The most important lesson for me was in developing listening skills. I’m a pastor so people allow me to talk a lot and it’s nice talking a lot but I realize that if I want to be a good pastor, an effective pastor, I have to be a good listener.
I now know how to ask questions so that people can figure out how to solve their own problems. I used to think that my main role was to give good advice and I haven’t stopped doing that. If I have a suggestion and share it in the form of a question without the expectation that they will follow it according to my desire, they can still get help from me but decide if it’s the way they want to solve the problem or not and not feel bad if they choose to take a different solution.
-Male NGO worker and pastor, C1
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