The Listening Tool - The Most Underrated Tool in Your Tool Belt

This tool kind of builds on the first one.

And all these tools will build on, they'll add to each other, okay? And one thing I want you to understand about listening, listening is not a passive exercise.

It's not a passive thing that you do.

You don't just sit back and listen.

That's how most people don't listen.

Okay, listening is something you have to decide to do and it's something you have to actively do.

And especially early in your career when everything is new, everything is, you're learning everything.

That is when listening is so important.

And it's not just listening in the classroom, listening to your instructors.

actually listening to the frequency, listening to what the person on the other side of that frequency is telling you so that you can then tell them what you need to tell them.

Okay.

And for air traffic controllers, we should be spending much more of our time listening than we are transmitting instructions.

So listening is how we understand what this part of the picture is going to be.

Understand what this pixel of the overall picture is going to be.

It's how we detect problems.

And at the academy, it can be something as simple as the remote saying something wrong.

If you don't catch it, the error's on you.

Just like in real world air traffic control.

the pilot can say something wrong.

And if as the controller you don't catch it, the controller is at error.

Okay? And at fault.

You have to verify instructions.

Okay? You give instructions, the pilot reads it back.

That's your opportunity to listen to make sure that they actually heard what you said.

That's why it's so important.

This tool kind of builds on the first one.

And all these tools will build on, they'll add to each other, okay? And one thing I want you to understand about listening, listening is not a passive exercise.

It's not a passive thing that you do.

You don't just sit back and listen.

That's how most people don't listen.

Okay, listening is something you have to decide to do and it's something you have to actively do.

And especially early in your career when everything is new, everything is, you're learning everything.

That is when listening is so important.

And it's not just listening in the classroom, listening to your instructors.

actually listening to the frequency, listening to what the person on the other side of that frequency is telling you so that you can then tell them what you need to tell them.

Okay.

And for air traffic controllers, we should be spending much more of our time listening than we are transmitting instructions.

So listening is how we understand what this part of the picture is going to be.

Understand what this pixel of the overall picture is going to be.

It's how we detect problems.

And at the academy, it can be something as simple as the remote saying something wrong.

If you don't catch it, the error's on you.

Just like in real world air traffic control.

the pilot can say something wrong.

And if as the controller you don't catch it, the controller is at error.

Okay? And at fault.

You have to verify instructions.

Okay? You give instructions, the pilot reads it back.

That's your opportunity to listen to make sure that they actually heard what you said.

That's why it's so important.