Active listening

a skill in business coaching & training

Active listening is a soft, or people skill.

Active listening involves shifting mental attention from what is going on in one own’s head to what the other party in the conversation is saying. It is focused on what your counterpart needs.

Active listening is a key and basic skill for a business coach.

Your business coach should be capable of establishing rapport in a minimal amount of time, tuning into what you saying, giving you short verbal affirmations, paraphrasing what you have conveyed, asking helpful questions, among other things. It is an essential part of successfully supporting customers.

The goal of active listening is to understand your counterpart, be it a team, a leader or an organisation.

Key elements of active listening are what is called the 3 A’s: attitude, attention and adjustment, all of which enable successful active listening.