The Importance Of Active Listening In Business

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In business as in life, one needs to develop skills to be more effective. Interpersonal skills useful to facilitate a successful career in business include listening, assertiveness, negotiation, feedback, persuasion, interviewing, and coaching. The following contains a brief explanation of each skill, how the skill is useful in a business setting, and a website to expand your knowledge of the skill.
Listening skills, more specifically active listening is one of the best skills to develop in business. Active listening is defined as giving full attention to the person speaking (Carpenter, Erodgan, &Taylor, 2009). Ways to engage in active listening include keeping eye contact with the speaker, repeating information heard back to the speaker, and …show more content…

As a business owner or manager, conducting an effective interview is certainly a skill. Some may think it’s simple to interview a potential employee. However, there are several factors to consider in order to hire the right person for the job. It takes time to learn how to move past your first impression of a person, ask the right questions, and pay attention to body language. Frances Burks wrote an article, How to Lead an Interview with beneficial tips.
The final skill is coaching. This refers to the way in which you assist your staff or coworkers learning. John Whitmore in his book Coaching for Performance wrote, “Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their performance. It is helping them learn rather than teaching them.” It may be easier to simply explain the process. It’s much more valuable to facilitate learning instead. They will retain the knowledge and you will spend much less time going back over the information with them repeatedly. Inc. magazine has an excellent article to learn more on their web site (Bacharach, 2013). …show more content…

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Bacharach, Y. (2013, August 8). 5 Essential Skills for Successful Coaching. Retrieved from Inc.com: http://www.inc.com/yael-bacharach/five-essential-skills-for-successful-coaching.html
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