How are you at Creative Listening?

People are always telling us things. And more times than they probably realize, WHAT they tell us doesn't always make sense - at least not at first. One way to deal with that is to ignore whatever doesn't make sense. But that's a lesser strategy.

The stronger approach is to become a Creative Listener, listening not just to what IS said, but to what might be MEANT by what is said, as well. This is particularly important when the subject matter is emotionally-charged. In cases like this, the person talking to you has probably thought about having this conversation with you for quite some time, rehearsing it, editing it, tuning it, and committing it to memory. Yet when it comes time to actually HAVE the discussion with you, the person often omits some essential information needed for you to understand the context of things, or flubs their words and says some things that sound very, very wrong.

Hey, it happens. And because it happens, it's all-the-more important that you strive to listen beyond the words to understand what the person is really TRYING to communicate. How do you do that?

• By being patient.
• By asking questions.
• By saying back what you're hearing to see if it's correct.
• By assuming that there is an excellent nugget that's just too important to miss buried somewhere in their words .

I call this being a Creative Listener. And it's my belief that the more creative you are as a listener, the more effective people will be in truly communicating with you.