Habit 5 – Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
The second hardest moment I face, and the greatest mistakes I make, usually come from violating Habit5. It’s judging before I understand and acting before I really understand either the big picture or another person. Once the collective monologue begins, you start investing more and more of your ego into your convictions and into your own need to be understood. The other just isn’t listening. Oh, what a hard moment that is – to reach deep inside and subordinate your need to be understood and really work to get into the frame of mind and hear of the other. It is listening empathically and having the discipline and the patience to simply hold your tongue. It’s constantly relearning the anatomy lesson that we have two ears and one mouth, and we should use them accordingly.” – Stephen R. Covey