Six stories up on a warm Kansas evening. I was an inexperienced patrolman. She was a young drug addict, suicidal, and dangling off the edge of the guardrail. That was my definitive high risk listening situation. Many years have passed, but I will always remember how emotionally draining it was to try to carry on a compelling conversation with an emotionally compromised stranger for 45 minutes.
My name is Dan Oblinger. Now I’m a trained and experienced hostage negotiator. The role of a negotiator is to listen. The risk of negotiating is always life or death. The reward is the ability to bring order from chaos, to aid the vulnerable, and to have those bent upon violence turn back from the brink. In a similar way, human resource professionals make workplaces orderly, just, and safe using highly refined communications strategies.
Listening is a perishable skill, requiring empathy and attentiveness. There are basic techniques that enhance the listening process and influence our communications partners. As the lead trainer for the National Screening Bureau (NATSB), I work with business leaders and HR professionals to promote excellence in a wide variety of industries. They realize that listening is the “forgotten skill”, the key to unlocking their potential as leaders and lovers, and a task that demands formal training to achieve excellence – formal training that less than 5% of the population will ever receive.
- Do you desire formal training in listening, THE foundational organizational leadership skill?
- Do you catch yourself interrupting those speaking with you?
- Do you want to know the secrets of the listening universe?
- Do you wish you had a grab bag of tactics to use in unpleasant and challenging interactions with colleagues, superiors, and loved ones?
- Do you know the 7 active listening techniques used by crisis negotiators all over the globe?
- How good a listener do you want to be?
