The Power of Effective Listening, Review

Not long ago I took an interpersonal communication class that got me interested in improving my communication with others. One aspect of this is listening. In fact, many say listening is essential to communication and even more important than speaking and writing in creating relationships.

When I saw this CD at my local library, I checked it out to listen during my commute:

At first, I wondered why the speaker uses such a quick pace to describe various techniques to communicate well. I think it's because he knows listeners are quickly bored by speech as it is usually much slower than our minds. He doesn't want the listeners' minds to wonder too easily.

The lessons in this audio book focus on active listening. The author emphasizes being sympathetic to a speaker and asking open ended questions. He also describes a method to remember facts and names. This resource has been around for a while, so it provides a good review of the topic of active listening.

If you are looking for audio books to enhance your commute, I recommend this one. It might be worth a second or third listen, as I'm sure I missed details as I was, in fact, driving when listening. Yes, I was multitasking, something the author advises against when listening. Oh well.