Practical Coach: Management Skills for Everyday Life, The

Active Listening

The Swiss psychiatrist Paul Tournier wrote that “it's impossible to overemphasize the immense need human beings have to be really listened to, to be taken seriously, to be understood.”^[9] Yet in a “Brand Called You” economy in which being able to sell oneself is fast becoming the mother of all skills, the value of listening does not seem to get the respect it deserves. Indeed, the old saying that “the opposite of talking isn't listening, it's waiting to talk”^[10] seems increasingly relevant. However, The Wall Street Journal columnist Hal Lancaster warns:

Communication and reconciliation introduces harmony into another's life by sensing and honoring the need to be cared for and understood.

—Howard Thurman, Disciplines of the Spirit ...