Listening or effective listening-Meaning, Difference Between hearing and listening,Effective Listening Skills,Characteristics of a Good and Effective Listener,Types of Listening,Barriers to Effective Listening
Meaning of Listening or effective listening-
Listening is a significant part of the communication process. Communication cannot take place until and unless a message is heard and retained thoroughly and positively by the receivers/ listeners. Listening is a dynamic process. Listening means attentiveness and interest perceptible in the posture as well as expressions. Listening implies decoding (i.e., translating the symbols into meaning) and interpreting the messages correctly in communication process.
Listening differs from hearing in sense that:
1. Hearing implies just perceiving the sounds while listening means listening with under standing whatever you are listening. Both the body as well as mind is involved in the listening process.
2. Listening is an active process while hearing is a passive activity.
3. Hearing is an effortless activity while listening is an act requiring conscious efforts, concentration and interest. Listening involves both physical and psychological efforts.
Effective listening requires both deliberate efforts and a keen mind. Effective listeners appreciate flow of new ideas and information. Organizations that follow the principles of effective listening are always informed timely, updated with the changes and implementations, and are always out of crisis situation. Effective listening promotes organizational relationships, encourages product delivery and innovation, as well as helps organization to deal with the diversity in employees and customers it serves.
To improve your communication skills, you must learn to listen effectively. Effective listening gives you an advantage and makes you more impressive when you speak. It also boosts your performance.
Effective Listening Skills
1. Discover your field of interest.
2. Grasp and understand the matter/content.
3. Remain calm. Do not lose your temper. Anger hampers and inhibits communication. Angry people jam their minds to the words of others.
4. Be open to accept new ideas and information.
5. Jot down and take a note of important points.
6. Work upon listening. Analyze and evaluate the speech of others in spare time.
7. Rephrase and summarize the speaker's ideas.
8. Keep on asking questions. This demonstrates how well you understand the speaker's and also that you are listening
9. Avoid distractions.
10. "Step into the shoes of others". i.e., put yourself in the position of the speaker and serve things from his view point. This will help creating an atmosphere of mutual understanding and improve the exchange of ideas in communication process.
Characteristics of a Good and Effective Listener
(i) Be attentive- A good listener must pay attention to the key points. He should be alert. He should avoid any kind of distraction.
(ii) Do not assume- A good listener does not ignore the information he considers is unnecessary. He should always summarize the speaker's ideas so that there is no misunderstanding of the thoughts of the speaker. He avoids premature judgements about the speaker's message.
(iii) Listen for feelings and facts- A good listener deliberately listens for the feelings of the speaker. He concentrates totally on the facts. He evaluates the facts objectively. His listening is sympathetic, active and alert. He keenly observes the gestures, facial expression and body language of the speaker. In short, a good listener should be projective (i.e. one who tries to understand the views of the speaker) and empathic (i.e. one who concentrates not only on the surface meaning of the message but tries to probe the feelings and emotions of the speaker).
(iv) Be kind and generous- A good listener makes deliberate efforts to give a chance to other speakers also to express their thoughts and views. He tries to learn from every speaker. He evaluates the speaker's ideas in spare time. He focuses on the content of the speaker's message and not on the speaker's personality and looks.
(v) Grab the Opportunities- A good listener tries to take benefit from the opportunities arising. He asks "What's in it for me?"
To conclude, effective listening enhances the communication quality. It makes all attentive. It encourages optimistic attitude, healthy relations and more participation. It leads to better decision-making in an organization. Effective listening is directly related to our ability to do team work. It must be noted that "We listen at about an efficiency rate of 25 percent maximum, and we remember only about 50 percent of what is delivered during a ten minute speech/lecture/ communication."
Types of Listening
There are three main types of listening.
1. Active Listening
The listener gives verbal or non-verbal feedback by asking questions and/or by paraphrasing what the speaker said. In this situation, the listener uses his other senses to go beyond the words spoken. Hearing alone does not provide enough information. It is about understanding the speaker's point of view without necessarily agreeing with it. Active listening is the most civil type of listening because you must acknowledge emotions and feelings.
Active listening is used to ensure a mutual understanding. In fact, in a conversation, the interlocutor is rarely fully committed. It is very common for the listener to be distracted by preoccupations, noise and other distractions. Overall, the interlocutor is only providing his full attention 50% of the time.
This type of listening is the most valuable during a conflict. When a conflict occurs, we concentrate on our arguments and how we will respond instead of listening to the speaker. This means that we are unable to effectively comprehend the speaker's message. Active listening doesn't mean we have to agree with the speaker, simply understand what they are trying to convey.
A good way to see if you have understood the speaker's words is to paraphrase. This way. misunderstandings can be detected and solved quickly.
2. Critical Listening
Critical listening is also known as evaluative, judgmental or interpretive listening.
The main goal of this type of listening is to evaluate the message with logic while analyzing the different arguments provided by the speaker. It requires some analysis, judgment and critical thinking. It is necessary in order to be able to criticize the strength of the evidence and to determine the motive of the speaker. However, critical listening is not an easy task to accomplish because it is needed to absorb and evaluate the information together.
When applying critical listening, the key point is to first of all understand the speaker before evaluating. Questioning oneself about the credibility, the validity and the strength of the evidence is vital. Some other questions such as: "Is this speaker biased? Is he a trusted expert in his domain of expertise?" can help separate the facts from the personal opinions of the speaker.
In this situation, it is important to be open-minded because it is important to stay objective.
3. Content listening
This type of listening involves understanding and retaining the information provided by the speaker. It also requires to identify the key points of the message and to find cues by doing a summary of it. Moreover, it is important to understand different sounds and tones provided by the speaker. However, some other factors need to be taken under consideration such as phonology, vocabulary, grammar, general discourse, and informational discourse.
To effectively apply content listening, it is needed once again to identify the main idea or the key points of the message. Then, the next thing to do is to ask questions for clarifications if the message was misunderstood. This will increase the level of understanding of the message transmitted.
Barriers to Effective Listening
(i) Focusing on a personal agenda- When we spend our listening time formulating our next response, we cannot be fully attentive to what the speaker is saying.
(ii) Experiencing information overload- Too much stimulation or information can make it very difficult to listen with full attention. Try to focus on the relevant information, and the central points that are being conveyed.
(iii) Criticizing the speaker- Do not be distracted by critical evaluations of the speaker. Focus on what they are saying the message rather than the messenger.
(iv) Getting distracted by emotional noise- We react emotionally to certain words, concepts and ideas, and to a myriad of other cues from speakers (appearance, non-verbal cues). Make a conscious effort to quiet your own emotional reactions so that you can listen properly.
(v) Getting distracted by external "noise"- Audible noise may be extremely distracting. Some things can be minimized-e.g., turn down the ringer on your phone, and the e-mail beep on the computer while meeting someone. Other noises may be unavoidable-e.g.. construction, other people. Also, there may be figurative "noise" from the external environment, such as distracting or inappropriate decor in a room, or environmental conditions such as the room being too hot or cold.
(vi) Experiencing physical difficulty- Feeling physically unwell, or experiencing pain can make it very difficult to listen effectively. You may wish to communicate that this is not a good time, and reschedule the discussion. Otherwise, you may just need to concentrate even more on the task of listening
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