Eric Jacobson

Archive for April 2nd, 2012|Daily archive page


How To Be A More Effective Listener

In Effective Communications, General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leadership Books, Listening Skills, Management on April 2, 2012 at 8:56 pm

Here are some great tips from Michelle Tillis Lederman’s book, The 11 Laws of Likability.  They are all about:

  • what to do and what not to do to be a leader who’s an effective listener:

Do:

  • Maintain eye contact
  • Limit your talking
  • Focus on the speaker
  • Ask questions
  • Manage your emotions
  • Listen with your eyes and ears
  • Listen for ideas and opportunities
  • Remain open to the conversation
  • Confirm understanding, paraphrase
  • Give nonverbal messages that you are listening (nod, smile)
  • Ignore distractions

Don’t:

  • Interrupt
  • Show signs of impatience
  • Judge or argue mentally
  • Multitask during a conversation
  • Project your ideas
  • Think about what to say next
  • Have expectations or preconceived ideas
  • Become defensive or assume you are being attacked
  • Use condescending, aggressive, or closed body language
  • Listen with biases or closed to new ideas
  • Jump to conclusions or finish someone’s sentences


3 Things To Avoid When You Give Your Next Speech

In Effective Communications, General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leadership Education, Leadership Skills, Management, Public Speaking, Speaking In Public on April 2, 2012 at 8:44 pm

If you don’t want to get your speech off to a bad start, the communications experts at Speechworks suggest you:

  1. Don’t apologize (particularly about your anxiety or lack of preparation.  Apologies put your audience on the defensive.
  2. Don’t start by telling a joke (which may not be all that funny, or is irrelevant, or that may even be offensive to someone in your audience).
  3. Don’t beat around the bush (including, don’t list off a lot of people you want to thank.  Don’t waste your audience’s valuable time)

Instead:

  1. If you need to deal with your anxiety, practice like crazy.  Rehearse particularly your first line over and over.
  2. Start your presentation by laying out for your audience a key issue that they are facing in their business.
  3. If you must thank someone, do it at the end, or thank your introducer briefly, pause, and then start right into the meat of your message.
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