Listen without Prejudice to Grow in New Ways

If you’re like most business and web agency owners, you listen to your gut. Your instincts — especially if you’ve devoted yourself to business experience and education — may be honed to a fine edge, an edge that gives you an advantage over your competition. If nothing else, your instincts likely contributed to your success to date.

However, if you can listen without prejudice, you’ll find there are new things to learn. And you may avoid making preventable mistakes that set you and your company back. When you run a business, you must put aside your ego so your company can grow and flourish. Sometimes, you have to admit that maybe — just maybe — you don’t have all the (right) answers. And be aware that your ego tells you that you do.

Gather Information from Trusted Sources

There’s an old saying: “If you want to improve yourself, hang around people who are better or smarter than you are.” Would you rather be around people who started one company, failed and stopped trying? Or would you rather hang out with serial entrepreneurs who kept failing until they finally succeed?

The saying works for business growth as well. Seek counsel from those who’ve been there, done that. Find confidantes who have more experience than you. Enlist the help of a mentor to provide timely advice. Doing so helps you overcome your ego and listen without prejudice to new ideas.

Finding authoritative sources in your research encourages you to put your guard down. Every successful person knows the value of continual learning. They know that when you stop learning, you stop growing.

Even Old Dogs Can Learn New Tricks

While you can learn listening skills, they take time to master. Like learning a new language or a musical instrument, all the advice in the world won’t help you unless you apply it again and again until it becomes second nature. And when it comes to your ego, you can’t expect it to be receptive to being put aside. Your ego more likely will resemble a whining two-year-old who demands attention.

But the rewards are great if you succeed. Consider that most people, including business owners, learn life lessons the hard way: through experience. If you can bypass those painful lessons and adopt new ideas, attitudes and techniques by listening objectively, without the unconscious biases you bring to the table, you’ll grow through wisdom and not through lessons.

How to Listen without Prejudice

Just because you have prejudices doesn’t mean you have to act on them. You can learn to listen without prejudice by taking specific, concrete steps. Listening objectively is a skill that takes time to master. You’ll likely make mistakes. You may even lose some opportunities, but you’ll be headed in the right direction.

The best way to get better at it is to practice. It takes willpower and effort, but it’s worth it in the end. Tips to to improve your listening skills include:

1. Put yourself in their shoes. While listening, consider the person who’s speaking. You often don’t know what they’ve been through or where they’re coming from, especially if it’s a stranger. Consider their perspective to gain insight into their words.
    
2. Be a gracious listener. Don’t interrupt. Wait patiently for your turn to speak. That time will come. Listen carefully and take note of the unspoken cues, such as body language, facial expressions and gestures. The words people say make up only a small percentage of what they’re communicating.
    
3. Count to 30. Don’t jump into a conversation with the first thing that pops into your head. Think about what you want to say. Formulate your answer. Your second response is almost always going to be better than your first.
    
4. Repeat what you heard. Foster communication by reiterating what the person has said to you — in your own words — which lets them know you’ve heard them. This act also reinforces the idea in your own mind.
    
5. Imagine being recorded. Before you say anything in response during a conversation, picture a microphone in your face. Don’t say anything you’ll later regret. Don’t say anything in the heat of the moment from a place of anger. Consider what would happen if your words were recorded for others to hear.
    
6. Put your opinions on hold. To listen without prejudice simply means to keep a completely open mind. It’s hard, if not impossible to allow new ideas into a closed mind. When you suspend judgement while listening closely, you may just be surprised at what you hear.

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