Do you have a hard time getting people to listen to you? Is it getting frustrating getting people’s attention? Are you interested to know how to make people listen to you?
If your answer is yes, then you are not alone.
Some people lack that charm to capture people’s attention and struggle to have them listen to what they have to say.
If you are someone like this, it is not something to be ashamed of.
Rather, it is something that you should work on.
In this article, we will be discussing how you can do this.
So, come along…
What Does It Mean to Have People Listen to You? – How to Make People Listen to You
When you say that people listen to you, do you truly understand what that means?
It does not only mean that people “listen” to the words you speak.
Rather, it goes farther than that.
To have people listen to you is to have people listen, understand, acknowledge, and accept your words.
It means that they are interested in hearing you speak, and see reason in you say.
Having people listen to you is a wonderful thing.
It makes you happy and more confident.
What Happens When a Person Is Not Listened To? – How to Make People Listen to You
When people don’t listen to you, how do you feel?
Does it make you less of who you are?
Is there any implication?
The answer to these questions depends on you.
Some people can feel a certain way, while others might not.
However, generally, when a person is ignored and not listened to, here are some of the things they could feel or happen to them.
It Can Decrease Their Self-Confidence – How to Make People Listen to You
Charming and charismatic people have a way of wooing and getting others to listen to them.
This helps to boost their self-confidence.
However, when a person is ignored and not listened to, it can make them feel less confident in their abilities and themselves.
For some people, this can also affect their self-esteem.
As a result, they will be less sure of themselves and keep their thoughts and feelings to themselves.
It Can Break/ Ruin Relationship Their Relationships
When a person is not listened to, it hurts them.
It also makes them less open to speaking to others.
As a result, they keep things to themselves.
This often does not help their relationships whether professional or personal.
In other words, their feeling of hurt, and their restraint from sharing things with people can cause a strain on their relationships.
Consequently, this can lead to their relationship falling apart if something is not done.
It Can Make Leadership Difficult For Them – How to Make People Listen to You
When a person is not listened to by others, this can make it difficult for them to lead.
This is because leaders are meant to be listened to.
You cannot lead people if they do not listen to you.
Direction and guidance will be missing in a person’s leadership if their followers do not listen to them.
Why You Need People To Listen to You – How to Make People Listen to You
As a person, business owner, and leader, having people listen to you is necessary.
It is not something you should overlook.
When people do not listen to you, you need to take action to correct it.
This is because:
You Cannot Achieve Certain Goals/Dreams Alone – How to Make People Listen to You
Whether you like it or not, certain goals or dreams that you have cannot be achieved by yourself.
You need people to work with you to achieve those goals or dreams.
Yes, even personal goals and dreams.
If you cannot get people to listen to you, then you will struggle to achieve them.
This is because you need to communicate and interact with people for them to know what they should do to enable you to achieve that dream or goal.
So, if you wonder why you need people to listen to you, remember that you will have goals and dreams that you will require the help of people to achieve.
You Need People To Leader Better
You have to understand that you do not lead yourself.
To be a great leader, you need to speak and have people listen to you.
So, you should not be content with having just yourself know and understand the ideas and thoughts you have to move forward.
When you see that you are not being listened to, strive to make a positive change.
You Need People To Grow – How to Make People Listen to You
Yes, as you need people to achieve goals and dreams, you also need people to grow.
These people do not necessarily have to do anything for you, but just to have your back.
You need to understand that you cannot grow well to be what you want if you lack a support system.
Hence, you need to know how to speak and have people listen to you.
This will help you grow healthy relationships with people who will become your support system.
Your Confidence Level Can Be At Stake
Your self-confidence level can reduce if people do not listen to you.
When your self-confidence is poor it can negatively affect different aspects of your
So, when you wonder why you need to work to make people listen to you, remember your confidence level.
Yes, you might have strong confidence in yourself and do not mind if people listen to you or not.
However, you should not put your confidence at stake for this belief.
Your Mental Health Is At Stake – How to Make People Listen to You
Apart from your confidence level, your mental health is also at stake when you cannot get people to listen to you.
We will give two illustrations
Example one: if you have a friend that never listens to you when you speak about your boundaries, it can get you frustrated and angry.
If these feelings are not well observed they can make you less happy and positive.
This can ultimately take a toll on your mental health.
Example two: if people ignore you and do not listen to you when you speak to them about your feelings, it can make you sad and less confident.
This also, can, in turn, affect your mental health negatively if not checked.
Hence, to avoid putting your mental health at stake, you should work to make people listen to you.
Qualities That Will Make People Listen To You – How to Make People Listen to You
As you work to make people listen to you, you need to understand that you have to work on yourself.
Sometimes, people do not listen to you based on their reasons or person.
Then, most time, it is because you lack some qualities that make people charmed and interested in listening to you
Hence, you need to build and work on yourself and develop those irresistible qualities.
They include:
Friendliness
Friendliness is the quality of being warm, open, welcoming, and at ease with people.
It is a good quality that not everybody possesses.
This quality allows you to embrace people you met for the first time like you have known them before.
As a result, it can charm people to want to socialize and interact with you.
When you are friendly, you will find it easier to speak to people and have them listen to you.
Sincerity and Authenticity – How to Make People Listen to You
Sincerity is the absence of deceit, pretense, or hypocrisy.
Meanwhile, authenticity is the quality of being genuine and original.
In other words, sincerity and authenticity are the qualities that allow you to not lie about your intentions or yourself.
People want to know the “real you”.
They do not want to be sold a lie about who you are, what you stand for, and the things you say.
When you possess sincerity and authenticity, you show people that you are real.
This can help to make them attracted to you and interested in listening to what you have to say.
Confidence
Confidence produces charisma.
And charisma attracts people to others.
Hence, if you lack confidence, you need to work on that.
You have to believe in who you are and what you are saying for others to listen to you.
Open-Mindedness – How to Make People Listen to You
For you to get people to listen to you, you need to be open-minded.
Open-mindedness is the quality of considering new ideas and thoughts.
If you cannot welcome other people’s ideas and thoughts, then other people will not be willing to listen to yours.
So, you need to learn to be open-minded.
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is the quality or ability to perceive, control, and evaluate emotions.
This is the quality that allows you to observe and understand your emotions and that of others.
You need emotional intelligence to make people listen to you because you need it to gauge people’s reception of what you are saying to them.
For example, if you do not understand how people feel concerning certain topics or discussions, you will speak carelessly.
As a result, this can upset people and make them uninterested in listening to you.
So, you need to be emotionally intelligent to gauge people’s emotions and speak in a way that will interest them.
Social Skills – How to Make People Listen to You
Social skills involve a variety of skills that enable people to effectively interact and communicate with others.
It involves both non-verbal and verbal communication.
If you lack good social skills you will struggle with conveying your thoughts and feelings.
As a result, you will not be able to make people listen to you when you speak.
So, you need to work to develop and improve your social skills.
Assertiveness
To make people listen to you, you will need to be able to stand on your ground.
In other words, you will have to be assertive.
Assertiveness is not confidence.
However, these two qualities work together to ensure that you speak without fear.
Also, they ensure that you are listened to.
So, if you do not possess assertiveness, you have to work to develop it.
Respect – How to Make People Listen to You
Most times, to make people listen to you, you will need to be assertive.
However, this does not mean you will be disrespectful.
In other words, you need to be respectful to get people to listen to you.
No matter the issues surrounding what you say to people, you need to ensure that you remain respectful to ensure that you are listened to.
Check here to discover 6 ways to respect your customers.
Tip on How to Make People Listen to You
You need people to listen to you for several reasons.
So, when you notice that people don’t listen to you, you can do the following to change things for the better:
1. Listen
You should not expect people to do something that you will not do for them.
In other words, to make people listen to you, then you have to be willing to listen to others.
And when we say “listen” we do not mean that you passively listen to them and be judgmental about their stance or opinions.
Rather, what we mean is that you should listen actively to them with the intention of understanding and accepting their opinion even when you do not agree with them.
For you to effectively do this, you have to practice active listening and be open-minded.
When you can effectively listen to people, they will also be willing to listen to you.
2. Be Brief and Concise – How to Make People Listen to You
Most people do not enjoy listening to someone who rants, repeats their words, or speaks for long before getting to their main point.
As a result, they try to avoid listening to people like this.
If you are someone who does it, you should stop it as it will not help you to get people to listen to you.
Rather than go round and round in circles when speaking, hit the nail on the head.
Go straight to your point and be clear about what you are talking about.
When you can keep your words brief and concise, people will enjoy listening to you because they know they will get your point without having their time wasted.
3. Make Use of Active Language
Sometimes, people do not listen to others because they are not assertive about what they want and don’t speak with confidence.
Hence, they are often ignored.
To avoid this for yourself, you have to learn to demonstrate assertiveness when you speak; especially when you are setting boundaries.
The best way to do this is to make use of active language.
Instead of being passive about things when you speak, be more assertive, clear, direct, and deliberate with your word choice.
For example, if you want to tell your business partner that you will not be present at work the next day, don’t say “I might probably not be at work tomorrow”
Instead, say “I will not be at work tomorrow”.
This way, the person you are speaking to will be more likely to listen to you and get your message.
When you can speak with confidence and assertiveness, you will be respected and not ignored.
4. Don’t Exaggerate
If you want to be listened to, then you should avoid exaggeration.
We earlier talked about being sincere and authentic.
Possessing sincerity and authenticity means that you will stick to the facts and be genuine.
If you do not, people will not take you seriously.
Hence, they will not listen to you.
So, avoid exaggerating.
If a friend comes late once or twice, do not exaggerate the fact and say that they “always do”.
Doing this will only upset and irritate the other person.
5. Read Emotions
When speaking to people, you have to ensure that your “emotional intelligence antenna” is set up.
In other words, you should read people’s emotions when talking.
This way, you will know when they are getting bored, upset, or more interested in your words.
Hence, you will be able to work with their emotions to make your words or conversation with them more appealing.
For example, let us assume you are speaking to someone about a particular topic.
As you are speaking to that person, you notice that they have started losing focus probably because you derailed from the topic.
Therefore, you should be wise and careful to quickly go back to discussing what they were interested in before they lose their focus completely.
When you can do this, people will not lose interest in what you are saying.
6. Watch Your Volume and Tone – How to Make People Listen to You
The way you say something is equally as important as what you say.
Your voice’s volume and tone have a great impact on people’s reception and response to your words.
The words that you say might mean no harm, but if you use the wrong volume and tone, it can give the wrong impression.
Therefore, you have to watch your volume and tone.
Ensure that your volume is conversational at all times.
It should be balanced; not too low or too loud.
As for your tone, ensure that it matches what you are saying.
If you are being affirmative, then it should be firm.
To show friendliness, your tine should be warm and welcoming.
So, understand and learn how to use different tones to match what you say.
Conclusion
You should not continue to be comfortable with people ignoring you when you speak.
Rather, you should learn to speak with assertiveness and confidence, and charm people to listen to you.
You can do this by listening to other people, making use of active language, being brief and concise.
Also, you need to possess qualities such as confidence, respect, open-mindedness, friendliness, and social skills.
