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Strengths and weaknesses of a listener
Importance of effective listening
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“The ministry of listening has been committed to them by Him who is Himself the great listener”. This small quote from Dietrich Bonheoffer gives its readers a tantalizing taste of the profound and powerful action that is listening. By identifying listening as a ministry and representing its source as the divine itself, we are able to look past the naïve confusion with hearing and see the far greater connotations of listening as a deeply spiritual and interpersonal act. Seen in this way, listening then is an act that must require deep commitment and presence, as well as openness and patience. It will be the purpose of this essay then, to come to a better understanding of the act of listening, particularly listening within a ministerial context of crisis, aiming to draw out the core themes behind what makes a good listener, and how these skills are seen as beneficial. In order to achieve this, this essay will draw upon material from three interviews of friends and family in which questions of good listening and listening in times of crisis were asked, comparing and contrasting these with current literature on the subject.
What makes a good listener?
For this section of the interviews, I asked the interviewees to outline some of their thoughts as to what made a good listener in general circumstances. In particular, I asked for indicators they have identified that indicate to them whether the listener is really listening, or simply hearing.
Sue I believe a good listener is someone who is attentive to what I am saying, who can see and hear more than just the words. Someone who is… ‘with me’ enough to identify what is happening inside. I can tell whether the person is really present with me through their facial expressi...
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...ication. Auckland: Longman , 1997.
Bolton, Robert. "Listening is More Than Hearing." In Bridges Not Walls: A Book about Interpersonal Communication, edited by John Stewart, 175-192. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1990.
DeVito, Joseph, Susan O'Rourke, and Linda Neil. Human Communication: New Zealand Edition. Auckland: Pearson Education, 2000.
Dinkins, Burrel David. Narrative Pastoral Counselling. Longwood, FL: Xulon Press, 2005.
Mohan, Terry, Helen McGregor, Shirley Saunders, and Ray Archee. Communicating! Theory and Practice. 4th. Sydney: Harcourt Brace, 1992.
Smith, Voncile. "Listening." In A Handbook of Communication Skills, edited by Owen Hargie, 256-265. London: Croom Helm, 1986.
Verderber, Kathleen S., and Rudolph F. Verderber. Inter-Act: Interpersonal Communication Concepts, Skills, and Contexts. 10th. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Beebe, Steven A., Susan J. Beebe, and Mark V. Redmond. "Verbal Messages." Interpersonal Communication: Relating to Others. Boston: Allyn and Bacon/Pearson, 2009. Print.
At the beginning of the semester our class was introduced to a new term, listenability. The level of listenability is at the mercy of the speaker, not of the audience. During our semester, we were taught to harness the listenability keys of strategy, structure, support, and style in order to achieve a high level of listenability. Examples of listenability include when a speaker engages the audience by asking questions, using narratives or stories that people can relate to, and has stimulating visual support and content. These are only a couple of keys used to create a listener centered speech.
Steve A. Beebe, S. J. (2008). Interpersonal Communication. In A. a. Pearson, Interpersonal Communication, Relating To Others- Fifth Edition. Toronto, Ontario: Pearson Education, Inc.
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.
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.
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.
Floyd, Kory. Interpersonal Communication: The Whole Story. 1st ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 140. Print.
Listening is an aspect of communication that vital the building of understanding and of a relationship between individuals. Listening can be an active
The purpose of this paper is not to teach you, or to show you how interpersonal communication is essential to everyday life at home or work. But, I am going to do my best to at least show you how essential communication skills are in all areas of life by using me as the example. My plan is to focus on some of the elements of interpersonal communication that we have been touching on this semester. While reading our Interpersonal Communications Book, three goals kept being highlighted that I personally wanted to accomplish by the end of course. I’m sure that by now have noticed that I keep referring to my topics as goals. The reason why I’m doing so is because I’m still on that learning curve…an ongoing process. If can recall back to all of our assignment in this course they all bring one collective point. That point is that, Interpersonal communication is an essential skill in everything that we do in life.
Verderber, S. K., & Verderber, F. R. (1976). Interact; Interpersonal Communication Skills. California: Wadsworth Publishing Co.
“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.
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.
Communication is essential to human life. Every aspect of our daily lives is affected by our communication with others. It can be different types such as verbal, nonverbal and written communication. It is indeed a complex process filled with countless elements, all of which play an important role. The process of communication between human beings has been studied and analyzed outwardly since the beginning of time. The term itself cannot be defined in only one particular way because communication exists in a certain context and is dependable on the communicator and the audience. Example of describing communication is as “the transmission of information, ideas, attitudes or emotions from one person or group to another (or others) primarily through symbols” and “social interaction through messages” (McQuail, 1993). Furthermore, Watson and Hill describe the process of communication as “one which begins when a message is thought up by a sender, who then encodes the message before transmitting it through a particular channel to a receiver, who in turn decodes the message with a certain effect as an outcome” (Price, 1998).The complexity of the whole process is seen through the use of verbal and nonverbal communication on a daily basis, as well as the ability to interact with other human beings on multiple levels, mentally and emotionally. We begin communicating the moment we come out of the womb and do not stop communicating until death. This essay will try to compare and contrast two different communication contexts- interpersonal and mass communication, by using relevant communication models.
Interaction is a significant part of our daily lives. Oral communication with others is inevitable, and therefore it is crucial for us to acquire the skills to do so correctly. Aside from simply stating words or expressing ideas, oral communication serves various purposes. Oral communication allows an individual to express emotions, ideas, and feelings; it gives people the ability to empower, inspire, and motivate those who listen; and it allows people to share knowledge and traditions, as well as build their self-esteem. Oral communication is also useful in leading us to new discoveries, ideas, cultures, and perspectives (O’Neill). Thus, oral communication serves several different purposes in daily life; yet each of these purposes are connected to an even larger purpose. According to the textbook Communication: Making Connections, “Effective communication is critical to living successfully in today’s soc...
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...