On July 11, we invited Rachel Healy from Open Eye Creative to teach us how to master the Art of Listening.
Rachel began by sharing this quote: “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” Even though listening is something we inherently do all the time, it is a true skill to listen actively and provide your full, undivided attention. Listening really is the biggest sign of respect you can give to someone! Keep reading for Rachel’s key takeaways.
- Listening can boost creativity, trust and influence as a leader. If your employees and teammates feel you respect their ideas, they will feel encouraged to do their best work.
- Train for mindfulness. Practicing mindful mediation for a minute here or there in between tasks can make a huge difference.
- Check your mindset toward others. It becomes much easier to listen to someone if we check our biases at the door.
- Remove all distractions. What is small in size but big in disruption? Cell phones. Even on silent, the physical presence of them can be a distraction.
- Good and thoughtful questions are conversation catnip. You want to ask questions that will advance the conversation and encourage the other person to share their thoughts.
Thank you Rachel for presenting! Our next workshop is Grant Seeking 101 on August 20 with Julia Da Silva from Triangle Community Foundation. If you’d like to attend our next On The Menu or see what else is going on in RTP, check out our events page!
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