How to be a focused listener?

business coaching, Coaching, empathy, focused listening, listening

Anirban Chatterjee's avatarMusings of a Curious Indian

Let me start by sharing a personal experience. A few years back, I went to a reputed software company for an interview. The first couple of rounds of discussions went very well and I felt invigorated from interacting with people who were knowledgable and forward looking. Disaster struck however after lunch when I met the most fidgety recruiting manager I have ever met in my life. He kept twirling in his swivel chair, frequently checking his Blackberry and speaking more than me. His attention was partly on me and partly in his own thoughts. It was a classic case of Cosmetic Listening. He displayed all the attributes of a poor listener. He showed poor concentration, was distracted and was successful in making me feel very insignificant and disrespected. In an hour, he managed to extinguish all the excitement and the positive emotions that I had built up before interacting with…

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Goals: How to set good ones (Blog and Podcast)

Brendan Burchard, Eddie O’Connor, habits, High Performance Habits, The psychology of performance

Big Happy Life's avatar

This podcast episode is the first in the “Goals and Habits Series”. Listen here.

It’s that time of year again. Most of us have fresh goals and great hopes for achieving them.

I have set myself some lofty goals and am using the process described here to give myself the best shot at success.

In short:

  • Set 3 levels of goals:
  1. Outcome goals – the big idea
  2. Performance goals – developing the skills required to achieve the big idea
  3. Process goals – creating opportunities to develop the necessary skills

A great goal is made up of an outcome goal, supported by one or more performance and process goals.

In detail:

Set three levels of goals.

  1. Outcome goals

These goals describe the outcome you’d like to achieve. If you’ve ever heard of SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timebound), these are outcome goals.

Examples:

  • To lose 20 pounds by…

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