Listen Up or Lose Out: How to Avoid Miscommunication, Improve Relationships, and Get More Done Faster

Summary

Want better results? Talk less and listen more.

Listening might seem like the easiest thing in the world to do. But most people retain only a fraction of what they hear, resulting in miscommunications and lost opportunities.

When you actively listen, you learn to gather perspectives, bridge differences, and resolve problems. Absorbing what a person is saying, thinking, and feeling sets the stage for dramatically improved relationships and increased professional success.

Listen Up or Lose Out pulls this underused tool out from the shadows and highlights its role in effective communications. Step by step, the book breaks down listening into a set of learnable skills, explaining how to:

• Avoid the urge to criticize, question, or advise
• Focus on the speaker’s point of view
• Ask the right questions, in the right order
• Restate the speaker’s key points and keep the conversation moving
• Read people’s feelings and reflect them back
• Find solutions together

Skilled listeners experience fewer conflicts, make better decisions, and discover opportunities that others might miss. No amount of talking beats great listening!