Inter-personal Skills

A useful ability in the working environment is communicating effectively with co-workers, clients and even suppliers. Often it is your speaking skills that are emphasised - making sure that you can explain yourself effectively and be authoritative when required. An important but often-overlooked aspect is being able to listen, and all too often we can be quick to interrupt because of our impatience with getting across our own ideas and requests.

A study by Tom Peters has shown just how bad medical doctors are at listening - the average time they listen to a patient before interrupting is a miniscule 18 seconds! The results of this study do not necessarily translate to other industries and inter-personal interactions, but we should all heed the lessons and think about the dangers of not listening effectively. Read more about the study at NinaSimosko.com: Are You an 18 Second Boss?. Read more of Tom Peter's work and see more of his videos at TomPeters.com.


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