Active Listening -Essential skill in project management
Why active listening is essential in project management?
“Most of the successful people I’ve known are the ones who do more listening than talking.”
— Bernard Baruch, American financier & presidential advisor
In the role of Program manager communication is an integral part of their daily job responsibilities. Effective communication solves many conflicts & helps to analyze risk in the project Also it helps to address it to the stakeholders as well as their teammates.
If you want to understand & tackle the difficulties then it's your responsibility to learn to listen to your teammates. Listening is a good sign of giving respect to the speaker.
What is Active listening?
The active listening technique is used to improve personal communications in organizations. Listeners put aside their own emotions and ask questions and paraphrase what the speaker says to clarify and gain a better understanding of what the speaker intended to say.
Once you start practicing active listening with teammates, it helps establish trust between both parties, shows empathy for others & psychological safety. Being a strong, attentive listener you can see the improvements in your relationships with them as a result.
What happens when you practice active listening?
It’s proven that the reward regions of the brain were activated when participants worked with actively listening to evaluators.
The regions of the brain comprising the “reward system” use the neurotransmitter dopamine to communicate. Dopamine-producing neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) communicate with neurons in the nucleus accumbens in order to evaluate rewards and motivate us to obtain them.
How do improve active listening?
Pay attention, and learn to listen with all your full attention to the speaker. It's been too difficult to stay away from your smartphone, but it's a good habit to put away your phone aside, ignore distractions, shut down your internal dialogue & avoid daydreaming.
Eye contact is especially important. when it uses in the correct way it can convey a message of confidence & sincerity to your co-worker.
Ask Open-ended Questions to speakers really help you to show you are interested in them & encourage thoughtful expansive responses.
Practice, Practice
“Of all the skills of leadership, listening is the most valuable — and one of the least understood. Most captains of industry listen only sometimes, and they remain ordinary leaders. But a few, the great ones, never stop listening. That’s how they get word before anyone else of unseen problems and opportunities.”
— Peter Nulty, Fortune Magazine
