Page 94 - Company Excellence

Part II: Chapter 2 ‐ The Personality Match

Optimize listening skills
Actually, we all know that we should listen attentively to the person
we are talking to, especially in customer interviews. But listening skills
are also of enormous importance in employee interviews and job
interviews. However, the reality is often different. Take a look: How
much do you talk in customer or employee interviews? How often do
you allow the other person to speak? If you talk a lot, you don't learn
much about the other person - and then you have no basis for
assessing and matching the other person, and thus of course no basis
for assessing their personality structure. So analyze your listening
behavior:

• Do you always let the other person finish? Or do you
interrupt them?
• Do you ask questions - or do you communicate primarily in
the statement form?
• How does your share of speech relate to that of the person you are talking
to?
• How do you respond to your interviewer's questions?
• Are you able to simply remain silent and "be all ears" during
a conversation?

Discuss your listening skills with your colleagues, your leader, or even
your friends. If you find that you have inadequate listening skills, you
should expand your listening know-how.
Perhaps your experience matches this observation: If an
employee or customer meets a good listener, he or she gains trust
more quickly because he or she realizes that someone is seriously
engaging with him or her. This is because the silent eavesdropper
satisfies a basic human need, namely that for recognition. The
interlocutor senses and notices that you, as a good listener, are
willing and able to engage with his or her world of ideas in order to
understand his or her needs.

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