GETTING THE JOB DONE: THE IMPORTANCE OF LISTENING

First and most importantly, understand the task. Understanding the task will not come to you if you struggle with listening. Here’s a simple test for you: after you listen to an instruction, ask yourself what the core of the instruction was and see if you are able to remember, if you aren’t, you ...

Lastly, train yourself to listen twice as much as you write. It is not easy, it is an art that can be learned but it begins with having a growth mindset and learning that, sticking to your guns won’t help much; it actually doesn’t. Listening is twice as hard because you have to be able to follow ...

Second, ask questions. It is not wrong to not know everything or fully understand and no one will fault you when you ask questions. One thing very important about the work we do is that, if it is not up to standard, if it falls below the belt, then we haven’t truly worked. If you struggle with an...

I hit a terrible curve this week at work and it was brought to my attention the reason I struggle so much with doing the actual work is that I am quick to write and that has always been my problem. I may be the only one (I really hope I am not) but I used to think taking actual notes helped, no m...

Third point, stop writing everything down. I’ll say that again, stop writing everything down. It is not the length of words you write but how much you have been able to consume. Think of it this way; you are better off being able to explain to someone what was said when you have ...

I understood very little of what was taught. The interesting thing is, it followed me everywhere I went; I would miss important information because I was always writing and never really listened to understand. I guess in my mind, I thought having notes helped because then, it was easy to refer bu...

Don’t be afraid to seek advice, it is important to getting the work done. So you listened alright, you believe you had an understanding of what the work demanded but you are still struggling. It helps no one if you stay in your corner, beating yourself up, just sulking; get up and get help. Ask s...

There was an instruction given at work, a very simple do A, get B as the result and I thought I understood it. It was only after I got into doing A, that I realized I did not fully understand how that would get me closer to the result. My mistake was not listening attentively to the instruction t...