On Listening

Everyone thinks they're a pretty good listener, but the truth is that very few people actually are. We need to all work on becoming much better listeners if we want to become more efficient in our jobs.

A lot of time is wasted by not listening. Or maybe it's wasted by not listening to the right people. We all know that we need to listen to what our bosses say. We all know we need to listen to what our clients say. But a lot of the time we aren't listening to what each other are saying.

We aren't listening to the people who touch the projects each and every day. We aren't listening to the consumers who actually use the products and services we advertise. And we aren't listening to coworkers who have already spent the time and energy thinking through the task at hand.

So we need to start listening. Start really listening. Because maybe then we wouldn't waste a couple weeks coming to the same conclusion that someone else already has. We wouldn't waste time on strategies that are flawed. And we wouldn't waste time rehashing the same things again and again and again.

Everyone is an expert in something. Everyone has something to bring to the table. The key is listening to what other people are saying. Listening to the insights and ideas that other people have.

When we become better listeners, we'll also become more efficient at solving the problems we need to solve.