Third, attempt to clarify speaker's thoughts and feelings. This will help as one seeks to understand other person. One way to do this is to ask open-ended questions, such as "How do you feel about this plan?” or “What is your specific recommendation?” rather than close-ended ones (e.g. "Is plan on schedule?').

Another helpful approach is to use reflective listening techniques. Reflective listening is a powerful tool for ensuring that we have understood speaker’s ideas—and it’s a great way to make that person feel that he has been listened to and appreciated. We’ll say more about reflective listening techniques in Part II of this article.

Active listening does not come naturally to most people. It is a skill that must be developed, but can be cultivated with only a modest amount of effort. Moreover, it is essential if we want to have smooth and effective meetings to go smoothly, in which we have properly understood issues and everyone’s point of view.

Third – and perhaps most importantly – it helps build morale by affirming other person’s worth. By reflecting speaker’s words back to him, we demonstrate that we care about what that person has to say. This allows other person to voice his grievances or ideas, and to feel appreciated in process. Even if we reject that person’s ideas completely, he can at least feel appreciated in process.

Of course, you don’t want to reflect someone’s words back every time that person speaks. That would be overkill, and it can sound tremendously insincere. It is enough to simply summarize that person’s ideas now and then, preferably when we think we have a reasonably clear overview of what he has to say.

Reflective listening techniques take very little effort to master, especially if you’re type of person who genuinely does care about others. They are an easy yet powerful way to enhance communication, and they can build stronger work relationships in process.