Effective Listening
The ability to listen well is an important tool for understanding others. Sadly, very few people know how to listen well. In fact, most people can think of only one or two good listeners in their lives. Listening is not simply agreeing - it is much more. Good listeners are able to better understand and respond to others, complete assignments accurately, settle disagreements before they escalate, and establish rapport with difficult people.
Listening is often confused with hearing. This serious misconception can lead us to believe that good listening is instinctive. In fact, good listening is an active, sophisticated process – a learned behavior – that demands focus and attention. Listening takes place on
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Content listening can lead to serious misunderstandings and is especially deceptive because it appears the listener is tuned in.
Superficial Listeners
Superficial listeners are often judging, daydreaming, or rehersing their response this is essentially hearing, not listening. The listener is tuning in and out thinking little of the talker, and mainly listening for a chance to jump in and take over the conversation. People who listen at this level are pretending to listen and are often quiet and passive.
To achieve deep listening, the listener must take on certain responsibilities to help the talker and to ensure that there is agreement about the interpretation and intent of a message. Specifically, the listener must focus on the talker and pay close attention to what is being said. Strive to understand the meaning of the message and respond accordingly. Keep in mind that the response lets the talker know whether or not the message is getting through and allows him or her to adjust the message accordingly.
Listener Responsibilities
Determine the talker's needs during the interaction. At the beginning of a conversation, the talker may be tentative and not say what he or she means. Whether he or she continues often depends on the listener's initial response. Stay neutral and try to listen objectively. Direct, clear communication rarely occurs when information flows one way. Listening blocks are obstacles that interfere with our listening they
Effective communication is not just about speaking and listening. It is also about watching and feeling. Our body language and tone of voice actually communicate more strongly than the words we use. So, listening effectively involves tuning in closely to the other person’s body language and tone of voice as well as their words.
Be receptive, keep and keep an open mind: As a good listener, you much keep an open mind to understand your colleague’s point of view, if different.
In regards to responding to others, Beebe & Mottet (2016) suggest that if a person is serious about listening, they need to be serious about turning off messages that may compete for attention and selection, which are typically the first two stages of the listening process. Furthermore, when an individual commits to listening, they should be become other-oriented instead of self-centered, as listening is about the other person (Beebe & Mottet,
Talking and listening are essential life skills. The ability to talk in order to communicate and exchange ideas and information, to negotiate with others, to express feelings and emotions, allows human beings to function well in the world and to be full and active members of society. Communication, to be effective, requires the ability to listen, to understand and to make sense of what is heard. On the personal level, when we listen, we give attention to the other person in such a way as to allow them to feel heard, understood and therefore respected. In that way, listening is more than
I personally what I observed from listening skills I used to make decisions without listening properly. My judgment was unbalanced. I used to make mistakes. After my better listening skills I do not jump for decisions. I naturally like to listen. I always listen to different groups. Carefully and judge properly. Listening skills made me to become good negotiator using the meaning of assertiveness without hurting and to give judgment in my community. As I said before my morning pray make me good listener not speaker. Because most of us do not realize the effectiveness of listening
Active listening is an attentive and interactive form of listening. One of the primary objectives of active listening is establishing and achieving empathy among all parties engaged in communication together. The words a person uses during communication are important, yet active listening includes listening to a person's words as well as interpreting and intuiting what a person feels and thinks. Active listening is a highly engaging activity. Active listening requires the person doing the listening to have a very keen awareness of all aspects of the communication. Active listening then is a sensory activity that challenges the listener to see, hear, sense, perceive, understand, feel, empathize, and reciprocate.
Listening is ‘Not an attempt to understand something that is being said’ but ‘Just an attention to the activity of sounds’
Listening is more complex, and it encourages one to analyze and think about an idea, rather than to simply accept it (or “hear” it). Hearing is a skill that is beneficial for every aspect of life. As long as we have our ability to hear, we will always perceive different sounds, music, and voices. Listening, however, is beneficial to us in specific instances. It is important for us to attain good listening skills in education, the work force, and in our relationships with others in order to succeed. Good listening in education will bring about confident participation in class discussions; good listening in the workplace will lead to cooperation and good teamwork among colleagues; good listening in relationships is healthy and positive, for it is important to hear what an individual has to say in order to know how they feel.
What is active listening, it the process of information, which uses all of our senses to convey a message through perceiving of sound? Our, hearing, smell, taste and touch are part of our senses that we sometimes use without knowing we are doing it. Moreover, listening correctly, can be a crucial part of encoding and decoding the message, for clarification and understanding what the message is conveying. While deciphering messages, you get a sense of understanding what the message is trying to express. Next, is trying to remember or recall what the message is so that you can retain it. Also, evaluating what you hear and decoded or deciphered it is essential to understanding what the message is. When we actively listen, there is some paraphrasing during this process, where you have to restate the information given by the speaker into your own words. Lastly, responding to the message with an answer, it could be for learning purposes, personal, enjoyment or even employment, it is important to listen to ensure understanding actively. As we respond, there is an answer and feedback given (DeVito 2016) as a response.
The opportunity to gauge my personal listening style in the home was exponentially more revealing than any other experience. During conversations with my children, my listening style would vacillate between time-oriented, people-oriented, and content-oriented; sometimes with a combination of two different styles. I found that content-based and time-oriented listening was employed during homework and reading time, whereas people-oriented listening was applied to all other situations. With my fiancée, I realized that the listening styles I use most are that of content and time-based listening. We rarely have access to each other, so it unnerved me to awaken to the fact that I didn’t inject the attributes of a people-oriented listener
These, then, are some of the worthwhile results we can expect from active listening. But how do we go about this kind of listening? How do we become active listeners?
I am a good listener because I pay my whole attention to the speaker commentswho comes to me so they can be heard. People like to know they have been heard and I can do that job very well but hearing and truly listening are two different things. In my opinion, listening engage you to
Brownell (1987) found in her study of listening behaviors that there are five factors. The factors included sensitivity and considers emotional component of a message; understands and recalls information accurately; objective and nonjudgmental; concentrates and encourages information sharing and provides
Listening is an important form of communication. Unfortunately, many people who do not know how to listen believe they can listen well. They often say "I have been doing this all of my life of course I can listen". Listening is not inherited, or a personality trait, it is a skill that must be worked on and practiced.
There are several methods to achieving effective listening. Concentrate on what others are saying. Make yourself shut out other challenges facing you and simply listen. Don't allow yourself to do other things as you listen, such as answering the phone, doing paperwork, or checking your e-mail. Effective listening is difficult and requires all of your attention and effort. The listener needs to focus on what is being said so they will not misinterpret what the speaker is trying to say. Paraphrase or rephrase what the speaker was saying in your own words to ensure that you heard the information accurately. It is important to