Sometime ago, I heard a conflict resolution specialist suggest that for the listening step, we can and should listen on three levels: content, emotion, and values. But we (me included) often focus only on the content. In that session, we practiced listening for other things, and it was hard to overcome the default of listening for content! I’ve written about one part of this, how to listen for values, in my book, Persuade, Don’t Preach. But I haven’t written about listening for emotion yet.
I agree with you, Karen, a more comfortable approach to naming other's emotions is to ask, rather than say directly what I think they are feeling. No formula works for everyone or every situation. I'm going to look at Brown's book. Thanks.
I agree with you, Karen, a more comfortable approach to naming other's emotions is to ask, rather than say directly what I think they are feeling. No formula works for everyone or every situation. I'm going to look at Brown's book. Thanks.