How can a project manager be an active listener?
Tom Peter’s sentence about the communication role in a project management area which says: “I would say it’s twice as important to be a good listener than a good speaker”, made me encouraged to study some articles and PM resources to learn more about Active listening or mindful listening and methods to achieve that skill.
something that I perceived through my navigation is that mindful listening is more like a special art than only a skill. Although less attention is paid to active listening and its inevitable and effective role in the project management process, nothing reduces its value to achieving goals, especially when dealing with a complex project with a high level of uncertainty, mindful listening reduces mistakes level and missing opportunities. due to the identity of the project manager job, which is at the center of the information flow and is a communication bridge between the business and the development team, acquiring active listening is so crucial to addressing problems and taking an alternative approach to solving them, as an iterative approach.
a mindful listener in addition to listening to words can pick up subtle issues for addressing issues and utilizing opportunities. in my opinion, a project manager can act as an agent to gather all the information on the table.
I have picked up some useful and practical tips that help us to be active or mindful listeners.
an important key point is being in the present and focusing all attention on speakers’ verbal and cues of nonverbal messages. to get to this point:
- instead of thinking about what to say in response to the speaker’s words, only listen.
2. listen even if you disagree with your opposite person
3. be curious and ask open questions. The emphasis should be on asking, not telling. Try to ask ‘open questions’ — How? What? Where? Why? This encourages the person you are talking with to think and really explain things from their perspective as opposed to having the situation labeled by someone else. Try and put your thoughts, opinions, and reactions on hold while you really get a sense of the situation.
4. listen to learn something new from each person your talking to.
5. keep eye contact with a person who is speaking
6. listen to and don’t interrupt and don’t jump to the other person’s words.
7. during a conversation don’t daydream and be in the present
8. paraphrase messages that you perceive from the speaker to ensure you misunderstood, especially when the subject or messages are unclear or ambiguous.
9. keep the appearance of listening and show the body language of paying attention to the speaker, such as nodding your head occasionally.
10. take notes, because both help you focus more deeply and also help remember things you’ve heard.
11. consider the mood of your opposite person, either if he/she is nervous or upset, or hurried.
12. don’t let the speaker’s physical gesture or something like this distract your focus on listening.
13. once you infer in your mind, what the other person is going to say, don’t stop listening!
14. Encourage the other person to keep talking and clarify points if you need to
15. Make the person you are speaking with feel like you are listening and want to know what they have to say. Use words of encouragement like: “I see”, “Go ahead”, “I’m listening”, and “That sounds interesting” to keep the conversation flowing. Don’t be worried to clarify points if you need to “can I check I’ve understood this correctly….”, “Just to clarify you feel like…”, “Tell me more about….”
