Listening skills allow one to make sense of and understand what another person is saying.

Emotional intelligence is a shorthand that psychological researchers use to describe how well individuals can manage their own emotions and react to the emotions of others.

“Mixed model,” developed by psychologist Daniel Goleman. The mixed model has five key areas: Self-awareness, Self-management,Motivation,Empathy and Social skills.

Self-awareness: Self-awareness involves knowing your own feelings. This includes having an accurate assessment of what you’re capable of, when you need help, and what your emotional triggers are.

Self-management: Self-management involves being able to control outbursts, calmly discussing disagreements, and avoiding activities that undermine you like extended self-pity or panic.

Motivation: Everyone is motivated to action by rewards like money or status. Goleman’s model, however, refers to motivation for the sake of personal joy, curiosity, or the satisfaction of being productive.

Empathy: While the three previous categories refer to a person’s internal emotions, this one deals with the emotions of others. Empathy is the skill and practice of reading the emotions of others and responding appropriately.

Social skills: This category involves the application of empathy as well as negotiating the needs of others with your own. This can include finding common ground with others, managing others in a work environment, and being persuasive.

Good listening skills make workers more productive. The ability to listen carefully allows workers to better understand assignments they are given. They are able to understand what is expected of them by their management.

Listening tips: Maintain eye contact with the speaker. This will demonstrate to the speaker that the listener is paying attention.

Do not interrupt the speaker. Wait until he or she is completely finished, then ask questions. Listening long enough may answer several of the questions without the need to ask. When the time is right to ask, repeat instructions first and then ask appropriate questions.

Control body language. As much as possible, sit still while listening. This implies that the listener is paying full attention to the speaker. A nod of the head can be good, as it implies agreement.

A good listener knows that being attentive to what the speaker doesn't say is as important as being attentive to what he does say. Look for nonverbal cues such as facial expressions and posture to get the full gist of what the speaker is saying.

Without rapport, there is little chance to influence or to persuade others.

Rapport building is at the root of effective communication

what are some of the techniques you can implement to increase your capacity to build rapport? One powerful method is to match and mirror the behavior of the other

Matching and mirroring is the skill of assuming someone else’s style of behavior to create rapport.

Body postures and gestures What posture is the person you are having a conversation with assuming? Observe, and than match the posture and gestures.

The rhythm of the breathPay attention to how the other person is breathing, and then match it. This technique helps tremendously in bonding with the other.

The tone of your voice to build rapport, you need to mirror his or her tone of voice. pay attention at the speed of the speech.

self-disclosure is one of the hallmarks of intimate relationships.

Revealing your motives, intentions, goals, values, and emotions, can increase liking and feelings of intimacy.

Successful and strategic self-disclosure is a leadership competency that many leaders have yet to acquire.

Skillful self-disclosers choose the substance and process of their revelations, including the depth, breadth, and timing of disclosure, with the goal of furthering the collective task rather than furthering personal agendas.

Too little disclosure may result in follower feelings of uncertainty and suspicion, with followers unable to trust someone who isn’t open about his or her own background.

Skillful self-disclosure can humanize the leader, creating connections between the leader and followers that increase feelings of trust and intimacy, and, in an organizational context, a readiness to work together collaboratively to reach mutual task goals.

We are all riding on the same bus.

Human Nature is not a problem that can be fixed by rules and regulations. All solutions to the existing problems must be based on how people behave not on how we think they should behave.

Faith is almost the bottom line of creativity; it requires a leap of faith any time we undertake a creative endeavor, whether this is going to the easel, or the page, or onto the stage - or for that matter, in a homelier way, picking out the right fabric for the kitchen curtains, which is also a creative act.

You can put in a curl or put on a lip color or mascara, but the important thing is that the health of your skin and hair is shining through.

Sotomayor's vainglorious lecture bromide about herself as 'a wise Latina' trumping white men is a vulgar embarrassment - a vestige of the bad old days of male-bashing feminism.

The situation in America is when it starts moving there, all the bands from England move over to America and work from there, so that they're available all the time for everyone that wants them in person.

This is why we call people exes I guess because the paths that cross in the middle end up separating at the end. Its too easy to see an X as a cross out. Its not because theres no way to cross out something like that. The X is a diagram of two paths.

You are what existence wants you to be. Just relax.

In radio, they say, nothing happens until the announcer says it happens.

Too often, governments are quick to use excessive force and even pervert the course of justice to keep oil and gas flowing, forests logged, wild rivers dammed and minerals extracted. As the Global Witness study reveals, citizens are often killed, too - especially if they're poor and indigenous.

I don't get far enough into a boring book to hate it.

It's obvious we can't all be a Gully Foyle, but most of us energize at such a low level, so far short of our real capabilities, we could all be more, do more.

I think every script I read has something that sends me into a state of panic but that usually makes me want to do it.

I think the best kind of virality is a product that people like so much that they just want to tell people about it.

You can never have too much good blessing.

My morning ritual is to get up and feed the dogs, take my daughter to school, and come home.

An education system where student selection is based on credit capacity and not merit capacity and where graduating students are no longer indebted to the nation, but increasingly indebted to the Australian Taxation Office - that's no way to improve the quality of education.

Raising the minimum wage is the right thing to do, but it's a popular thing to do as well.

You have to wait for people to program you. The only difference is the amount of people that you're going to reach but that's going to even out in the next two or three years anyway. Computers are being bought faster than televisions right now.

Love at first sight is a revival of an infantile impression. The first love object reappears in a different disguise.

Film seems to be a medium designed for betrayal and violence.

I have a very clear view, which is that if you disagree with the policies of Israel, fine, say so, but that is never a reason to take that out on Jewish communities.

This is my first term. I was told it was going to be an exciting term, and a lot of things would be done, and I cannot think about something more exciting than save Social Security.