Understand the benefits and how to implement them in your company
Does your company make itself available to listen to its customers and employees? In practice, we call this active listening.
If you need to improve your relationship with your audience (internal and external), this is what you need.
It is simply listening carefully to the message that the interlocutor is passing, seeking to interpret and assimilate the information in a efficient, demonstrating interest in the subject, with a willingness to understand and without judgement. Feedback, interactions and answering questions are part of active listening.
- Take time to listen to the person carefully without distractions: schedule a meeting if necessary, in a quiet environment without interruptions and pay attention to what is being said.
- Non-verbal language is one of the most used forms of communication, so when the interlocutor is commenting on a subject it is necessary to pay attention to body language as well.
- Don't just focus on what was good: constructive criticism is always welcome, especially if it can help with development, so listen to the feedback and try to understand the points for improvement and how to resolve them.
- Have empathy to understand the moment: it is necessary to stay focused to understand everything that is being said without jumping to conclusions. For the interlocutor, this can be a very difficult moment, so try your best to put yourself in the shoes of the person who is giving you the information.
- Don't give your opinion until the person has finished speaking: listen to everything until the end, and then offer your feedback, show that you heard and understood everything that was said and, if necessary, ask questions.
Train leadership: Conduct training, initially for leadership only, on active listening and reinforce the importance of leaders practicing this with their teams. Show that they only benefit and so does the company.
Use CI channels: Invest in channels that enable dialogue with employees, such as Worksphere, for example, so that your company can create a ombudsman (with the possibility of sending anonymous messages), forum for discussions, etc.
Invest in research: Encourage the carrying out of researches (climate or specific), focus groups and other questionnaires that allow people to be heard.
- Better communication between employee and company;
- Improves the organizational climate;
- Increases confidence;
- Improves teamwork;
- Optimizes processes;
- It can bring innovation to the company (through the practices we talked about above, your company can capture opinions and ideas from employees)
Dialogue can be the key to major changes in companies. Be sure to implement active listening and see the difference in your day-to-day work.
