22:21
Faizan
Your business success depends on relationships. With clients, team members, suppliers, and other business owners.
So developing and honing your relationship skills makes sense, right?
This is a lifelong process, but you can make a great start by fostering empathy.
Empathy is the practice of perceiving and relating to the emotions and perspectives of others. To get better at empathy, understand and practice these 3 steps:
1. Listen with an open mind and open heart. All you have to do is listen fully. Set aside any temptation to problem solve, analyze, or judge at this point. Listen. Watch their facial expressions and body language.
You can also give the other person signals that you're listening:
Stop whatever else you're doing. This is not the time to multi-task. If you'd like to make notes because it will help you remember their important points, then ask if it's OK first.
Turn to them and face them.
Lean forward a little to indicate interest.
Maintain eye contact without staring.
Finally, an important point: don't interrupt.
It's becoming more and more common in our culture to interrupt while another is speaking. That doesn't make it OK. To develop your empathy skills, practice waiting until the other person has finished speaking. The space you create by doing so will bring out more information than you would ever get by prodding.
2. Learn more. Ask questions to find out the person's concerns and mindset. Here are some examples to help you get started.
To assess the situation as it stands: How have you approached this so far? What's working and what's not working? How would you like things to have gone?
To go deeper: What's your biggest fear about this situation? What has the impact been on you and others? How does this situation challenge your perceptions or stretch you?
To shift the focus to the future: What needs to happen next, do you think? What's one thing you/we can do to move forward? What support do you need so we can avoid this in future?
3. Acknowledge that you have heard and understood. For empathy to be most valuable, people need to know that you've heard them, that you understand where they are coming from. That acknowledgement is best communicated with words. Your signals (see #1) do help, but body language isn't always clear.
After the other person has finished speaking, make statements to let them know that you've heard. I know this can feel a little awkward at first, but repeating back key points is so helpful. By practicing it, you'll get more comfortable. If it helps, you can begin with: "Just so I'm sure I'm understanding you", or "I'd like to be really clear about the things you've said."
So developing and honing your relationship skills makes sense, right?
This is a lifelong process, but you can make a great start by fostering empathy.
Empathy is the practice of perceiving and relating to the emotions and perspectives of others. To get better at empathy, understand and practice these 3 steps:
1. Listen with an open mind and open heart. All you have to do is listen fully. Set aside any temptation to problem solve, analyze, or judge at this point. Listen. Watch their facial expressions and body language.
You can also give the other person signals that you're listening:
Stop whatever else you're doing. This is not the time to multi-task. If you'd like to make notes because it will help you remember their important points, then ask if it's OK first.
Turn to them and face them.
Lean forward a little to indicate interest.
Maintain eye contact without staring.
Finally, an important point: don't interrupt.
It's becoming more and more common in our culture to interrupt while another is speaking. That doesn't make it OK. To develop your empathy skills, practice waiting until the other person has finished speaking. The space you create by doing so will bring out more information than you would ever get by prodding.
2. Learn more. Ask questions to find out the person's concerns and mindset. Here are some examples to help you get started.
To assess the situation as it stands: How have you approached this so far? What's working and what's not working? How would you like things to have gone?
To go deeper: What's your biggest fear about this situation? What has the impact been on you and others? How does this situation challenge your perceptions or stretch you?
To shift the focus to the future: What needs to happen next, do you think? What's one thing you/we can do to move forward? What support do you need so we can avoid this in future?
3. Acknowledge that you have heard and understood. For empathy to be most valuable, people need to know that you've heard them, that you understand where they are coming from. That acknowledgement is best communicated with words. Your signals (see #1) do help, but body language isn't always clear.
After the other person has finished speaking, make statements to let them know that you've heard. I know this can feel a little awkward at first, but repeating back key points is so helpful. By practicing it, you'll get more comfortable. If it helps, you can begin with: "Just so I'm sure I'm understanding you", or "I'd like to be really clear about the things you've said."
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