Oh, how we love the sound of our own voice, and I plead as guilty as any and probably more so than most.
Yet a few years back, I made a decision to change my role. I wanted to create the company that ran without me and to do that I had to step back and become the observer, no longer the doer.
Wow. Big adjustment. After a lifetime of being the one giving directions, I had to be quiet and let others take the lead. I quickly discovered I was learning a lot more by listening and that I had some very smart, capable people working with me, most of whom were ready and willing to step up. That business experience motivated me to speak less and ask more questions in my social relationships with equally beneficial results.
There are three pithy quotes below on the value of listening and I suspect that you, like I, already know the ‘truth’ of them… but we tend not to do as well as we know. The fascinating thing by changing my role (and to a certain extent my self-concept/identity), I went from intellectual knowing to a much more powerful emotional knowing born of personal experience.
Closing Quotes:
“I never learned anything while I was talking.” – Larry King, 1933–2021
“The quieter you become, the more you can hear.” – Ram Das, 1931-2019
“We have two ears and one mouth; therefore, we should listen twice as much as we speak.” – Zeno of Elea, c. 495 – c. 430 BC
As always, I share what I most want and need to learn. – Nathan S. Collier
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