Humans are incredibly unique, from your environment, the people in your life, your education, how you think, and your perception of the world.

And through all of the enormous amount of diversities, there are universal wants in people. One of which being that people want to be understood and accepted.

The best way to make people feel like they are understood and accepted is to listen.

Therefore, it is in your absolute best interest to be an excellent listener. Becoming a master of listening requires the mastery of the voices in your own head. This demands a lot of emotional maturity and mental discipline. When someone says something that sparks a new idea in your brain you lose focus of what the person who is speaking is saying.

To quiet the voices in your head you need to stop thinking about what you’re going to say but make your sole and all-encompassing focus the other person and what they have to say.

It is so important to make sure people feel safe because of what Descartes’ wrote in his “Error, Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain,” while we may use logic to reason ourselves toward a decision, the actual decision making is governed by emotion.

This will make whoever you’re listening to feel safe. Safety builds trust which leads to open communication where they will begin to identify for you what their needs are.

People need to feel safe and secure, and the need to feel in control. If you satisfy those drives you’re in the door. If someone is offering key information without prodding, that is the sign of a good listener.

Your strategic advantage is to listen.