Many of us spend so much of our time thinking about what needs to be said during interviews and meetings. However, the key to get ahead in your career lies in one’s ability to listen. Listening is one of the most valuable skill sets to possess for one’s personal as well as professional life.
Listening and doing so actively, can benefit an individual in numerous different ways. When adapted to suit the condition of a workplace, the skill of listening can definitely help one get ahead in their career.
As such, in this article, we will be looking at some useful tips that can help you listen more attentively. This could in turn help you to get ahead in your career!
Word of advice
As an individual who is looking to get hired in Singapore, it is important to ensure that you are abiding by the rules and regulations as stipulated by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) when working locally. There are certain factors you will need to consider when making such a decision.
Some of these factors include the Central Provident Fund contributions, applying for specific pass types for different categories of employees and your daily/weekly working hour limits.
If you ever find yourself in doubt on the topic, feel free to contact the customer service staff at MOM. You can do so either over an email or a phone enquiry to have your questions answered.
Better to be safe than sorry, after all! Lest the slight negligence costs you or your company its license to operate/work in the country!
If everything is looking good, let’s jump right into the piece!
Tip 1: Pay attention to your body language
The best way to demonstrate that you are listening actively to the person you are conversing with is by paying attention to your body language. Pay attention to the way your body tells others you are listening.
Make sure your arms are not crossed as this can make it seem as though you’re uninterested in the conversation. Instead, lean in when listening to the other person as this can demonstrate your interest in the topic.
Other ways to pay attention to your body language include smiling, nodding and maintaining a good posture. These tips can help to convey the message that you are listening intently. Listening is after all a key tool you can use to get ahead in your career.
Tip 2: Maintain eye contact
In order to get ahead in your career, you can practice maintaining eye contact as you listen to those you converse with.
As you look someone straight in the eye while they speak, it will help you pay more attention in listening to them. How? It takes others distractions away from your line of sight.
Should a superior be speaking with you, looking them in the eyes is one way to express that you are listening to them intently. At the same time, maintaining eye contact can also help to convey your interest and sincerity towards the other party.
Additionally, those who are able to maintain eye contact with another are often perceived to be more trustworthy. If this tip can help you practice active listening and the latter can help you get ahead in your career – why not give it a try? 😉
Tip 3: Ask good questions
The third way you can practice listening to get ahead in your career is by asking questions during your conversation.
If you were honestly paying attention and listening carefully to what the other party was saying, it’s highly likely that you’d have some comments or questions to share.
With that being said, you wouldn’t want to ask just any question that pops into your mind. It has to be something that displays interest and concern in relation to what they were talking about.
You could also include specific details when asking your questions. For instance, cite a person’s name or a location that they had shared with you. This will help to convey that you were actively listening to what they were saying.
Tip 4: Empathise
And that brings us to our fourth tip to listen actively in order to get ahead in your career. Empathise. If you were indeed genuinely listening to another’s problems or frustrations, you’d express empathy.
And that’s one way to measure whether an individual is actually listening or just hearing you out. Besides, if you do want to get ahead in your career, you’d naturally be caring for your colleagues and their worries.
Someone who is able to empathise and address others concerns by listening is one who’s genuinely interested in keeping the team together. In understanding an individual’s and a team’s needs, empathising with others is one of the most effective ways to get ahead in your career.
And there you have it – a piece on how listening is a key tool you can use to get ahead in your career. With this compiled list of 4 tips, we hope you are better equipped to conduct some active listening with your colleagues.
We hope this article has helped to provide you with some new information with regards to how you can grow your career. Wishing you the best of luck!
If you’re on the lookout for jobs within other industries that are nonetheless located in Singapore, here’s an article that shares with you the top 19 job portals in Singapore.
