Michael: "Oh, that's a great idea. I like what you said." Active listening and empathy. Hey, it's today's idea, part of the seven ideas, one week and a better you.
Active listening is when you're really paying attention to what somebody's saying. You're not waiting to speak; you're actually leaning in and paying attention. And you're paraphrasing back what they said. A perfect example: "Oh, if I heard you correctly, you mentioned XYZ." And then they're going to give you the buy-in, like, "That's exactly what I was talking about."
Now we want to add a little empathy to that. Not only do we want them to know that we heard them, we want them to understand that we're actually a part of what they're communicating. That is: I'm going to be in their shoes. I'm going to put myself in their experience. So, "Hey, I heard you. And if I remember correctly, this is what you're talking about. But I really understand your point of view in that. I appreciate that."
That's active listening and empathy. It's pretty easy, but putting it into practice, that's the tough part.
