Effective communication is one of the most essential skills that any person can possess. It’s been said for over 10 years that the quality of our lives is the quality of our communication and it is just as true today as it was when first said. The truth is that we are always communicating. We communicate with our breathing, our words, our tones, and our body. Even if you are sitting quietly you are still communicating and most of us are not conscious of most of this communication.

While the way we communicate to others is very important, there is one aspect of our communication that just doesn’t get as much credit as it should. This is the power of listening. You communicate more with your ability to listen than you do with your ability to speak.

Over the last few years the importance of communication has been the focus of quite a bit of scientific study. It has been found that businesspeople in today’s markets earn nearly 40% of their salary from listening. This figure grows exponentially as a person climbs the corporate ladder, with CEOs earning more than 80% of their salary from listening to other people. This really makes a lot of sense because the only way to really learn from other people is listen to them.

Most people spend about 11 minutes per day speaking, with the average sentence taking 2.5 seconds. That means that we are spending all of the rest of our time listening when we are communicating, and like I said, we are always communicating.

So if listening really is this important, how does someone improve his or her listening skills? The best way to listen to anyone communicating is to actively listen to him or her. This means that you should be looking at them, acknowledging that you are hearing them with “yea” and “uh huh,” asking questions if you aren’t sure what is meant by what was said, and making them feel that you are interested in what they have to say. Through active listening, we are able to better understand what the speaker means. We are able to observe their facial expression, their body language, their tones, and their words and we are able to put them all together. This gives us so much more information about what the speaker means than if we are simply listening passively.

The ability to listen is one of the best ways to learn. The willingness to remain quiet so that others can tell us their beliefs, their knowledge and their experience is one of the greatest tools that we have as humans to take in new knowledge.

As you finish reading this article, remember that our ability to communicate effectively is the greatest tool we have to improve the level of success and the level of joy we experience in our lives. Always remember, the quality of our lives is the quality of our communication. Start now to improve the quality and effectiveness of your communication.

Phillip Woodson
http://www.transformationalresults.com