There are situations when it is pointless to talk: they will not hear us anyway. We talk about 6 types of “toxic interlocutors” so that you do not waste time in the future.
Is it worth it to talk if they don’t want to hear us? Bernard Ferrari, business consultant and best-selling author of Listening,* describes six categories of “toxic” interlocutors.
1. Stubborn. He listens, only to understand whether the opinions of others coincide with what he himself considers to be true.
2. Bruce. I am sure that the thoughts of others are just nonsense.
3. Prompter. Behaves as if the dialogue has already been written, seeks to seize the initiative and direct the conversation in the right direction.
4. Doldon. Endlessly repeats the same thing in order to bring the discussion to the point of absurdity and then curtail it under a plausible pretext.
5. Know-it-all. Willing to offer a solution to a problem right off the bat, usually before you even state its essence.
6. The detainee. Depicts attention, although in fact he is not at all interested in what they want to say to him. Most likely, he has already made his decision and listens only for appearances.
* B. Ferrari “The ability to listen” (Mann, Ivanov and Ferber, 2013).