Understanding Listening levels helps us to become more effective communicators. I hope you enjoy my thoughts on the three levels and how they can help you become a more effective listener both personally and professionally. Level 1: Internal Listening — Listening to your inner voice. Level 2: Focused Listening — Listening intently to another person. Level 3: Global Listening — Listening to others in the context of their entire surroundings.

The Conscious Competence Learning Model is an explanation of the stages in which we learn and develop a new skill. In this model,  LearnUnconscious Incompetence = You don't know what you don’t know. Conscious Incompetence = You know that you don’t know how to do something. Conscious Competence = You know how to do something; it takes conscious effort. Unconscious Competence = You know how to do something, and it is second nature; you rock at it. It's "automatic".

Perceptions impact how we respond to our colleagues, our family and our friends. It is through perception that we understand and make sense of the world around us. Once the mind sees things one way, it can be difficult to see them another way. If the data we perceive is incomplete, we ‘fill in the blanks’ in our mind to enable us to make sense of what we see. The mind may also distort what we see in order to fit in with our current understanding. Different ways of seeing things are not right or wrong – they are just [...]