written by
Edwin Ting

Eat Your Dinner and YOU CAN HAVE ICE-CREAM; the Power of Selective Listening

Parenting 1 min read

With kids, you never really know which part of the conversation they have absorbed and which they had totally ignored.

For example,

When an adults says, "Eat your dinner and you can have ice-cream", the child usually only hears "you can have ice-cream".

When we ask, "Did you break the vase?", the child usually/most often never hears anything and goes on to say, "How beautiful clouds are against the blue sky."

It all boils down to selective listening.

A skill that children pick up without needing proper training!!

And, I believe, we should all (re)learn this valuable skill.

First a disclaimer on selective listening.

Selective listening is not about ignoring criticisms or pretending the problem away.

I believe that to be an effective selective listener (what a mouthful!), it really is about listening but not immediately engaging in the issue or problem.

Why would you want to do that?

It gives you time to get your emotions in check and engage only after.

It allows you to observe and get a sense of who else in the same room as the same issue or problem.

It lets you appreciate the problem slowly, later in your own time.

After which, engaging with the problem is a must. We aren't kids so we do have to face up to the issue and find solutions. However, by selective listening, you would probably have avoided any conflicts, rally allies and solve problems in your own time.

Always happy to (selectively) hear more about how you handle situations at work. Share your thoughts in the comments, I love to hear from you.

#ParentingIsTheNewMBA #SucceedAtWork #CareerTips #ParentingSkills

"Parenting is the new MBA: Succeed at work by applying parenting skills” is a column that combines 2 distinct areas of my life: my professional view on workplace management & my personal experience as a parent.