150: 10 Listening Tricks to Get the Most Out of Every Interview

The art of the Perfect interview Is it in the speaking or in the listening? Well, if you couldn't guess by the title, the magic is in the listening. In this episode, I'll Share with you 10 listening tricks to get the most out of Every interview. Now, did you know that the sign to tell that a person you're speaking with is listening to actively listening to you is that they mimic you with words and gestures? It's a way to show each other that you're just like them. That's not a bad tactic when it's a personal conversation, when you are trying to show empathy when you're speaking to a person. But what if you're interviewing someone? Okay, it could be for a job, but this is a communication PR podcast. So what if you are working as a journalist or you are a communicator and you're interviewing a person for an article or for a video? What are the best listening tactics for getting that fabulous interview? Now, even you could be a little rusty when it comes to interviewing people. Maybe you're a communicator who was just given the task of interviewing a person. Or maybe you have to jump into a podcast if you're anything like me. Sometimes I'll sit down for an interview and I have to look at my notes and say, okay, what exactly am I doing here? What am I asking? I research the guest. I know the questions that I'm going to ask, but how can I listen to the guest while doing everything else? That's where the magic is. So in the episode today, what are the listening tips that you can use when you are giving an interview? Now, I will tell you, I do not just wing it whenever I do podcast interviews or if I do interviews for my job or even in my previous life when I was working in communications or when I was working in news, when I was working in journalism. I have used. I saved a lot of my textbooks from school and I have news textbooks that I use. And I have a list, an active listening interview list from an old textbook that I have used since then. Doing an interview is more than just asking great questions. It's being a great listener. It's making sure not only that you're an active listener, that the person sitting across from you or on screen across from you knows that you're listening to them. But also, how are you getting all the information from them? It's not from just writing notes, it's from how you interview them. Part of that interview is the listening. So here are your top 10 listening tricks. How you can get the most out of every interview. All right? So before you write any notes or record your conversation, you want to turn on your listening. You want to focus on yourself and all your on your mind, even take a breath and tell yourself, I need to listen. The biggest mistake that people make when they're doing an interview is they get so caught up in the gadgets and the notes and the pen and how I'm going to take this information and taking a breath and putting that other person at ease. What you really should be focusing on is how you are going to listen and actively listen to that person, because that is what drives an interview. It's one thing if you're taking notes, certainly how do you get the best information? But also if you're conducting an interview on air, you need to actively listen while you're actively speaking. So here are 10 tips. Number one, you want to focus on the here and now. Here is also H e r e. Or is that a homophone? I'm pulling this out from, from grade school. Is that a homophone? I think it is here. H e A R and H e r e. So you want to concentrate on what the person or what the source is saying to you now and focus less on what you're going to ask next. Allow for the pause in there. Don't worry that you need to fill that space immediately with another question. Focus on the here and and the now. Number two, you want to practice conversational listening. You've heard that reporters will get into conversations with you. That's part of the trick right there. You want to base your next question on the last sentence or thought that they express to you as though you were having a conversation. I will say in my interviews, this is what I do all the time. Yes, I have notes in front of me that I want to follow. I want to follow a general outline. But more often than not, my next question is based on the previous statement because I want to make sure that I've listened precisely to what they said so I can tie it in like a thread to the next question. The third tip is practice. Practice makes perfect for critical listening. Critical listening doesn't just happen. It's like critical thinking. You have to apply some pressure to it. You have to put some energy behind it. So the same with thinking listening applies. So evaluate what your source is saying to you. Evaluate what you hear. Listen for facts, but also listen for great quotes. Listen for that type of third level hearing. See what they're elaborating on. See what has substance. If you're in person, as opposed to audio only. Look for the moment when their face lights up. Look for the moment when you need to listen. Usually there is a visual cue that will tell you this. Next thing that is coming out of their mouth is important. Maybe it's after a pause. Maybe it's when their face makes a face that tells you something is coming next. That type of listening is active listening, but it's also critical listening, because it's not just listening. You're listening, listening while you're thinking. All right, next number four. This one's a tricky one. Everyone struggles with this one. But this one, when you master it, it's magic. Be quiet. Remember. Whose interview is this? It's the source. It's the person you're interviewing. It's not yours. You don't need to impress the source. You don't need to tell people everything that you know. That happens on podcasts a lot or a lot of interviews. The interviewer will just kind of take off and go. I know there are times that I have to rein myself in. Like, I'll. I'll hear something that will trigger a thought or a story in my brain, and I'll tell myself, molly, this is not your story. This is not your interview. We need to listen to them. Let the person. Let your source explain what they're talking about. Let them explain their point. Let them make sure that you understand it. You want to get the words out of the source's mouth, not yours. Next. Which happens to be one of my indestructible tips from my book, one of the seven pillars of indestructibility. It's be responsive. And responsive in PR terms is a little different than being responsive in an interview. You want to connect with them, you want to respond with them. You want your body to respond to them. And how do you do that? That's by making eye contact difficult to do on a virtual interview. Because if you're looking them directly in the eye, which means you're looking them in the eye, means you have to look directly into the camera. So if you are doing an interview on camera, that might be a little tip, is make sure that you're looking at them, but it's a way to let them know that they're listening to you. Um, if you don't understand something, say. So go ahead and say why or how or I may not be following you. Help me understand this. Could you please explain this? If it's not clear to you, it's not going to be clear to anyone. Especially if they're not actively listening to the interview. Next. And this is a reporter tip, like a journalism tip, you want to listen for what is not being said. This is also, let me interject, a life tip. When you are trying to get to the bottom of something, anything, always listen to what isn't being said. So is your source? Is the person you're interviewing, are they avoiding a topic? Who or what are they not talking about? Is it a family member? Is it a story? Is it an official? Is it about some crucial part to the story? Sometimes the information that is omitted from a conversation tends to be the most revealing. So if you're using this as a life tip, like, let's say you're using it with your kids, like your teenager, or let's say for people out there who are dating or something, if you're dating someone or if you're married to someone and you're not quite getting what you want to hear in this conversation, listen for what's omitted. But if you're doing this as a communicator, if you're doing this as a journalist, the omission is where, again, is. That's where the juice is. That's where the story is. So listen for what's not being said. Next. Listen, yes, with your ears, but also listen with your eyes. What kind of body language is that source displaying with you? Are they smiling? Are they frowning? Are they uncomfortable? Is there some just genuine discomfort there when you're asking certain questions? There are. And if you listen to this podcast, I mention them often. There are telltale signs when a person is not being forthright, when a person is not telling you the whole story, when the person is lying or withholding information. Observation can be one of the most critical listening tools. Don't start an interview without it. Next. And this goes for any interview that you're doing, always be polite, always be nice, Always tell the person that you're thankful, that you're grateful that they took the time to speak with you. If the source starts to ramble on, or if they're giving you irrelevant information, it's usually at the end of an interview, you don't want to interrupt them, but you can wait for the pause and then you thank them. If you ever interrupt someone, you'll notice right away their body reacts to it and it reacts in a way of discomfort. Or they feel, you know, they feel that they were chagrined, you know that they've done something wrong. You want to be polite and let that pause connect with gratitude and thanking. Them for speaking with you. That's going to be the last thing they remember. We'll leave them on a good note. Also, when you're doing any interview, make sure you block off your life. Make sure that you are focusing 100% on that person and on that interview. Get rid of all the intrusions. Get rid of the fact that you've had a bad day. Get rid of the fact that you're stressed, you're overwhelmed, someone's annoying you. You have a million things that you have to do. In an interview that I did today, it was a conversation or someone was interviewing about, I was speaking. I'm going to be doing an author interview with them, with me as the author. And what I spent far too much time worried about was that I didn't look a little better in this virtual WebEx call in this interview. And I had to stop myself. Say, Molly, you're wearing a black shirt, so it looks like a T shirt. It's actually dress. You're fine. Get it out of your head and focus on the task at hand. And that is the interview. All right, and the last tip for getting the most out of any interview is this idea of the flex. Not in the flex of the Gen Z to brag or to show how cool you are, but the flex. Inflexible. Never go in with a rigid agenda. The worst interviews are from people who don't know how to be flexible. If you prepare and if you've done your research, you will be able to bounce around your interview and have your source lead you through that interview to get the most information. While you are able to stay within the confines of your outline, you'll be able to make sure that you hit all the points that you want to get in the interview. But the more rigid you are, the more rigid the interview is. So even though you start off with prepared questions, if the interview goes in another direction, just follow it. Especially if it's more interesting. Listen for what you want to know and what you didn't expect to hear. Remember, you're the audience. You just happen to be the first person in the audience to hear that information. All right, so what is your indestructible tip for making the most out of your interview, no matter the reason behind the interview? Okay, you are working as a communicator, interviewing a source for your content. You're working as a reporter. You might be leadership. Who's interviewing? Hey, maybe you're interviewing someone for a job. But in the realm of communication, what is the best way to get the most out of every interview. That indestructible tip is this is being an active listener, okay? Being a critical listener. Research says that only 25% of listeners are active listeners. That means 75% of the listeners out there are missing a whole lot of information. So every time you sit down and have a conversation with someone where you are gleaning information, interview or not, be an active listener and be a critical listener. That's all for this week on the podcast. Thank you for being an active listener. We'll talk to you next week. Bye for now.