Hear Or Listen?

As a young teenage boy, I was naive when it came to relationships be it with my family, friends or members of the opposite sex. I used to believe that for me to always stay ahead of the pack and establish myself as the alpha, I had to always be the last word on anything and always control someone else’s perception to favor me or what I had in mind, basically I was hell bent on being an influencer before the age of social media. Perhaps it was my age at the time, maybe I had my own personal issues that needed to be overcome or I was just being a human being who learns best through mistakes, after all it is always stated that success is ninety nine percent failure and one percent resilience.

Ego at the time was my friend it pushed me to levels I have never been to, for instance I met some of the prettiest ladies I have ever met however, the downside was I dated none of them and worse still is that none of them called me back or responded positively to my advancements. I later came to understand that this was because I never showed them that they are valuable neither did I show them how they would upgrade my life even if it was just at a fraction of a percent. In other words, I had too much ego with a dash of arrogance. This then became my starting point to learning and practicing active listening, this term means hearing and looking out for meaning in every communication and responding accordingly to establish a mutual understanding.

In later years after being a business owner I learnt that this skill was significant in the growth and development of the business in that customers problems need to be addressed and you can only find out the customers’ problems by talking to them and perceiving the information they are giving out as they do. This then will help you address these problems objectively and in the case of a young entrepreneur develop a product or service that will always be in demand with ready to buy clients at your door step. If done properly then active listening and responding will allow customer retention and in the long-run customer loyalty since it; demonstrates the business’ undivided attention and commitment to the client, encourages the potential customers to air out their opinions on various other issues surrounding the product or the service, reassures the client that the company has their best interests at heart and best of all active listening and responding progressively builds rapport between the customer and the business thus increasing purchases and all round recommendations.