Be a better listener Listening is the most important of all skills for successful conversations at work, college or in social (60)_____ . Generally, people are very (61)_____ listeners. The reason for this is that when talking to a colleague or a friend, they are often already preparing their (62)_____ while the colleague or friend is still speaking. But effective listening requires that you listen as though there were nothing else in the world more fascinating to you than what that person is saying. Even in the (63)_____ of an extremely noisy party, the very best listeners seem to have (64)_____ the gift of making the person who is speaking feel as if he or she were the only person in the room. They do this by paying (65)_____ attention and asking lots of questions. One very useful technique to (66)_____ the conversation going is to ask, „What do you mean, exactly?‟ It‟s impossible for the other person not to (67)_____ more detail. You can then follow (68)_____ with other (69)_____ questions and keep the conversation rolling along