I’ve always been curious about people and the way they interact. When I was a small child, all our neighbors had their back doors wide open to catch the summertime breeze; they’d get the sense they were being watched… by my small face pressed against the screen door, listening and learning. My parents would get called..” She’s doing it again.” As an introvert, a performing artist, and a coach, I’ve learned to tune my ears to the messaging beneath the words—the unspoken truth in the interaction. And I truly believe that if we can learn to be more effective and compassionate listeners—our world will change for the better.
I wrote
Head, Heart, and Hands Listening in Coach Practice: The Listening Coach
Listening is an “assumed” skill that does not receive its fair share of attention. I love Kate Murphy’s strong, resounding voice in this terrific book! She grabs my attention and sets me straight on why listening is a highly effective superpower—quite a radical notion in our ever-noisier world.
With plenty of real-life examples of everyday people who employ advanced listening skills, Murphy makes a strong case for the need to intentionally refine our listening. She also provides me with effective and interesting tools to help with that development.
Key takeaway: Kate Murphy is an excellent storyteller. Just because she is a “listening activist” doesn’t mean she can’t tell insightful and often quite humorous stories!
'BRILLIANT' Chris Evans, Virgin Radio Breakfast Show
When was the last time you listened to someone, or someone really listened to you?
This life-changing book will transform your conversations forever.
At work, we're taught to lead the conversation.
On social media, we shape our personal narratives.
At parties, we talk over one another. So do our politicians.
We're not listening.
And no one is listening to us.
Now more than ever, we need to listen to those around us. New York Times contributor Kate Murphy draws on countless conversations she has had with everyone from priests to CIA interrogators, focus…
For anyone tempted to label good listening as “soft skills,” this book will prove you wrong! Even though the book was published in 2010, Goulston positions listening as a vital skill all the more needed in today’s fractious times.
Each chapter is structured with a high-stakes story, “Usable Insights,” and “Action Steps,” with excellent, researched info in between. From the chapter titled “Nine Core Rules for Getting Through to Anyone,” I personally learned so much from this book that I could apply to my daily interactions—particularly those with my very argumentative teenage daughter!
Getting through to someone is a critical, fine art. Whether you are dealing with a harried colleague, a stressed-out client, or an insecure spouse, things will go from bad to worse if you can't break through emotional barricades and get your message thoroughly communicated and registered.
Drawing on his experience as a psychiatrist, business consultant, and coach, author Mark Goulston combines his background with the latest scientific research to help you turn the "impossible" and "unreachable" people in their lives into allies, devoted customers, loyal colleagues, and lifetime friends.
In Just Listen, Goulston provides simple yet powerful techniques you can…
One of the most powerful benefits of skilled listening is building trust. Empathy is essential to creating trusting relationships. Jamison is a trained actor, and deep listening and empathy are essential to the craft of acting.
This book spans her experiences, from her work in medical training to her research on incarceration, reality TV, and street violence. I was struck by the heartfulness and clarity in Jamison's writing about what she has witnessed and experienced. She pulls no punches.
The stories in this book provide a clarion call for our species to regain our empathy for each other through skilled and intentional listening to connect, extend understanding, and ensure our survival.
From personal loss to phantom diseases, The Empathy Exams is a bold and brilliant collection, winner of the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize
A Publishers Weekly Top Ten Essay Collection of Spring 2014
Beginning with her experience as a medical actor who was paid to act out symptoms for medical students to diagnose, Leslie Jamison's visceral and revealing essays ask essential questions about our basic understanding of others: How should we care about each other? How can we feel another's pain, especially when pain can be assumed, distorted, or performed? Is empathy a tool by which to test or even grade…
If I could have a crush on a balding conservative with bad teeth, I would have a crush on David Brooks. I may not always agree with his NYT opinions, but I can’t dispute that he is an author of deep curiosity and integrity.
As a journalist, his focus on making the other person feel seen, heard, and understood would seem to be part of his toolkit. But what I most appreciate about Brooks, the storyteller, is his ability to share himself not as an expert in the topic of listening but as a curious and resourceful guide.
The terrain here varies as he interviews practitioners in the fields of psychology, neuroscience, theatre, philosophy, education, and more. Throughout the book, he relays the mistakes and foibles in his own listening journey. I felt encouraged to learn and grow alongside him. David Brooks is a writer with immense stores of compassion, humor, and diligence.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A practical, heartfelt guide to the art of truly knowing another person in order to foster deeper connections at home, at work, and throughout our lives—from the author of The Road to Character and The Second Mountain
As David Brooks observes, “There is one skill that lies at the heart of any healthy person, family, school, community organization, or society: the ability to see someone else deeply and make them feel seen—to accurately know another person, to let them feel valued, heard, and understood.”
And yet we humans don’t do this well. All around us…
This book is a celebration of experiences, told not by Hollywood, not by “the rich and famous,” but by people who might live next door to you and me. Pulled together from the massive archives of the highly esteemed StoryCorps project and edited by its Founder—Dave Isay, this bookis dedicated to the power of true stories told by ordinary Americans.
I love the sheer variety offered in this collection. I did not expect this book to be a page-turner, but each story held such unpredictability and emotional range that I simply could not put it down! The book is a rich reminder that once we establish the time and space to listen deeply, people will offer stories that unfold like stunning flowers on a time-lapse video.
“As heartwarming as a holiday pumpkin pie and every bit as homey . . . what emerges in these compelling pages is hard-won wisdom and boundless humanity.” —Seattle Post-Intelligencer
As heard on NPR, a wondrous nationwide celebration of our shared humanity
StoryCorps founder and legendary radio producer Dave Isay selects the most memorable stories from StoryCorps' collection, creating a moving portrait of American life.
The voices here connect us to real people and their lives—to their experiences of profound joy, sadness, courage, and despair, to good times and…
My award-winning book is about how we listen, what we listen for, why it matters, and how to do it better. Accessible and applicable, it explores the three listening modalities of head, heart, and hands as active, though largely unconscious, lenses that inform the potency of our listening.
I have filled this book with case studies, compelling true stories, refreshing personal discoveries, and hands-on activities to make the concepts easy and intriguing to apply. If you are a coach, counselor or therapist, salesperson, medical professional, caregiver, or teacher, you Listen for a Living. This book is designed for you. Reading this book might transform your next important conversation.
So many books, so little time! If you're a nonfiction fan, this field guide may help you make better choices about what to read.
Just like a field guide helps you identify plants or birds, this book helps you navigate the rich world of nonfiction. You’ll uncover how your favorite authors break down complex topics, keep you hooked, and forge those deep, personal connections that make their work unforgettable.
Practice spotting techniques "in the wild" and track your responses in the Field Notes. Record your own preferences and favorites in the Field Observations. With this guide by your side, you'll…
Attention nonfiction book lovers, this guide is for you!
If your nightstand is stacked with histories or essays, how-to guides or science books, The Curious Reader’s Field Guide to Nonfiction is going to be your new favorite companion.
Just like a field guide helps you identify plants or birds, this book helps you navigate the rich world of nonfiction. You’ll uncover how your favorite authors break down complex topics, keep you hooked, and forge those deep, personal connections that make their work unforgettable.
More than just a guide—a reading companion
This isn’t just a book you flip through—it’s an interactive…
