The 4 Attributes of a Good Listener

A good listener not only focuses on your words, but what’s on your mind.

When we’re constantly fixated on what we’re going to say next, or how people have interpreted what we’ve already said, we forget that being a good listener is equally important to the conversation. This video from The London School of Life reminds us how a good listener inspires quietly instead of nagging endlessly.

4 Attributes of a Good Listener

1) A good listener asks: “What’s on your mind?”

When we’re trying to make tough decisions, good listeners use gentle encouragement to help tease out what’s really at the heart of our anxieties.

It’s not always easy for us to know what’s bothering us—a gentle and constructive push with a good question can encourage us to explore what’s on our minds, and help clarify what might be causing us trouble.

2) Good listeners go beyond anecdotes

It’s hard to find the root of where our feelings comes from, but easy to simply mention that something is lovely or terrible, nice or annoying.

A good listener can help us clarify it.

They look for the bigger picture by taking your piecemeal thought or complaint and turning it into solid ideas by connecting it with your broader history, bringing anecdotal…