Listen more and talk less

This is so simple and yet so hard to do in real life.  A woman stopped by to see me the other day.  She had moved out a ways on the age continuum.  Our eyes connected as we took our seats in my conference room.  Her face was full of life and she engaged me immediately.  We exchanged a few words to set the stage.  Her voice was clear and her words were carefully chosen.  She spoke with a great precision, organizing her thoughts into efficient and powerful sentences.  She sized me up and decided that I was safe.

What she said to me and the story she told is not important.  That she spoke to me and that she told her story is.  I listened and listened and then listened some more.  I was fascinated and she was comfortable telling her story to me.  I learned from her and about her.

So many times we feel compelled to speak, talking, I think, to hear ourselves talk.  We should be listening more and talking less.  We are missing the stories people will tell us if we just listen.  Ask a question and then listen.  Listen hard and you’ll be surprised by what you might hear.

I qualify as a professional talk show host and I’m an attorney, so yes, I have to be able to talk.  Words are my life.  I make my living dwelling in the house of the Word.  And, yes indeed I do have to talk.  But, my real job is listening.  What’s yours?