-----

The fact plus the feeling, a total complex experience

of a real world.

—JOYCE CARY

A MESSAGE OF MODERATE or of considerable importance to the speaker typically contains both facts and feelings. So proficient listeners need to be able to recap the facts accurately. (You learned that in Chapter 14.) And they need to acknowledge the emotional aspects of the speaker’s message. That’s done by reflecting feelings—a key listening skill taught in this chapter. And in this chapter ...