Listening: A Top Skill for Success

•  Eighty-five percent of our learning is derived from listening.

•  Listeners are distracted, forgetful and preoccupied 75 percent of the time.

•  Most listeners only recall 50 percent of what they have heard immediately after hearing someone say it.

•  People spend 45 percent of their waking time listening.

•  Most people only remember about 20 percent of what they hear over time.

•  People listen at about 125 to 250 words per minute, but think at about 1,000 to 3,000 words per minute.

•  There have been at least 35 business studies indicating listening as a top skill needed for success.


Listening is a skill and a very important one in work life. Being a good listener can make or break a career. Here are a few more thoughts and facts about listening:

•  Most people can’t seem to find the energy to listen to what you’re saying unless they already feel like you have listened to them.

•  If a person feels like he’s being listened to, he will feel accepted and appreciated rather than isolated and rejected.

•  Being a generous listener gives a person a sense of well-being.

•  When we feel we are being listened to, it makes us feel like we are being taken seriously and what we say really matters.
 

Some listening gaffes to avoid:

•  Interrupting.

•  Avoiding eye contact.

•  Rushing the speaker.

•  Letting your attention wander.

•  Rushing ahead and finishing the speaker’s thoughts.

•  Not responding when appropriate.

•  Use of negating phrases such as “yes, but…”

•  Trying to top the speaker’s story.

•  Forgetting what the speaker has already told you.

•  Asking about too many details.

— Adapted from The International Listening Association website

Irish-Americans Doing Well

Although Saint Patrick’s Day is not an official holiday in the United States, it is still celebrated with much enthusiasm. The day commemorates Saint Patrick, who is credited with introducing Christianity into Ireland in the fifth century.

q       The number of Americans who claim Irish ancestry: 34.3 million.

q       Massachusetts has 24 percent of the population claiming Irish ancestry. That’s about twice the national average.

q       The number of gallons of beer consumed annually by Americans: 22.

q       Irish-Americans are better educated and better off financially than the population as a whole. Thirty percent of those over the age of 25 have a bachelor’s degree or higher and their median annual household income is $48,900. The number for the general population is $42,000.

— Adapted from the U.S. Census Bureau website