Listening with More than Your Ears

We all know that active listening is the key to being a great communicator. But when you aren’t face to face, and have to rely on tools like email, chat, and webcams this can get tricky. After all, can you “listen” to an email?
Yes you can, and you know it.
Have you ever read a text message or email, and thought, “Man, she sounds ticked off.” Well she didn’t “sound” anything. What you picked up was tone—word choice, punctuation (or lack thereof) and how she formatted the message (or didn’t, just put it all in CAPS!!!!) tell us a lot about both the message and the messenger.
Why it matters
When we communicate as we have for thousands of years—face to face in the same room—we listen (understand and decipher the message) with more than our just ears. We pick up body language, like crossed arms or fidgeting. Facial expressions can