One Soft Skill I Needed To Master

Sometimes we'd never know how much we needed something until we found out in an unexpected way.

A few days ago my 5 year old was telling me a story about one of her classmates in school that day but I was not giving her my full attention as I was busy with my phone. She called on her older sister to come for her to narrate the story to her. Immediately, I dropped the phone and told her I'm all ears for her gist. Her action provoked my thought that if a girl of her age could observe I wasn't giving her the full attention she needed, how much more an adult?

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Her action made me realize how much I needed a listening skill which I'd overlooked all these years. I cast my thoughts back on how I usually focus on my phone or whatever I was doing whenever someone was talking to me, with the belief that I was listening with my ears not my hands. It made me realize how badly they may have felt by my actions unknown to me. More worrisome to me is the fact that I've been doing this for so long to my friends,even my hubby but none ever expressed their displeasure but my kid.

Listening when spoken to gives the speaker the assurance that they have your 100% attention. You don't need to tell them that. They know it when you focus on them, setting aside any form of distraction, maintaining eye contact by not looking at your devices and waiting for them to finish speaking before talking. These tell them how important what they're talking about is to you. Also when you treat them that way, it will help to build strong relationships because people mostly like to talk to those who give them listening ears because it goes beyond just hearing sounds, it's connecting with them.

I may have underrated this skill in the past but I think it's one skill that I need for my personal improvement as it also requires patience to achieve which is also another silent skill that will enable me to wait for someone to finish speaking before talking. I'd been looking to master some other skills, when effective listening is what I needed most. Of course I'm earnestly working on that for myself as it will greatly improve my interpersonal relationships with others.

This is my response to the weekly prompt by @indiaunited. Join the contest here

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