It was at my cousin’s office years ago that I met the fast talker.

He was, according to my cousin, a star salesman. “Hear him Bob,” said my cousin, “He has the gift of the gab!” Which meant he could talk fast and easily as words came out of his mouth faster than a speeding race car.

But my cousin fired him in a month. “I don’t know what was wrong,” he said, “He had the gift of the gab, yet he failed to make a sale!”

I worked as a salesman during that time, for my dad, and as I studied sales, I could have told my cousin that being a great talker didn’t make you a great salesman, but being an intent listener did.

What happens with people who talk too much is that they listen too little.

The post The Fast Talker appeared first on The Teenager Today.

When you are planning your career, very often you will focus on your academic grades and the scope of the career that you wish to pursue. However, as the world is becoming more interdisciplinary, it is vital that different professionals learn to interact and communicate with each other. Very often we think that if we can speak a language fluently and can make presentations then we are great communicators. But in reality for communication to effectively happen we need to listen very carefully. Developing good listening skills such that you can actually understand what somebody else is telling you is a vital skill in life. Imagine if you are speaking fluently but the other person is not listening, then language will be spoken but no communication will happen. For communication is an interchange of ideas, thoughts and information. Hence, active listening is one of the most vital skills of enhancing your communication skills. As by listening not only can we obtain information but we can truly understand what the person actually needs or requires.

Read the full article by subscribing to the print magazine or the digital edition.

The post Listening to Communicate appeared first on The Teenager Today.