Listening is one of the most important skills you can have. How well you listen has a major impact on your effectiveness, and on the quality of your relationships with others. We listen to obtain information, to understand, for enjoyment and to learn.
Given all this listening we do, you would think we'd be good at it! In fact we're not. Depending on the study being quoted, we remember a dismal 25-50% of what we hear. That means that when you talk to your boss, colleagues, customers or spouse for 10 minutes, they only really hear 2½-5 minutes of the conversation.
Quite frightening uh?