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Importance of effective listening
Importance of effective listening
Principles of interpersonal communication
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The Importance of Listening for Professional and Personal Relationships
Listening is essential for communication, yet is a skill in which most are lacking. Though we are listening constantly, knowing what to listen to requires an enormous amount of discipline and practice, which is vital for communicating effectively. Learning to listen will benefit all relationships from professional to personal and not being able to listen effectively can cause these relationships to deteriorate. “Indeed, although aware of the instrumentality of listening, even trained communicators often fail to listen correctly or at opportune times” (Cline, 2013). In order for all of areas of communication in an individual to flourish, listening must be emphasized.
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“Mindless listening occurs when we react to messages automatically and routinely without much mental investment” (Adler & Proctor, 2011, p. 237). Both of these ways of processing information require cognitive reaction. Out of the two, mindless listening is used in most situations. When someone asks what the weather is like outside, someone can quickly respond with “cloudy” or “sunny”. While this is referred to as mindless listening, it is still listening and requires mental feedback. If that person didn’t hear someone ask what the weather was like outside, they would only be hearing and it would not elicit a response from them. “Mindless listening allows for quick reactions and very little consideration of what the speaker is saying” (Cline, …show more content…
(2014) used the Listening Styles Profile-Revised (LSP-R). This scale was revised by Bodie, Worthington, and Gearhart in 2013 and is “…based on four factors: relational, analytical, task-oriented, and critical listening”. Relational listeners (RL) are responsive and considerate of others’ feelings. “RL captures listening as a way to establish and maintain interpersonal relationships” (Gearhart et al., 2014). Analytical listening (AL) is used to gather all of the information from the message being received before coming to a judgment (Gearhart et al., 2014). The next style is task-oriented listening (TOL) and it is comparable to the time-oriented listening style from the LSP-16. While this style is also concerned with listening to wordy messages and just getting to the point, “the revised conceptualization of listeners of this type reflects concern with the amount of time spent in an interaction, as well as a listener's desire for a speaker to stay focused and on-topic” (Gearhart et al., 2014). The last style, critical listening (CL), is actually a combination of the action and content styles of the LSP-16. This style “…refers to a tendency to focus attention on the accuracy and consistency of a speaker's message” (Gearhart et al., 2014). CLs tend to pay attention for inaccuracies and conflicting statements while listening to
They were talking to me about some drama happening in their life, and asked me a question about what I thought. I then said without thinking, “sorry, what was that?” Then, after they repeated the question and I was still focusing on my homework, I asked them to repeat it again. They became frustrated with me as I wasn’t listening, and I turned away from my homework and wholly devoted myself to the conversation. As I wasn’t very invested in the conversation, I wasn’t listening to my friend very intently thereby “mindlessly listening.” However, having been on the other end of this, I realize how hurtful it can be to be talking to someone and not have them be fully listening to what you have to say. Due to this, I would say mindful listening is a very good thing, and that there is no downside to mindful listening other than you can’t multitask when doing it. Mindful listening requires full attention and removes the hurt and ignorance of mindless listening. Additionally, in professions when mindful listening can save lives such as medicine or in the military, it is very important to be paying full attention to the matter at
Secondly, committed listener- the listener should be focus on the speaker and actually listen to the requester (Potts 2012). Chalmers Brothers (2012) says that “A committed listener has solid eye contact, paying attention… and is not texting, on the phone, watching TV, eating pizza or filling out forms as he/she is listening to you”.
“In our communication-orientated age, listening is more important than ever. This is why, in most companies, effective listeners hold higher positions and are promoted more often than ineffective listeners” (Lucas 48.) Listening is one, if not the most vital and valuable tool that we can utilize. Being a proficient listener is not only beneficial as a student, but also as an individual in the business place and even in personal relations. In this day in age, the lack of mental presence within the activity that we are physically present for is almost accepted as normal. The fact that the mind wanders is unfortunately proven by data collected in a week long listening study. This listening study took place at a university, with a
A vital aspect of interpersonal communication is the style in which one listens. While every individual possesses their own preferred method of listening in communication, it can be enlightening to analyze our own strengths and weaknesses so as to maximize effectual communication. Within the confines of four main listening style categories, I have chosen those which best describe my own personal listening style.
Listening is one of the most important interpersonal skill and it plays main role in business sphere. In a business world the effective communication is an important key and without the ability to listen effectively misunderstanding can occur. The ability to listen can help you to make right and meaningfulness decisions. Listening skills impact a company’s interaction with customers and businesses.
This project offered me a unique experience in the application of my prior active listening skills. While recording for the three scenarios, I noticed that my internal monologue served as the biggest barrier, whether my role being an observer, sender, or receiver in the model. Frequently, such monologue is merely my presumption of others’ response in the conversation. For example, when John expressed his indifference in the discussion topic through body language in the first scenario, my internal monologue flew rampantly as I imagined all the techniques he might employ in the attempt to terminate the conversation. As discussed in lecture, internal monologue is a communication blockade. Not only does it justify selective listening and presumed stereotypes of the speakers or the message communicated, but also interfere with decoding of the message. In order to combat such barrier, I found it helpful to engage in meditation and yoga at least weekly, as both of the practices reinforced the ability to clarify thoughts and strengthened mind control by establishing inner peace.
Stephen R. Covey—an American educator, author, businessman, and keynote speaker—mentioned that before anyone want to effectively interact with other people, they must first listen with the intend to understand the speaker, both intellectually and emotionally. This is listed as his habit 5. Yet, “you’ve spent years of your life learning how to read and write, years learning how to speak. But what about listening?” [covey] This is no easy task. It can take up to an entire life time of a human being to master this skill as most people nowadays mainly think about themselves or look at everything only with their own perspective. I am also belong to this group of people. To be honest, this is my worst habit among all seven habits that Dr. Covey pointed out in his book. However, this paper includes the plans that I have for the next 30 days in order to change this habit and become more effective
We listen effectively through these six steps: hearing, understanding, remembering, interpreting, evaluating, and responding. There are four styles of listening in which everyone has adopted at least one or more of these styles. These styles are the people-oriented style, action-oriented style, content-oriented style, and time-oriented style. The ability to listen effectively by using one of these styles is the key to effective communication. Messages are easily misunderstood if there is a lack of effective listening, especially when communicating with someone of another cultural background.
Listening can be difficult or challenging no matter who or what situation you may encounter. In this refection I have utilized the four styles of listening that people use when listening, depending on their preferences and purpose, as originated by Baker, L.L. (1971). Listening Behavior. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall Watson, K.W. and Baker, L.L. (1995). Listening Styles
Active listening is a form of communication skill that allows people to understand, comprehend, and have compassion for each other. To be a good listener, one must “actively process information, make pertinent comments, and ask relevant questions” (Brent and Anderson 123). The person must make a conscious effort to hear not only the words that another person is saying but, more importantly, try to understand the complete message being sent. One must be engaged in the conversation, avoiding listening barriers such as premature judgment, biases and prejudices, physical and mental distractions, and lack of appropriate focus. This allows for improved relationships, problem resolution, increased cooperation, and intimacy building.
As a professional in today’s society, it is greatly important to be able to communicate effectively with other professionals, with clients, and with those that are encountered in daily living. In order to communicate in a proper manner, not only is talking and non-verbal communication, but a large aspect is the ability to listen. Listening is a vital task in order to build a relationship and find meaning in someone else’s words. In order to find this meaning one must follow the characteristics of active listening, face the challenges to listening, and reflect upon one’s own listening skills.
One of the main aspects in communicating is listening. An effective listener is one who, not only comprehends how the speaker feels but, also understands what they are stating. Building a strong connection between the speaker and the listener is one of the first steps to become a good listener. By building this connection speakers should first be in an environment with open minded listeners, it makes them feel more comfortable to state their opinions, feelings and ideas. Listeners should avoid being judgmental. The individual does not have to agree with the ideas, values or opinions of the speaker; however, to fully understand them, one must put aside their criticism. Speakers will believe that they can trust the listeners with their information when they know that they will not be judged. Miscommunication happens frequently, listene...
What should theories of listening look like, what sort of terms ought they contain, and what are the specific components of good listening theory?
Additionally, listening is predominantly used in communication that requires concentration from both speaker and listener, obtaining meaning from the sound that is heard and reacting to it. People should be willing to put in the constant effort needed to become a truly effective listener. Thus, it is essential to develop effective listening styles which consist of emphatic and objective listening, non-judgemental and critical listening, surface and depth listening, and active and passive listening. Firstly, in order to listen effectively, a person should learn what the emphatic and objective listening is. Apparently, this style of learning refers to the extent to which a person or listener pays attention to what the speaker is feeling.
Listening is an active process that entails construction of meaning beyond simple decoding. The activation of what is known about the world clearly assists processing the aural and perceptual codes (Hayati, 2009). Therefore, having a high ability in listening comprehension skill has always been one of the main concerns of not only E...