Active listening requires more than silently absorbing information — you need to demonstrate that you’re engaged by asking follow-up questions or paraphrasing and repeating what the other person said back to them, says Wood Brooks, who teaches a Harvard MBA course called “How to talk gooder in business and life.”
“Successful conversationalists and successful employees go a step further” than a perfunctory head nod and making eye contact, she says, adding: “Listening to somebody’s answer then probing for more information is a superhero move, and a shockingly low number of people think to do it. You should show [you’re listening] by saying [you are] out loud.”
Listening carefully requires genuine focus. It’s also a subtle way to show off to your colleagues and managers, whether you’re in meetings or one-on-one conversation. By asking great questions and referencing previous parts of your conversations, you’ll showcase your high level of competence, build trust in your relationship with the other person, says Wood Brooks.
Asking genuine follow-up questions could be crucial to your career success: The mere act of asking them makes you more likeable, according to a 2017 study co-authored by Wood Brooks that analyzed more than 2,000 conversations. And employee likeability often correlates with positive job performance reviews, research shows.
“No matter what your job is … you have to talk to other people to get your work done, you have to talk to people to have rewarding relationships in your life,” Wood Brooks says.
Asking thoughtful questions “demonstrates you care, it demonstrates empathy, it demonstrates you’re willing to learn and, in some cases, admit you don’t know everything,” Stanford University lecturer and communication expert Matt Abrahams told CNBC Make It in September 2024. “Those are all valuable tools and assets to have when you’re trying to grow your career or deepen relationships.”
And anyone can become a better active listener with practice, Robert Biswas-Diener, co-author of the 2025 book, “Radical Listening: The Art of True Connection,” said on March 23. While the other person is speaking, observe which topics are important to them and ask them follow-up questions to get more information, he recommended.
“Questions are the most powerful tool in listening because they can invite so much more speaking, and because they can influence the direction of the conversation,” said Biswas-Diener.
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