Listening Actively

Active listening means reflecting back and summarizing the content and emotions in your audience's responses to your questions.

As your listeners respond to your questions, you, in turn, must become an active listener to further strengthen your presentation.  Active listening means reflecting back and summarizing the content and emotions in your audience's responses to your questions.

By reflecting, you show that you've heard and understood the other person--a powerful step in any persuasive effort.  Consider these guidelines:

Reflect content.  Paraphrase the factual details you're hearing form your audience, using language such as "It sounds like..." "In other words..." "So you're saying..." and " It seems that..."

Reflect emotions.  Acknowledge your listener's feelings.  for instance, if an employee says, "I'm still doing the same old job.  I could do it in my sleep," respond with, "Seems like you're feeling bored and frustrated.  Is that it?

Summarize.  To redirect a conversation that has wandered off track, sum up what you've heard so far.  For example, "I'm concerned that we've gone off on a tangent.  let me see if I can touch on the main points we've covered."  You can summarize at any point in a persuasion situation.  But summarizing is particularly effective when emotion has begun clouding the issues or when you feel your views aren't being appreciated or understood.  Summarizing is also helpful when you believe it's time to conclude an argument or when you've reached an agreement and want to ensure that you and the other party share the same understanding about the deal.

ACTION POINT: By using the techniques of audience self-persuasion, you further enhance the likelihood of moving listeners to your side.