Episode 45 - Conversation Filters
Channel: Jason LeDuc Leadership Consultants
Date: 19/06/2016

Communicating effectively is one of the most important leadership skills and can be difficult even under the best of circumstances. As we talked about in last week's video, there are many barriers to communication that come from external sources. Sometimes, we can make understanding others even more difficult by unknowing putting conversation filters in place that impact how we listen. These conversation filters prevent us from fully grasping the message that others are trying to get across to us. In addition, our team members might perceive us as someone who doesn't listen if we fall victim to these filters. Innovation and initiative often suffer on teams where the leader doesn't listen because team members have little incentive to offer ideas.

Conversation Filters

There are many conversation filters that limit our ability to understand the message that others are trying to get across. In this week's video, Jason talks about three of the most common filters that you may experience, how to recognize them and how to deal with them effectively if you run into them:

Correcting - interrupting others to interject our view of what the facts are.
Interrogating - drilling down with questions to trap someone or place blame
One-upping - emphasizing our own accomplishments over others


Effective communication isn't just about how well we speak. How we listen to others is often more important to leadership than what we say.  Leaders must create a climate where ideas are listened to without bias in order to encourage creative solutions. To improve communication on our team we need to understand conversation filters and how they impact our ability to listen.

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Please watch: "I Can't Put My Phone Down - 3 Strategies for Fighting Digital Addiction" 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2cDsA343Yc
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