Chapter . Listening

 

I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.

 
 --Richard M. Nixon[35]

Listening: The “Hearing Phenomenon”

The other half of asking a question is how it is received and perceived, and whether it has had the intended impact. Answers alone are not a full indication that you have communicated effectively. There are two additional factors in this equation: how the question was heard, and then what you do with the answer. We discuss how you heard the answer in a moment. What was heard is the key factor in this section, and managers are sometimes completely unaware of how a question is heard.

They tend to think that just because a question was answered, ...

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