Friday, September 23, 2011

Did you hear?????

I love my Motivational Mondays as they give me the opportunity to get a jump start of my week, and as a member of the National Society of Leadership and Success I am privy to such speakers like Charles Marcus.

In his session, he spoke of how he was forced to be a great listener because of a speech impediment that he had growing up, but the inspiration was how he saw this as an asset instead of an obstacle.

Great listeners are great communicators, and Charles Marcus says that statistic shows you have the first 15-30 seconds to make a great impression, and making an impression is much easier than changing an impression.

Listening is the key and those with speech impediments find that they are forced to listen which in turn winds up being a good thing, again, because great communicators are the great listeners.

Charles Marcus says that when speaking we should do so with conviction – it displays clarity; compassion – it confirms authenticity; honesty – it illustrates truthfulness; confidence –inspires; and conviction – demonstrates belief.

But Marcus also states that we should listen with sincerity and be present, in the moment, giving 100% attention to the speaker. The rule of thumb is to speak for 20% of the time and listen intently for 80% for effective communication.

The way I see it, I think we are all talking way too much which indicates that no one is listening. Maybe we need to practice, what Charles Marcus is preaching, in our government, schools, work environment and even in our personal live.

Shhhhhh…Listen!