From ‘Listening
facts you never knew’ by Kristin Piombino in Ragan’s PR Daily:
Do you
want to be hired? Do you want a promotion? If so, you may want to
reevaluate your communication skills - especially your listening skills.
According
to subscribers to the Harvard
Business Review, they rated the ability to communicate "the most important fact
in making an executive promotable." They ranked it more important than
ambition, education and hard work.
The graph below lists other statistics about communication and listening.
For example, did you know that we derive 55 percent of a message's meaning from
the speaker's facial expressions, 38 percent from how he says the message and 7
percent from the actual words spoken?
Here are
a few more facts:
- We listen to people at a rate of 125-250 words per minute, but think at 1,000-3,000 words per minute.
- Less than 2 percent of people have had any formal education on how to listen.
Images go into your long term memory, whereas words live in your short term memory. During an interview, focus on listening. Make notes if necessary - and understand that listening might be just as important as talking. (Click on the image below to enlarge).
