Maegan Stephens and Nicole Lowenbraun

Great listeners flex, they shift, they adapt what's going on in their head and what they say back, because yes, responding is absolutely part of listening.

And anyone can learn to be a great listener.

You just have to stop listening the way you want and start listening the way they need.

We call it adaptive listening.

And when you do it, you build more trust, you get better results, and you get it all faster.

And you could start doing it right now.

Now, some of you might be thinking, wait, do you mean active listening?

No, not quite.

Don't get us wrong, active listening is valuable, but it was created in the 1950s for therapists and counselors.

Not for a busy back-to-back workday with constant pings, talking up, down, across, virtually and in person.

Yeah, work happens a lot faster than therapy.

Maybe you know that, we know that, you can trust us.

And also, there's a lot more interruptions at work, and it's the goals that are the biggest difference between active and adaptive listening at work.

Every time someone talks to you, they have a goal they're trying to achieve.

Whether it's in the mid-morning sync or it's in the quarterly business review or it's just small talk all over the place, there is always a goal they are trying to meet.

Now, don't worry, there are not infinite goals for you to learn.

Adaptive listening narrows it down to just four.

And the first one might surprise you because it doesn't sound like the active listening you might be used to.

We call it discern listening, and here's how it plays out.

I was once coaching an executive who had to give a big, huge main stage keynote.