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About this lesson
This skill is essential for mentoring relationships to ensure proper communication and understanding.
Quick reference
Active Listening
This lesson discusses the importance of active listening in a mentor-mentee relationship and various techniques to demonstrate it effectively.
Notes
The Role of Active Listening
Active listening is about showing genuine interest, understanding the message, responding accurately, and encouraging further sharing. It's core to a successful mentor-mentee relationship.
Active Listening Techniques
- Eye Contact and Nodding: Non-verbal cues that show you're paying attention. This can be done even in a virtual setting through video calls.
- Paraphrasing: Repeating the speaker's statement in your own words confirms your understanding and allows for any necessary clarification.
- Asking Open-Ended Questions: Questions that require more than a "yes" or "no" answer can deepen the conversation and encourage the exploration of ideas.
- Providing Feedback: Sharing thoughtful insights or feedback when appropriate is part of active listening. Remember to be empathetic and constructive in your feedback.
- 00:04 Welcome back.
- 00:05 This lesson is going to be about a skill that's at the heart of any
- 00:09 effective mentoring relationship, active listening.
- 00:14 Active listening is much more than just hearing the words someone else is saying.
- 00:18 It's about showing genuine interest, understanding the message,
- 00:23 responding accurately, and encouraging the speaker to share more.
- 00:29 In a mentor-mentee setting, this can be seen when the mentor genuinely understands
- 00:35 and then responds to a mentee's thoughts, concerns, or challenges.
- 00:40 And when a mentee is attentive, learning and
- 00:43 asking appropriate follow-up questions to get the mentor's advice.
- 00:49 So how do we actually demonstrate active learning?
- 00:53 There are a few techniques that can help, and the first is eye contact and nodding.
- 00:59 Eye contact and nodding are nonverbal cues that show your mentee or
- 01:04 mentor that you're paying close attention, even in a remote setting.
- 01:09 These simple gestures can be shown through video calls.
- 01:12 It can make a big difference in a conversation because it confirms to
- 01:16 the other person that you care about what they're saying.
- 01:20 Paraphrasing is another powerful technique.
- 01:23 By repeating the speaker's statement in your own words, you confirm your
- 01:28 understanding and give them an opportunity to clarify if necessary.
- 01:33 For example, if your mentee tells you they're feeling overwhelmed with
- 01:37 their current workload, you might say, so what I'm hearing is you're
- 01:42 finding it challenging to manage all your tasks right now, is that correct?
- 01:47 Getting validation of what you've been saying is a great way to build trust
- 01:51 between people.
- 01:53 Asking open-ended questions is another significant part of active listening.
- 01:58 These types of questions require more than a simple yes or no answer and
- 02:02 can help deepen the conversation.
- 02:04 Think along the lines of can you tell me more about, or
- 02:09 what made you feel this way, or how do you see this impacting your role?
- 02:15 Give the other person a chance to explore some of their ideas
- 02:19 because it's often within those details where you can
- 02:23 discover a potential solution to a problem.
- 02:26 And providing thoughtful feedback or
- 02:28 insights when appropriate also constitutes active listening.
- 02:32 Remember to be empathetic and constructive in your feedback, though.
- 02:37 And we'll talk about both of those skills in upcoming lessons.
- 02:41 So there's a lot you can do to demonstrate active listening.
- 02:44 Once you've mastered this skill, you'll unlock deeper,
- 02:47 more productive conversations in your mentoring relationship.
- 02:50 And it's really a great skill to have in any kind of communication with
- 02:55 a professional colleague.
- 02:57 Now in our next lesson, we'll dive into another key mentoring skill,
- 03:02 empathy and understanding.
- 03:04 We'll see you then.
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