People want to be heard. Do you want to listen? Great leaders are almost always great listeners. How can you serve people if you don’t know their needs? How can you know their needs if you don’t listen? Try these seven behaviors and watch your LifeGroup benefit from your new set of even bigger ears.

Shoot, you might even try these on your spouse, kids, and friends!

1. Close your mouth. Ears and mouths aren’t at their best when competing.
2. Don’t interrupt. That person might have worked really hard to start talking.
3. Use body language. Make sure your posture says, “I’m super interested.”
4. Actually listen. Save forming your next thought until the person is finished talking.
5. Listen small and big. Pay attention to surface value of words and the deeper bigger picture being painted. Check out the free Conversations e-book for more on this.
6. Watch body language. You aren’t the only one using body language, be sensitive to what others are saying with nonverbals.
7. Ask good questions. Use questions that defy one-word answers. Like Talk It Over questions.