Trust and Active Listening

Trust
This is a very important concept, and one that bears repeating. Trust... is something that once lost is difficult to redeem. I lost trust in someone once, and they lost trust in me, on a mutual misunderstanding about some alleged behaviour occuring at a social gathering that was considered inappropriate.

The behaviour in question never occurred, however the perception was that it had.
For about a year there were no words spoken between each of the offended parties, until one day, another individual who was trusted spoke about the incident in conversation. Once it was revealed to this participant, that the behaviour had in fact never occurred as believed, the long lost trust was restored immediately.

This was a totally avoidable scenario, if only the trust had been established securely between the two individuals.

Perhaps you have experienced a situation where trust was broken or compromised, even though that was not the intent of the behaviour.

Sharing Information
My reasons for blogging are to offer information, receive commentary on it's value, and continue to improve the communication going forward. You no doubt could offer up additional insight and information to the conversation, adding to it's value, and providing a necessary balance to the dialogue. In addition, after consulting with a top performing affiliate marketer, I have made the decision to monetize this blog.

Progress will be reported as ads are placed and revenue figures will be provided as an example of Internet Marketing success.

Active Listening
I attended a class for engineers, while working for Sony Electronics. The class was titled "Active Listening". The facilitator of the class revealed the fundamentals in developing a technique to actively listen to whoever was delivering their particular message.

After a period of careful consideration, we were encouraged to respond to the speaker. It was absolutely essential that we all do this when we are conversing! After a while, breaking out of our old habit of beginning our responses, before the speaker had completed their thought, was very refreshing. It did take some time to fully embrace these 'new listening techniques', and gradually reject the 'active speaking' techniques we had previously exhibited.

In all of the conversations I have had throughout my life, I was able to learn so much more by actively listening to the other person. After careful consideration for the context and intent of the speakers statements, I would formulate a well-tempered response, always with the intention to aquire more information. This method has proven to be extremely beneficial in my career, especially when my manager was the speaker!

Value Gained
The value of active listening is threefold:

One, you clearly understand the focus and intent of the speaker's information.

Two, you can avoid any misunderstanding by concentrating specifically on the words that were spoken.

Three, you establish that you are are genuinely interested in what they have to say and will actually value it. Even if the thought is something you may disagree with, at least each speaker can respect the other as a basis for achieving the essential mutual trust.

In turn, if they also practice the same thoughtful listening techniques, we now have a situation where misunderstandings can be reduced to a rare occurence if at all!

Your Turn
Now it's your turn. My thoughts have been offered, I am truly ready to listen. Your responses will be valued and respected. Thanks!