3 Tips to Become a Better Listener, and a More Persuasive Person
Hint — it’s not about you.
“Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand.”
-Karl A. Menninger
Listening is 90% of persuasion.
When you think of the most powerful presences in fiction, they are often the best listeners.
Albus Dumbledore.
Jean-Luc Picard.
Princess Leia.
Magneto.
Leroy Jethro Gibbs.
Think about your own experiences. Who has been most successful in winning you over to their way of seeing things? In making you want to see more of them? Is it the person who talks over you? Who stops speaking only to think about what to say next? Who looks down at their phone mid-conversation?
Or is it the thinker — the one who considers your words? Who quietly listens and builds a connection in silence while you offer your opinion?
There are two basic reasons for the power of listening.
First, listening indicates humility, and an interest in what others have to offer. It signals…
