“Lack of listening skills affects marriages, parents and children, teachers and students, employers and employees, foreign affairs, and the list goes on” ("The Importance of Listening"). This paper will discuss how poor listening skills adversely affect interpersonal relationships. Variable listening skills will be examined through different characteristics, real-life scenarios and the improvements that could be made with tips.
Let’s explore why listening is so critical. “Adam listened to Eve. In that first spoken word message and all since, no communication occurred until there was a listener. It follows, then, that there has become a much-heightened need to listen. We must understand the fundamental relationship involved, we cannot escape it” (Mills 1). The characteristics of good listening skills can be best understood by using the acronym MASTER. The “m” refers to mental. Mental is the ability to slow down and strategically control our ability to listen. “A” refers to active. Being active utilizes constructive listening responses and constant practice can keep this sharp. The “s” refers to sustaining attention. Experienced concentration is crucial for sustaining attention. “T” refers to target. There are four types of potential listening targets; responsive listening, implicative listening, critical listening and nondirective listening. Responsive listening is the agreement between listener and speaker. Implicative listening involves carefully understanding what is implied by hearing what is said. Critical listening is the process of coming to the point of a subject by clearing away all the non-important information. Nondirective listening is fully hearing the speaker out. The “e” refers to eliminating t...
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...e information to a clarifying understanding will quell any doubts that may be present. In order to listen at work, I need to work to listen.
The characteristics, scenarios and useful tips we’ve explored demonstrates why listening is so vital in our everyday lives. Without effective listening, we are depriving ourselves from being involved in meaningful conversations. Communication is key for any healthy relationship and listening is part of that process.
Works Cited
"The Importance of Listening." 123HelpMe.com. 2 Dec 2013
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Nicols, Ralph, and Leonard Stevens. ARE YOU LISTENING?. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1957. Print.
Mills, Ernest. LISTENING: KEY TO COMMUNICATION. New York: Petrocelli, 1974. Print.
Marshall, Lisa. " How to Improve Listening Skills." QuickandDirtyTips.com. N.p., 24 Aug 2012. Web. 2 Dec 2013.
James C. Petersen (2007), author of Why Don’t We Listen Better, offers practical advice on how to communicate effectively and connect with others. In order to help his readers, communicate effectively, Petersen (2007) divides his book into five divisions. Each division builds on the content in the preceding portions. Every segment provides a great amount of information, which will aid people in how they choose to communicate.
Beebe, S.A., Beebe, S. J., Ivy, D. K. (2010). Communication Principles for a Lifetime (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Learning Solutions.
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.
Listening is an important part of education. In order to gain knowledge of a subject, a student must carefully listen to their mentor and
James Petersen’s book, Why don’t we listen better? Communicating and connecting in relationships, outlines the requirement for a continual use of good communication, through a series of actions and steps, by the practice of comprehending, dynamic listening, and actively perceiving. Listening then becomes a creative force that creates a context in which the development of a communicative relationship can foster.
Communication in all relationship can be successful when our listener get the message that we want to convey and it is not so much about what we want to say. Listening is a unique process because it involves psychological and voluntary process that goes beyond simply reacting to sounds. It includes understanding, analyzing, evaluating, and responding. As a human, we will use different listening styles, depending on our preferences and purposes. Listening styles refer to the different ways people listen and analyze the content of a conversation. Usually, these styles either have to do with the way listeners choose to receive the message or with how they analyze the message. Listening is very important because we listen in order to establish and communicate power. There are few types of listening that can be used in order to communicate effectively.
It seems evident that poor listening is becoming more prevalent in our society, but whether it is an epidemic seems yet to be decided. It does not seem that all individuals are infected with this malady, but it does seem that the numbers afflicted are increasing. This wide-ranging prevalence seems due, in part, to faster-paced societal norms in which we find ourselves. The environment seems to dictate that we multi-task at an increasing speed and this interferes with attentive listening. This is particularly true for individuals who have known no lesser technology-filled way of life.
Provide a short response of how the use of each of the elements of active listening assists you to be a more effective support worker. (50 words each) Using active listening assists in being a good support worker as active listening helps our clients feel comfortable each element of active listening plays it own role elements of active listening include being interested, being responsive, keeping on track, testing your understanding, evaluating and being neutral.
Listening and understanding what others communicate to us is the communication process needed for interpersonal effectiveness. If you listen well, you will understand the meaning of the message. If you are unfocused, you will not know most of what the other person is saying. However, there is a range of listening skills that can be learned to develop the communication effectiveness. Firstly, encouraging listening points to the listener that is willing to do more than listen. Usually it provides feedback that supports speakers to say more. Fur...
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.
Overall, listening is something that is crucial to life and is something that I need to improve on.
Paper 1 The purposes of listening include accomplishing tasks and developing relationships. Although this skill is critical, listening is not regularly taught in schools. Therefore, I found that analyzing my listening skills taught me copious amounts about myself that I did not know before. I kept track of my self-talk and inner voice, did a seven-day mental review, took the HURIER listening profile, and assessed how I listened in different social situations and listening contexts and what communication circumstances I experienced the most.
Listening is a big part of communicating well with others. Take time to carefully listen to what others are saying, and also take time to observe their nonverbal communications. A good listener does not interrupt the person while their talking. they make eye contact with the person speaking. they provide the speaker with their full attention, avoid unnecessary distractions, and try to understand the other persons point of view by being empathetic.
Listening Skills&id=179402>. Goldmann, John. " 5 Ways to Improve Your Hearing. " Personal Dream.
To be effective listeners, the listening process should be incorporated into our lives. We should be attentive to what people say, clarify what the speaker is trying to come across, and respond in a way the speaker can understand what we are saying. I think I was aware that I needed some improvement in certain areas of this process but I feel as everything is slowly changing. In the future, I’m going try not to interrupt people, get distracted, tune out, and try to get a bigger picture of what the person is telling me. If good listening habits are applied in our day-to-day life, we can easily communicate with anyone and everyone.