5 Techniques To Get People To Really Listen To You

#5 No More Talking For The Sake Of It

It sounds like a bit of an ironic cliche, or perhaps a Confucius-type thing, but the truth is that the people who do the most talking get heard the least. When you talk a lot, people are aware of the fact that a lot of it holds very little use to them and so they tend to tune out. The trouble starts when they make a habit of tuning out while you talk, only to miss the important bits.

#4 Know What Listening Looks Like

You won’t be heard unless you do some listening of your own. Think about it… Do you want to pay attention to somebody when it’s their turn to speak, when the whole time you were talking they were looking at the phone? Now reverse the roles.

Listening to somebody properly involves looking at them, making eye contact and responding at the right moments. Do you know how to achieve this? Yeah, you actually do some listening. Then when it’s your turn, you’re far more likely to be heard.

#3 Allow Fewer Distractions

In some cases it might be appropriate to simply remove distractions (in the case of a parent talking to a child when the TV is on, for example) and on others, it’s best to wait until the distraction has removed itself (when you’re trying to talk to a colleague who happens to be in the middle of typing something).

Either way, being conscious of this and acting accordingly will go a long way towards making sure what you have to say is being heard.

#2 Consider Body Language

People will intrinsically pay more attention to someone who appears confident in what they have to say, as opposed to somebody who’s perhaps a little more tentative. And body language plays a much larger role than we often give it credit for.

It’s for this reason that being conscious of your body language is important when expecting to be heard. Also, standing in a high power pose such as the one the lady in this image has adopted, will help the body to release cortisol and even testosterone, leaving you feeling more confident.

Try it…

#1 Get To The Point

Studies have proven that, not only are people forced to spend a massive hunk of their daily lives listening to others, but they also don’t have attention spans which last as long as we may sometimes assume and hope.

Quite simply, cut out the excess stuff and get to the point. We’re not saying be unnecessarily blunt but rather, being necessarily sharp.