Shhhhhhh. LISTEN!
This time it was Tom Hanks' turn.
Bravo hosts a show called "Inside the Actor's Studio," which
each week features an interview with a well known actor. No, you
won't see the latest dirt hovering around their sexual life, or
hear about their fight with the director. Instead you'll learn
their insights on the craft of acting.
The Audience consists of students -- future writers, actors and
directors -- currently enrolled in the Masters Program at the
New School in New York City.
You can watch the show a hundred times with a hundred different
actors. When asked by the moderator "What is the one piece of
advice you can give to our students here?, they all say the same
thing. "Listen."
Listening is the key to success for the actor, the director, the
writer.
Listening, too, is the key to success for the marketer.
Listening is the key to success for the human being.
"You convert yourself from a person who is pretending," Actor
Hanks said "to a person who honestly is." Doesn't this remark
apply to all areas of life?
What exactly is listening? Is it a function of the ears? How
many times have you had to ask "What did you say?" to someone
after the sound waves left their mouth, swept across the room or
telephone and pounded on your eardrums? Isn't listening the
function of the mind?
The actors will tell you that when they listen with their minds,
they'll respond in a different and spontaneous way to the other
actors lines even though they already know what those lines will
be! Listening involves taking in the face, the body, the
environment of the other person. Yes, it includes "listening" to
body language.
More than one actor on the program like to tell stories about
Jack Nicholson, a master at inducing spontaneity in his
co-workers. No scene is ever played the same twice -- even
though his lines remain word for word.
Shirley MacLaine told about a scene in "Terms of Endearment"
where Jack plays her neighbor. She knocks on his door; he opens
it. Simple enough. But everytime she knocked, Jack would make
sure that something unexpected would happen. One time he opened
the door with a woman hanging onto his shoulder.
Directors need to listen (and that includes watching) their
actors. They need to be attentive to everything happening on the
set. They need to know when something is right and works and
when something goes wrong. They need to listen to their
photographer, their lighting people, their crew. Good directors
sprouts eyes and ears in every part of their body.
Writers couldn't write without listening -- listening to the way
people talk, the language they use, their gestures, movement.
All that is a part of listening.
What about the marketer? You've already heard, I'm sure, that
you need to fill your customer's needs. How can you do that
unless you listen to them?
"The most important secret of salesmanship is to find out what
the other fellow wants, then help him find the best way to get
it." Frank Bettger said in his classic book, "How I Raised
Myself From Failure to Success in Selling."
Listening is the key to being a successful person. People like
to talk about themselves, but they want someone to hear them.
All creative people, all successful people listen, also, to
their inner voice. It's the inner voice that takes the
cumulative effect of all that outer lifetime of listening, makes
sense of it and tells them how to respond, what action to take.
Doesn't it seem reasonable that if you put your attention on
others, help them fulfill their needs that your inner voice will
be prepared to fulfill your own?
Here's a few things you can do to improve your listening skills.
1. Close your eyes. Spend a few quiet moments just being with
yourself. It's a good idea to do this before you start any new
task for the day, before you make a phone call, send an email,
or write an ad.
2. Each time you pick up the phone, whether to answer it or make
a call, remind yourself to stop and listen to the other person.
3. After contact with another person, write down all the things
they said to you. Were you really listening, or were you waiting
for a break in the conversation so that you could speak? Do you
find you weren't sure what they said? You will probably start
writing reams as you practice the art of listening.
4. After you've met a person face to face, write down what you
remembered about them, their behavior, what they wore, how their
facial expressions changed, their body language.
Before long, you will develop a lifelong habit of listening that
will win you friends, enhance your enjoyment your enjoyment of
life and, need it be mentioned, fatten your wallet.
You'll no longer have to remind yourself to:
"Shhhhh. Listen!"