Yogi Berra, was one of the most famous baseball catchers and Managers with the Yankees, and later a coach with Mets. Yogi was a man of few words, but 90% of what he said are memorable.  “You can observe a lot by watching” is one of Yogi’s memorable sayings.  I am going to tweak that a little and say, “You can learn a lot by listening.”

The thing is, when you are doing the talking, you are typically not doing a whole lot of listening, and often not a lot of learning either.

So, there are a few reasons why you should talk less, and listen more, especially when working with clients.

1. You might just learn something.

  • Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don’t.
  • Everyone has unique experiences, skills, and talents that you can learn from.

2. You’ll gain the respect and trust of whoever you’re talking to.

  •  If you can become a great listener and encourage others to speak about themselves, then you’ll gain their respect and admiration.

3. You’ll command attention when you do speak.

  • People want to hear what successful people have to say.
  • Practice the art of listening, and you’ll command more attention when you add to the conversation.

4. You can keep your cards close to your chest.

  • Learning how to speak less and listen more helps you to keep your own opinions close to your chest and allows you to dig deeper into the mindset of others.

5. You’re less likely to say anything dumb or that you might regret.

  • By learning how to talk less and listen more, you give yourself space to develop your ideas.
  • You have more time to formulate these ideas into articulate sentences, and you’re less likely to say something that leaves you blushing.

6. You can keep the conversation going

  • When you’re focused on listening (rather than waiting for an opportunity to speak), you’ll come up with good questions that can keep a conversation going.

These suggestions will help you when you are in a crowd of your peers, with people you don’t know that well and with customers/clients. Give it a try!

 

Source: Talk less, listen more: 6 reasons it pays to learn the art By Maggie Wooll