4 Mistakes You’re Making as You Try to Connect with People

You know how to communicate — but do you know how to connect? And you know how to speak — but are you sure you’re listening, and giving others a reason to listen to you?

These might seem like rudimentary skills, but in our age of social media and smartphones, they’re practically endangered! We communicate all the time, and many of us mistake that for connecting. In truth, connecting with people requires a specific set of skills, skills you have to work on and nurture all the time.

Learning how to connect with people requires that you first let go of all the small mistakes that are preventing you from making better connections. Four of the biggest mistakes people make as they try to connect with others include:

1. Trying to connect when you don’t have the time for it. If you’re in the middle of a thousand other things at work and you simply can’t give your full attention to another human, well, don’t. There is nothing wrong with asking to reconvene in five or ten minutes, once you’ve gotten your other affairs under control. This is far better than trying to connect when you simply don’t have the brain capacity for it!
2. Not actually listening. Listening to someone requires more than just hearing the words they speak. It means taking the time to stop and think about what they…