Well, I hope those exercises are hugely useful to you. I've certainly found them useful myself. And many people have told me how much they've enjoyed them, they will help you to become a conscious and effective listener. And that's because they will help you to develop all the four C's, I think of effective listening. So, here we are the four C's of effective listening. First, you need to be conscious, conscious that you're doing something I hope I've been able to get that across to you listening is a skill.

It's not like hearing, it's not like heart beating. It's not like breathing. These are kind of reflective things, automatic processes which exist below your consciousness. Listening is not like that. Listening takes effort. It's work, it takes focus.

And if you're going to do it well, you need to be conscious that you're doing something Something exercising a skill. The second C is committed, as Scott Peck says you can't listen to another human being do anything else at the same time. So, if you're going to truly listen to somebody, it takes commitment. It takes making sure you're in a space where you can listen that you've got time to listen that the other person is understanding that you are giving them that generous gift of your committed listening. The third see compassionate, enormously helpful, I think if you can actually have some compassion for the other person understanding them is the objective in much of listening. Conscious listening always creates understanding, as I'm fond of saying, compassion.

It helps you to understand where somebody is coming from, even if you disagree with them. And finally, and possibly most important of all, curiosity, ferocious curiosity, actually, in order to listen really well. The engine of listening is curiosity. What can I learn here? Think about what am I going to find out here? curiosity is a wonderful, wonderful generator of great listening.

So there you are the four C's of effective listening