When performing leadership training, I often ask my audience, “Who has ever learned anything from speaking?” Quite often, a few hands will go up in the room. My response is, “I would challenge that this is not accurate. If you’re speaking, you’re just confirming what you think you already know, when in reality, nobody learns from speaking. People only learn from listening.”
Sadly, most people listen with the intent to reply—not with the intent to understand. Think about it—have you ever been in a spirited debate with someone and you’re just waiting for your chance to respond, and when you do, the person that you’re debating with replies “I just said that.” Quite often, we don’t listen to understand and therefore, miss opportunities to learn. Listen and Silent have the same letters because you aren’t truly listening until you’re silent.
