How active listening can influence your international business
How active listening can influence your international business part 1
How would you feel when you have a meeting with your international business relations and while you talk they have their eyes closed. You will feel confused, are you sure they are really listening?
When a person feels heard, they will go the extra mile to repay the listener.
“Being heard”. Most people know what it feels like. However, what does it mean? Is it just showing interest in the speaker or their story? It is not just showing interest, it also shows understanding and respect. Respect is equivalent to trust, and that is the best basis for any relationship, whether it be personal or business.
But how can you make the speaker feel heard? By simply listening to what the speaker has to say in an active way. But how do you listen actively?
There are 6 basic points of active listening:
Nodding your head & using facial expressions,
Leaning in towards the speaker,
Summarising the speaker’s main points,
Paraphrasing what the speaker has said,
Using open-ended questions.
However, when using these 6 points, you have to keep in mind who you are talking with because it does not guarantee success with every person.
For instance, when talking with a Japanese, it could be better to not make direct eye contact or eye contact for a long period with them. Because for most Japanese it will be seen as an insult to look them straight in the eyes while talking or listening to them.
On the other hand, making eye contact while talking to most Lebanese is a must because for them it shows trust when you look someone straight in the eyes while talking or listening to them.
In general the above 6 points are the basis of active listening and they could show understanding and respect. The reason those basic points do not work for everyone is because you generalize every speaker. You do not search for the possible common ground between you and your business relation. For instance, you dislike making eye contact and your business relations keeps looking away every now and then. Your common ground would be not making too much eye contact. Once you find this common ground, you can start building trust between you and your business relation.
This shows that there is more to active listening than the above mentioned points. With other points, you can overlap the differences between you and business relation and find the common ground.
Here are 5 extra points with which you will be able to build the trust you need for a good and strong relationship between you and your business relation.
Be open to accept new ideas & information,
Try to grasp and understand the matter/content,
Take notes of the important points in the conversation,
Try to step into the shoes of the other person before anything else.
After having learned these 11 points that have to do with active listening, there is still much more you need to be aware of when doing international business.
You also need to be able to sympathize with and/or comprehend the actions of the international business relation and much much more……..
To be continued in our next article!
Bad experiences will have an effect on your business deal and how to avoid it?
With all the topics we discussed and shared knowledge, you can become better in filling out the needs and expectations of your business relations.
When participating in our online education program as betatester and finish all 4 modules you can start over again, you will listen to all the modules in a different way, more wise and more service minded.
The online version will be supported by real practical examples of companies who did do business before with people from a certain background you are specifically interested in.
START NOW, improving your knowledge and your deals.
You are getting the hang of it, in Mastering Guestmanship!
Interested to be a betatester?
The next article: How emotions take over reason: How active listening can influence your international business, part 2
Other articles written by Guestmanship click here
We invite you to fill out the form below to get the free multi- part course. Learn more about international strategy & business experience.
Do you have any tips, suggestions, feedback regarding this article? Please share your thoughts below in the comments section. Thank you!
DO YOU WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR NEWSLETTER, BLOG OR WEBSITE? You can, as long as you include this information with it: At Guestmanship, We help companies in the Netherlands when they host business partners from emerging markets to create the business experience necessary to turn each transaction into a deal. Grab your FREE video of the 6 essentials to build successful international business relations:
http://www.guestmanship.com
At Guestmanship, We help companies in the Netherlands when they host business partners from emerging markets to create the business experience necessary to turn each transaction into a deal. .
izzy806
prguitarman
snowghoul
jacobvanloon
tangentwithtanner
areudirty
andulkaphoto
titsay