Last week I attended a business lunch at the Columbia Tower Club.    Betsy Lydle Smith does Virtues Training in Bellevue, WA and taught us about effective listening.  The 6 Steps to Excellent Listening as Betsy described were:

1.  Be fully present and offer receptive silence.

2.  Ask "Cup-Emptying" Questions that begin with WHAT or HOW.

3.  Focus on Perceptual Cues:  Body Language, Pauses, & Facial Expressions

4.  Ask Clarifying Questions that get to the heart of the matter:  What are the next steps?  Would you like A or B?  What support do you need?  What will help you?

5.  Closure and Integration Question:  What is clear for you & has been helpful?

6.  Virtues Acknowledgment:  You acknowledge them for being accountable, Responsible, etc.

She had everyone work with a partner to ask the question "What could we do to better our business?".  This helped me identify a weight that I had been carrying around on my shoulders and was building anxiety within me.  Coming from an accounting career, I am fairly green when it comes to sales.  I am trying my best to balance Networking and Managing my Pipeline.  I then realized that I had been packing my schedule with Networking, creating more projects for advertising and marketing, yet keeping my clients in the pipeline a priority for closing. 

Going through this exercise helped me identify I needed to immediately schedule some time to prioritize my projects, pick one and GET IT DONE!  Sometimes we just need to set aside a couple hours to clean the stacks on our desk.  Thanks to Betsy I finally did it.  In fact, I got a couple things done, including the stacks on my desk.  What a relief I finally felt!

Betsy Smith adapted this exercise from the 5th strategy of the Virtues Project.  She was a great speaker which I would recommend including in any event.  HOPE Lending takes pride in continuing education and finding time for lifetime learning.  We currently offer expert service for Investors and First Time Home Buyers.  Thanks to Betsy, we now offer Vacation Home, Vacant Lot, and Mobile Financing!

HOW WOULD BEING A BETTER LISTENING IMPROVE YOUR BUSINESS?