If you want to build your communication skills, you need to be able to listen to others. If you want to listen to others, you need to stop talking every once in a while.
Photo by Felipe Cabrera.
As business blog Inc. points out, interrupting others is the quickest way to sabotage your own conversations. If the person you’re talking to is sharing some helpful interesting information, you’re cutting off your own access to something useful. Forcing yourself to chill out on the interruptions gives you time to process what they’re saying, instead of planning what you intend to say next:
When we interrupt, not only do we cut short the learning experience, but we risk not learning anything at all. Think about it: If you’re already thinking of what you’re going to say, while the other person is speaking, you’re surely not listening to (or learning from) them.
Of course, the big worry we have when we interrupt is that if we don’t say this thing now, we’ll forget or it won’t get said. However, that’s rarely a worry worth indulging. If you’re interested in the conversation at all, you’ll probably find something else to say before long. Most things we say aren’t really that critical, and the more important thing is the connection we’re building by having conversations. If something is really important enough to justify an interruption, it will probably be a welcome one.
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