Communicating Effectively

Empathetic listening

Key Takeaways:

Effective listening skills are the basics of building successful relationships with people.

Empathic communication involves both accepting and allowing different perspectives and emotions in other people, and also sharing it with them to enable encouragement and support.

It’s also the practice of actively listening, in an effort to understand the emotions of who you’re communicating with.

Here are some tips to try in your next conversation:

Echo key words, phrases, issues, feelings & gestures

Paraphrasing e.g. “So you’d like more variety in your work?”

Reflecting key feelings. Label intensity correctly e.g. “You feel annoyed no-one has mentioned this to you before?” ”

‘Mirroring’ the other by using their key phrases e.g. “So you’re feeling a bit flat and not as inspired as you’d like to be?”

Match posture and key gestures to increase rapport

Source

Disney via Academy of Social Competency. (2018, April 10). Communication Skills: Empathetic Listening - Inside Out, 2015. YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t685WM5R6aM

Academy of Social Competency