Empathic listening

I went to a couple of sessions at work listening to a guy who had recently been on a 3 day course on the 7 habits of highly effective people. It was really interesting and hopefully I can implement some of the principles mentioned. One thing that really struct me though was about empathic listening - something that most people are really bad at but which is so important.

It said the following:

Listen Empathically
Empathic listening is reflecting what a person feels and says in your own words. It is not listening to advise, counsel, reply, refute, solve, fix, change, judge, agree, disagree, question, analyse, or figure out.

So if you want to try something different today then try practising empathic listening - at home with your kids, parther, with your friends and even at work with your colleagues. It's definitely worth it!!