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Making Your Words Count 155

run up against the corporate culture or end up being discounted
because their comments reflect a lack of understanding of the issues
at hand.
Listening also allows you to process what people are saying, and
it allows you to integrate and connect the solutions that different
people may not see because they are only focused on their own ideas.
In other words, listening and taking in all the information at hand
allows you to better see the big picture and communicate it back to
the group.
Ann said, “I often see people play very powerful roles at a later
point in a meeting because they were good listeners earlier. They
have actually seen insights and are able to integrate things that can
help move a meeting forward in a very powerful way.”
Being a good listener sometimes calls for you to withhold your
opinions or conclusions while you make your way through a series of
conversations or meetings that together give you the entire picture of
a situation—like a mystery detective talking to all the suspects and
piecing together the whole story that no one else sees before draw-
ing a conclusion and solving the case. This helps you to share your
thoughts most appropriately—a critical aspect of making your words
count.
Ann says that there are times she advises people to go into a meet-
ing and say nothing, simply listen, and pay attention to what there is
to learn. She explains, “When people participate from a place of lis-
tening and observing instead of speaking, they report back that they
have learned far more about the dynamics, the power base, how deci-
sions get made, and where the influence is. It puts people in a dif-
ferent place with different objectives.”
We’ve always been taught that speaking up—raising our hand in
class, so to speak—is the best way for us to show our confidence and
demonstrate our ability. But, most of us can still work on better lis-
tening skills. Here are a few tips: