7 Mistakes That Could Cost Your Firm Billions

According to Dan Bobinski, there are seven common mistakes that lead the workplace into communicating incorrectly. Dan Bobinski is a training specialist, author, and an accomplished keynote speaker. He's been the president of Leadership Development, Inc., providing workforce and management training to Fortune 500 companies as well as smaller, regional concerns for more than eighteen years. One of his article is dedicated to one of the most important aspects of communicating, listening. Although there is no thorough research, Cognisco, an employee assessment firm reports that misunderstandings between workers and managers cost firms $37 billion a year. In order to communicate effectively and reduce misunderstandings a closer look needs to be dedicated towards the seven most common mistakes during listening.


Mistake #1: “Filtering” Filtering occurs when your mind sifts through the speaker's words, and only tunes in closely when you hear you agree with. A filterer commonly replies to someone else's statements with "yeah, but…."


Mistake #2 : “Second Guessing” When second guessing your speaker you usually miss important details because you are too busy imagining their hidden motives for saying what they're saying, and trying to figure out what those hidden motives are.


Mistake #3: “Discounting” Discounting occurs when you don’t respect your speaker. What the speaker is saying could be 100% accurate, but a discounter will either internally or publicly scoff at what's being said. This mistake is very negative because, you could completely blind yourself to the perfect solution to a problem because of your own in differences.
Another form of discounting can occur when you neglect the content because the person speaking is not a good public speaker.


Mistake #4: “Relating” Relating happens when you continually try to find references from your own background and compare them to what the speaker is saying. This comparison activity leads towards blocking your ability to actively listen.


Mistake #5: “Rehearsing” Rehearsing occurs when you are simply waiting for the speaker to finish talking so that you can start talking again. While your speaker is talking you are thinking about your own phrasing for the next sentence you want say.


Mistake #6: “Forecasting” Forecasting occurs when you take an idea from the speaker and your mind deviates ahead of the topic. This can stem from being bored with the subject matter, or simply because one's mind automatically thinks ahead.


Mistake #7: “Placating” Placating occurs when you agree with everything your speaker said just to avoid conflict. This is one of the worst mistakes commonly made.

These 7 mistakes are characteristics that affect every person. Regardless of profession, no single person is exempt. But rest assure there is a solution. Stay tune for the next post to learn how you can avoid these common errors.