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television fans to see how Oprah’s reputation at conducting candid and powerful interviews precedes her.  It makes her a natural choice to interview some of the biggest celebrities in the world.
    For example, in May of 2013 NBA player Jason Collins made history by becoming the first professional athlete still playing a sport to openly admit that he was gay.  News media around the world carried the story, and Collins agreed to do his first news interview since his announcement with Oprah. 
    Routinely over her career, she has received honors like this one – interviewing everyone from movie stars to music icons to world leaders.  In many ways, she is the world’s most powerful woman.  But what makes her such an engaging interviewer?  Why is Oprah the best?

Why Silent Listening Doesn’t Work
    It would be easy to believe it’s because she’s a good listener.  No one could do the types of interviews she does without that ability.  We often hear about the importance of listening.  We have two ears and one mouth for a reason, right?  I’m sure you could come up with your own list of clichés about the importance of listening. 
    The problem is, silent listening doesn’t work.  Imagine we’re having a conversation where I’m talking and you’re listening.  The more you listen, the more I talk.  And at the end of our interaction, I might remember that you were a great listener – but not much more than that.  We didn’t really have  an equal conversation.  I didn’t learn anything about you, and I probably didn’t feel that engaged.
    The skill that really matters is active listening.
    Active listening requires you to ask questions while listening.  It means you dig deeper, and sometimes even reflect back your own experiences to push the conversation further.  Most importantly, active listening takes doing something you have probably been taught to avoid since you were a child … interrupt.

The Art of Interruption
    If you go back and watch any interview Oprah has ever done, you’ll notice an interesting balance that she manages to reach.  In some moments, she will listen intently and ask leading questions.  But then as the conversation starts, she will reflect on something that her guest says.  She might interject with a story of her own.  And she will interrupt often.
    But she does it with a rhythm that allows her conversations to continue.  Her interruptions actually help the conversation flow better, and help uncover more interesting insights.  And what most of us don’t realize is that interruptions could do the same for us, if we mastered how to use them.  Though it may seem ironic, when done right interruptions can create more interaction.
    Interrupting often changes everything.

How To Be An Active Listener
     
Dig for detail. The thing that separates smiling and nodding from active listening is your ability to get more detail from someone around any topic they may be sharing with you.  The easiest way to do this is to follow the paths of conversation that lead to greater details.  If someone shares, for example, that they just came back from a vacation … ask them where they went.  How did they like it there?  What was their favourite moment?  The more questions like this you can ask, the greater chance you will have to hear more details that can improve not only your conversations but also your listening ability.
Use reflecting phrases. If you have ever studied counseling methods, one of the big things that they teach is employing the use of key phrases to reflect back on what someone may be telling you.  “What I heard you say was …” is just one example of a phrase like that.  Another may be “the thing I found interesting about that was …”  No matter what kind of phrase you prefer – the idea is to learn a few that you can have in your “conversational toolkit” at just the right moments to help you be a more active listener.
Ask “story questions.” In