Too Busy! Are you listening or mining?

I know so many accountant who are SOOOOOO busy. They have very little time during their day and they work at what appears to be a frantic pace. They have little time to .... deal with people!! At least that is how they look sometimes. There can be many causes of this: time and energy management practices, interruption reinforcement, etc. The effects can be draining. When you feel real hurried there is a skill that can take a HUGE hit - your listening skills.

Have you ever been part of a conversation where one person is only half-listening? Heck, they aren't really doing that. What are they doing? They are "data-mining". They are listening only as much as they feel they need to in case something "big" is said that affects them. Other than that they may be glancing at emails, thinking about what they will do next, and many other multi-tasking items.

What can happen in these situations?

The other person probably feels like they are only being mined. The other person might pick up those same habits. Opportunities to be efficient may go by the wayside because the parties are not fully engaged. Relationships are hampered. Information is lost. Collaboration suffers. In summary - "inefficiency" happens. So maybe the best thing to do, if you want to be more productive, is to SLOW DOWN when it comes to communicating (and especially listening) with others?!