Listening in interpersonal skills

We are aware of how important it is to build strong relationships with our stakeholders to ensure success in our personal and professional endeavours. The communication pyramid is a very powerful framework to help people work on their interpersonal skills in a focussed manner. The foundation stone of this pyramid is ‘trust’. But how does listening help build trust?

When we listen to someone intently, we understand them at a deeper level. It builds confidence in them that we genuinely care. Hence, they find it easier to confide and give information that may be crucial to the project at hand. Studies show that active mindful listening, without bias, helps build positive and long -lasting relationships. Many successful sales people would agree that they could clinch that ‘important’ deal only when they could establish a genuine connection with the client.