Jen Kirkman Quotes

We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another - until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices.

We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another

When you're not being heard - I can't tell you what to do when you're not being heard. I do think there is a way to move in love and get things done, though.

I have always had extraordinarily good relations with very conservative colleagues. And that's not because I agree with any of them or fudge on my positions, but people feel I listen to them and give them the benefit of the doubt. I assume the best of people. And that, I think, is an attitude that is maybe rare in politics.

I think we waste a lot of time trying to convince other people that we're right. A lot of times we don't actually care what another person thinks, we just want to say what we think. To hear it reflected back to us and that we're okay, to hear that we have been understood and that we're correct - so that we can continue to be who we are in the ways we've been being, and we have nothing to feel bad about and everything is just fine. Even if what we're talking about is, like, police brutality.

You have to think not about what you mean but about what people hear.

Accept complete responsibility both for understanding and for being understood.

When people respond too quickly, they often respond to the wrong issue. Listening helps us focus on the heart of the conflict. When we listen, understand, and respect each other's ideas, we can then find a solution in which both of us are winners.

You cannot talk to people successfully if they think you are not interested in what they have to say or you have no respect for them.

I think listening to people is helpful.

Communication is not about speaking what we think. Communication is about ensuring others hear what we mean.

I learned to have the patience to listen when people put forward their views, even if I think those views are wrong. You can't reach a just decision in a dispute unless you listen to both sides.

Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly.

To listen well is as powerful a means of communication and influence as to talk well.

Communication is so key.

Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard.

I've always been very aware of what I'm saying, but I'm also aware of what you're saying. I always want to make sure that my point is clear.

We cannot have that relationship if we only dictate or threaten and condemn those who disagree.

It’s important for me to hear others position and understand them.

One of the lessons I think nearly all women need to learn, is, that when we are dealing with busy people, no matter how much interested we may be in a subject, we must put what we have to say in the briefest possible form. This is even more important if the person to whom we are talking is listening because of our interest and not because of his own. We may be able to impart some of our enthusiasm to him, if we do not first bore him to death and make him impatient because he is being asked to listen to too many words.

Understanding the other person's viewpoint is the beginning of polical wisdom,

A great listener - that was my talent!

Listen with the intent to understand, not the intent to reply.

When two people talk with mutual respect and listen with a real interest in understanding another point of view, when they try to put themselves in the place of another, to get inside their skin, they change the world, even if it is only by a minute amount, because they are establishing equality between two human beings.

Don't try to convince your partner you are right. Instead of trying to win arguments, try to have a winning relationship!