Powerful Listening: How to Harness Your Most Essential Skill

by Kwame Christian

Often in difficult conversations, be it a negotiation at work or an important talk with a family member, we’re eager to find the right words to change someone’s thoughts, emotions, or behaviors. But the most successful conversations and negotiations don’t come from how well you speak. They come from how well you listen.

Listening is the most essential skill of any conversation, and it’s fast becoming a lost art. But Kwame Christian, recognized as one of the world’s top negotiation experts, believes that anyone with an interest in learning can master the power of effective listening. In his Audible Original, Powerful Listening: How to Harness Your Most Essential Skill, you’ll delve into the transformative power of truly listening to other people—a power that can help you bridge divides and build meaningful, productive relationships in all areas of your life.

For example, you’ll sharpen your ability to read body language and other nonverbal cues. You’ll explore the biases that prevent us from listening, and ways to overcome them. And you’ll even practice the power of asking the right questions to get the information you’re after.

There’s no limit to how good you can get at listening. Consider this Audible Original the perfect start to a never-ending journey of self-improvement.

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©2024 Audible Originals, LLC (P)2023 Audible Originals, LLC.

Genres: Audiobook, Nonfiction, Personal Development, Psychology, Communication

Audible Audio

Reviews

[Biggest Little Book Talker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty average book, the narrator is good and he has some solid points.
It is very much an overview of several key point that are needed in order to start to harness a listening skills.
However; I think that this could have been a longer audio and more examples could have been given to strength my faith in the 4 lessons.
I would gave liked examples of questions you can ask or stories using the questions they recommend to see how it can be effectively used in everyday life.

Maine take aways:
Narrator has a Podcast: negotiate anything
Effective listening is more than just hearing
What are the goals of effective listening?
1. Understanding
2. Connection
3. Validation
- Effective listening in not natural to us
- When entering a conversation have a primary and secondary goal (keep an open mind and try to learn something)
- try to Uncover hidden value
- Ask open ended questions and talk last
- Listening is something that need to be trained for, train your brain to think differently
- Every conversation is a practice opportunity
- This is a lifelong decision to improve
- Proper behaviors flow form the proper mindset
1. Bias
- An implicit or explicit subconscious or conscious for or against something
- Without bias we would get overwhelmed by small daily tasks
- At its core it is a pattern/ automatic thought process
- If listening in a bias way, information can be misinterpreted
- Confirmation bias: Search for, interpret, and favor information to confirm one’s beliefs or values Aka you listen to validate yourself and your opinions
2. Body language and nonverbal communication
4 elements
- 1. Physical environment your meeting in
- 2. Physicsl appearance
- 3. Behavioral traces, objects they use to express themselves
- 4. Nonverbal behavior, movements and actions of the body
- This all starts with observation
3. Emotional listening
- Actively listen and validate what the other person is saying
4. Art of asking effective questions
- Stay mindful of your skills and abilities
- Make note of things that are in your control during a conversation
- Don’t underestimate the power of of empathy
- What’s an effective question?
- Goal to gain new or valuable information
1. Unbiased (purest responses possible)
2. Simple
3. Open ended (invite elaboration)
5. Build the habit of good listening

[Matt Cannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Powerful Listening: How to Harness Your Most Essential Skill with Kwame Christian is a handy guide for anyone looking to up their listening game. Christian takes what could be a dry topic and makes it pretty engaging.

The book breaks down listening into something you can actually work on, not just something you're supposed to be good at. Christian throws in a bunch of practical tips and real-life examples, which makes the whole idea of becoming a better listener seem doable.

He's got a straightforward way of explaining things, so you're not left scratching your head with jargon. It's all about how to really hear people, which, let's face it, can make a huge difference in both personal and professional life.

Christian doesn't just talk at you; he kind of walks you through the whole process. There's stuff about paying attention to body language and how to keep your own biases from messing up what you're hearing.

The book isn't claiming to revolutionize your life overnight, but it gives you some solid tools to start with. If you're looking to get better at conversations or just want to understand people a bit more, "Powerful Listening" is a good pick. It's practical, easy to read, and actually pretty interesting. I also enjoyed how he explained the difference between work and home. This explained how even if someone is good at something in a professional context, it may not carryover into the personal arena unless you are purposeful and aware of how our familiarity and biases can sabotage our listening and communication.

[Russell D · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short audio book is packed with practical skills to improve your ability to listen. It covers the need, benefits, and parts to active listening that can help you prevent making critical mistakes in your interactions with others. While the focus initially is on using these skills for negotiation, they are critical to any conversation you have. This book can help you function more effectively in all your relationships. Be prepared to invest time, effort, and intention to succeed. The effort will pay off well.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I would like to start with the postives. Number one the narration was good, clear and easy to follow. And the author clearly understands his stuff. And is well qualified.


However when he was talking about how easy it is to train the brain, I for one got quite annoyed. This is not an easy thing to do. And there were no helpful examples or reflective tasks offered in this section. I also don't think neurodiverse people were considered at all in this section. The science felt over simplified to me. And again there doesn't appear to be reflection or practical tasks offered. However I only got to part way through lecture 2 so maybe there were some later?

At one point he says change your mindset for better results (or words to that effect) but doesn't give any suggestions as to how or give examples of the kind of mindset that would help.

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book isn't so much about listening, as it is about discussing and learning and making your point in a way that is likely to be heard rather than instantly rejected. I think the most interesting aspect was the author's admission (which is probably true for everyone) that he is a better listener at work than he is at home. Listening is hard. It takes a lot of work and practice. And we could all benefit from thinking about how to do it more effectively.

[Anastasiya M · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insightful audiobook to help improve your listening skills, but it's not as straightforward as that. There were good explanations about why we fail to properly listen to others and take in what they are saying. The further I listened, the more I picked up on things that I struggle with and of course, there were methods to help improve all kinds of hiccups when it comes to listening and hearing what others are saying.

Read more here: https://annietheinkdrinker.wordpress.com

[Lindsay Ferris Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Powerful Listening: How to Harness Your Most Essential Skill" is packed with practical wisdom. I found valuable nuggets on improving listening skills through practice and awareness—treating it like any other skill we want to master.

The book's insight on gaining understanding, connection, and validation from every conversation resonated deeply. Highly recommend for anyone looking to elevate their communication game!

[Lee · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is written by a dude who has a consulting company, and it had the feeling of a consultant who wanted to write a book so he could be famous as the person who does that topic, listening/negotiation, not because he has something interesting to say. This short series of lectures was boring, and I got to the end of the first without having learned anything. I just had this sense about the author that he was not a great communicator, at least, not in this format.

[Cora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic information on better listening skills. Not just how to pretend like you're listening, or how to appease someone and make them think you care. The author gives some really sound advice on how to REALLY listen to the person speaking to you. Even if they're wrong or confrontational. I think this will help me at work.

[Colin Brine · Rating 3 out of 5]

You know, this was a great broad overview of concepts but I didn't really think it executed the "how to" very well. I had heard some of the ideas used before and it was nice hearing a confirmation of that, but also I didn't feel like I learned a whole lot of new information.

idk it wasn't bad but I don't feel particularly better or enriched from it.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author delivers clear, confident, and practical guidance on how to develop listening skills. The advice is straightforward and actionable, making it an accessible resource for anyone looking to become a more attentive and effective communicator.

[Terry McIntire · Rating 3 out of 5]

No new information here. The tips given are widely known and no advice for making them habits.

[Ethan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author was pleasant to listen to and provided practical tips to enhance listening.

[Autumn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Will reread :)

[Lee Radford · Rating 5 out of 5]

These lectures provide helpful tools for listening better.