Techniques to Support Active Listening
Engaging people in great dialogue and actively listening to them requires coaches to use a variety of techniques including:
Open Questions
Rather than asking questions which only require a yes or no answer, ask open questions. For example, instead of asking: “Has this been going on a long time?”, ask “How long has this been going on?”. In this way, instead of closing the dialogue down into a yes or no response, coaches are able to open it out and encourage clients to expand their responses. Rather than asking “is everything ok?” ask “how are things going?”
Summarising
This helps to show that coaches have listened and understood what the client has said. “So to summarise, you’re feeling very stressed by the performance of your company, but you still love it and want to find a way of making it perform better to generate the profits you need”.
- I’d like to summarise what we have covered today…..
- In summary, …
- Just to sum up, …
- The themes of today’s session seem to be ….
- It seems to me that the pattern of today’s session was ….
Reflecting
Repeating back a word or phrase can encourage clients to elaborate their responses and ideas. If a client says, “So it’s been really difficult recently and I cannot see a way forward,” simply repeating the word, “difficult” invites the client to elaborate. You can also reflect a word or phrase that the client has said, by using phrases like those below, before the word or phrase used by the client.
- It sounds like you are really…..
- You would like to….
- You believe that….
- You appear to feel a little anxious about ….
- So, you think that…..
Clarifying
Coaches need to seek clarification rather than leaving things vague. Sometimes clients need help to ‘unpick’ complex issues or to explore their own feelings and understanding. Coaches can use phrases such as, “I am not sure I understand, can you explain that to me again?” Coaches can ask questions or use a puzzled facial expression to invite the client to elaborate. Example phrases to use in this situation include:
- What I think you are saying …
- Could you give me an example of …?
- Could you tell me more about that?
- Can we talk about that a little more?
Reacting
Coaches need to react appropriately. A look of approval, shock or disappointment may encourage or discourage a client and risks the projection of the coach’s values and opinions on to the client.
Whilst all of this sounds quite simple, and it is, all the coach is really doing is listening, and from time to time giving responses which encourage clients to keep on talking.
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