Lesson 7
The main thing I appreciated about this week's lesson was the opportunity to read a little about Stephen R. Covey's "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People." Having lived in Utah Valley most of my life I've heard the "7 Habits" mentioned, but have never heard or read about them in detail. This reading helped me have a desire to do learn a little more about the 7 Habits.
The habit that stood out to me the most was "Seek first to understand, then to be understood." I thought I had this habit fairly well developed, but the more I read about it the more I realized that I really don't have the handle on it that I thought I did. The quote, "Most people don't listen to understand--they listen with the intent to reply," made me think about my "listening" skills. I know that there are plenty of times that I don't listen to understand, I try to think about how I can respond, what I have to say about the matter, instead of truly listening to what the person is saying.
Another quote that stood out to me is, "Empathetic listening takes time, but not nearly as
much time as it will take to back up and correct misunderstandings when you are much further down the road." There was a discussion that I "participated" in a couple of weeks ago where I know that I did not listen to understand. I felt my role was to jump in and offer my advice, feeling my advice was correct and the right way to do things. A little while after the conversation was over I realized what I had done and realized that it's not important to be right ... at all, but it's important to listen and to acknowledge what the other person is saying. I am still working on mending that conversation. I probably need to mend it more for my benefit than the other person, she may have already moved on, but I still need to apologize to her in person. I learned a great lesson that day in the importance of truly listening and, it's okay to just listen.
The habit that stood out to me the most was "Seek first to understand, then to be understood." I thought I had this habit fairly well developed, but the more I read about it the more I realized that I really don't have the handle on it that I thought I did. The quote, "Most people don't listen to understand--they listen with the intent to reply," made me think about my "listening" skills. I know that there are plenty of times that I don't listen to understand, I try to think about how I can respond, what I have to say about the matter, instead of truly listening to what the person is saying.
Another quote that stood out to me is, "Empathetic listening takes time, but not nearly as
much time as it will take to back up and correct misunderstandings when you are much further down the road." There was a discussion that I "participated" in a couple of weeks ago where I know that I did not listen to understand. I felt my role was to jump in and offer my advice, feeling my advice was correct and the right way to do things. A little while after the conversation was over I realized what I had done and realized that it's not important to be right ... at all, but it's important to listen and to acknowledge what the other person is saying. I am still working on mending that conversation. I probably need to mend it more for my benefit than the other person, she may have already moved on, but I still need to apologize to her in person. I learned a great lesson that day in the importance of truly listening and, it's okay to just listen.
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