Ever had anyone shout at you "you just don't listen, do you?" Well it may be true.

And according to a Bermudian businesswoman, there is a skill to listening that can be both taught and learned.

Sharon Bailie has spent the past two years taking courses on how to become a better listener and is now about to start out on her own, teaching the art of hearing what people are saying.

She said: "It is not a matter of being a bad listener or a good listener, but a matter of improving your listening skills, and it does take work. It takes time, it takes work and there are triggers that you get in the course that support you in being reminded how to use those tools, how to listen, how to be still when the other person is talking."

Ms Bailie is the first Bermudian to take the course called `Empowerment of Listening' which is specifically designed to change and improve the way we listen to others.

Ms Bailie, who is vice president and programme manager at XL Capital, says the new skills she has learned have helped her both in her work and at home.

"I would love everyone on my team to take a course like this," said Ms Bailie. "It has helped me in my job as a manager and as a colleague. I now listen to my staff and ask "what do you want me to do about it?"

Often as not, she said, they do not want her to do anything but listen to their complaints and would then go off and solve their own problems.

The course focuses on listening and not speaking as the foundation of all good communication. Tools encouraged to be used are listening, brevity and acknowledgement.

Ms Bailie said that on average people listen only to one percent of what is going on around them.

She said the key to good listening is to cast off preconceptions and to truly listen to what a person is saying.

"You have to stop and truly listen, and not try to finish someone's sentence and believe they are capable of coming up with a sentence," she said.

Common traits of bad listening include finishing other people's sentences, waiting impatiently for other people to finish their sentences to respond.

"The art of listening is something that is often taken for granted but often is not often a tool that is properly utilised and can, if not used properly, have a negative impact on your relationships," she said.

She added that she was not a good listener before the course, but has learned much about herself by studying listening.

She said she had grown as person since taking the course as she had to first understand herself before being able to listen properly to others.

"Part of coming to the course if figuring out why you do the things you do, once you figure that out, the tools that are put in place are specifically related to why you do the things you do. I know it sounds a bit iffy and convoluted, but I can't really tell you all about it unless you come on the course... it is not a ploy that I am using, it is truly that everybody's situation is different. Why people do something is very different for every person."

But she said that it was possible for people, like her, to identify their own problems and work at listening.

"The four day course can literally change your life," she said. "But it is hard work, and you only get out of it what you put in. I am happier in the dealings I have with my family and at work, and that is the real test."

Ms Bailie will soon complete her training and will herself become a trainer. She will be offering three courses later in the year, one for women looking to change course, a general listening course for men and women, and another course specifically aimed at men and will be offered through the World Institute which run the course that Ms Bailie has been taking.

For more information go to www.listeningprofitsu.com.