No communication is complete without listening. People in Business spend a lot of their working time in listening so, it becomes an important factor in business skills development.
"Listening is a process of receiving, interpreting, and reacting to a message received from the speaker."
The Art of Listening
Listening is a different form of hearing. We hear numerous sounds during the day without registering most of them. We do not pay attention to the sounds which are not meaningful to us.
Good listening involves encouraging the other person by being sensitive to the thoughts and emotions hidden behind the speaker's expressions. It takes a lot of effort and energy to become a good listener. However, if one works on the art of listening, it works wonders in developing one's personality and knowledge.
Why do people have poor listening skills?
1) No availability of listening training
Major communication training involves teaching writing, speaking and reading skills. Very less training involve listening skills training.
2) Speed of thought is more than the speed of speech
People can think faster than they can speak. But in business, this cannot be an excuse. We need to make extra efforts in listening the other person carefully and concentrate more of our mental capacity on the act of listening.
3) Cannot differentiate between listening and hearing
Listening and hearing are two different words. Listening involves a more sophisticated mental process than hearing. It demands energy and discipline. On the other hand, hearing is not that sophisticated process. We hear numerous sounds all day like the birds chirping, cars honking, kids playing etc, which are not very important to listen carefully.
4) Poor Listening habits
They include :
Sometimes a person listens only to the supporting facts only to the way they are represented, and misses the real meaning.
Some people listen only listen the whole message until they decide that they want to say something. When they get the point, they simply quit listening and start rehearsing what they want to say and wait for the opportunity to jump in and talk.
People frequently hear what they want to hear; alternatively refuse what they do not want to hear.
Some listeners wait for the chance to attack the speaker. They listen intently for the points on which they can disagree and attack.
Some people have a habit of interrupting in between which destroys the flow of communication.
Qualities of a good listener
Although developing the skills of active listening requires a lot of efforts, it is not impossible. Be sure to follow the below guidelines to become a good listener.
Being non-evaluative :
The verbal and non verbal behavior of the listener should by such that the speaker realizes that he/she is being properly heard and understood. Our behavior should convey the impression that we accept the speaker without making any judgement of right or wrong, good or bad.
Paraphrasing :
To clarify what one understood from the conversation , one can simple use paraphrasing and inquire the speaker whether one has heard accurately or not.
Some of the paraphrases one can use are:-
As I gather, you want to tell.....
Did you mean that.....
So you mean to say.....
Inviting further explanations :
In a situation where we haven't heard or understood any particular topic enough yet to respond with empathy and understanding, we must prompt the speaker to give more information. Some formal phrases that can be used are:
Can you throw more light on.....
What happened after this.....
How did you react when.....
You can ask questions but avoid asking too many questions as this may interrupt the speaker badly. Asking questions too often may also lead speakers to suspect that rather than seeking information, one is interrogating or challenging them.
Responding non-verbally :
Listeners can adapt active interest by adopting certain postures and sending non-verbal signals that reflect their interest in the communication.
One should maintain regular eye contact without staring the speaker.
One's body should lean slightly towards the speaker.
One should use head nods to show that one is hearing and understanding the speaker.
We'll be talking about non-verbal responding briefly in the upcoming posts. Till then, stay tuned ❣️
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