Patience in Listening

As one grows in life, the key change one needs to make is to get good at asking questions. While one is young, having most of the answers makes one stand out. But as one moves from the doer to facilitator, the key requirement becomes - how well one understands the request? This makes the quality of the question necessary. However, more important than the first question is the follow-up question. And to ask a good follow-up question, the key skill required is the ability to listen.

This has also been my Achilles heel. Years of training have led me to jump to conclusions, form opinions, and provide answers based on half-baked knowledge. In my quest for speed, I have made a fool of myself at times by not listening to people or reading through things properly.

So what matters is patience. Listening requires one to be interested in the other person. Patience to listen to them even when one has understood the crux of their message. Trying to find clues and build one’s hypothesis, which is tested every time, is important. It also means - making the other person feel heard.

Patience leads to calmness, which in turn leads to having more control over words, resulting in better outcomes, such as Rohit Sharma having two extra seconds to play the hook shot. Slow things down, listen to your breath, listen to others, take an extra second and then formulate your question or response.

It is difficult at the start, you want to get on with it - but making this transition is something which prepared one for big leagues.