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The importance of communication skills
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Final Paper “Communication is at the very core of our society. That's what makes us human.” (Koum). This quote speaks volumes about how imperative communication is relating to everyday life. Communication, especially the component of listening, occupies a major role in the realm of personal success. Accordingly, without a deep understanding of how crucial listening truly is, life can become exponentially challenging. The ability to comprehend both verbal and nonverbal messages in conversation is fundamental. Unfortunately, this task of awareness has become quite difficult with the integration of technology into the way we communicate. As the process of communication changes, we must adapt in order to maintain the way we interpret and understand differing types of messages received constantly throughout the course of a single day. Listening Listening is the most critical element of communication. As defined in the book, listening is “when the brain reconstructs electrochemical impulses into a …show more content…
As previously stated, listening is a much different than hearing. An example of this includes how, sometimes, I will only hear my mother when she is speaking to me rather than actually listening. This type of communication behavior, in fact, can get me into some trouble. Accordingly, most people feel a level of disrespect when someone does not truly listen in the midst of a conversation. Often times, it can be quite easy to recognize when someone is only hearing the words out of your mouth. Sometimes, it is acceptable to only hear rather than listen. More often than not, however, it can be very dangerous to not fully engage in conversation because it will undoubtedly harm the relationship. Listening is a process much easier said than done because the mere act of listening demands a level of effort and energy not everyone is willing to exert at all
Listening and responding to others has a major role to play in good communication and as such, satisfy their own purposes in life. People communicate with each other for getting information across, for learning and evaluating purposes, for listening and observation purposes or for mere enjoyment or recreation. However, it is a well known fact, that no two people listen, communicate or respond in the same way, and we know that it is true because research in the field has proved that it is so. According to
Interpersonal Communication is the physical transactional process of verbal and nonverbal communication that is ever changing between at least two individuals. In the world of interpersonal communication, each individual remains in a level of competence (how efficiently you are capable to communicate) (Lilic, Popovic and Popovic 681). For example, awkward individuals would be graded lower versus someone who is confident and is able to hold a conversation naturally. The competence of the feedback and feed forward process is affected by “noise” which affects or prevents the message to be sent to the receiver. This includes physical noise, physiological noise, psychological noise and sematic noise. Together with “noise”, the process of communication is also affected by the environment or dimension the communication is taken place. This includes, physical, temporal, social-physiological and cultural dimensions (Devito 2). Due to modern technology, there is prominent increase of these “noises” and dimension has arise to be a bigger problem than before; which is resulting more and more ind...
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.
The ability to listen effectively significantly impacts all relationships, be it professional, personal or social. The prevailing issue with effective listening, however, is two-fold, in not truly understanding the meaning of listening and not possessing the tools required to be an effective listener. The skill of listening, according to Dr. Robert Bolton (1979), extends beyond simply hearing sound as a physiological sensory process but instead requires and involves interpreting and understanding the sensory experience or what is being heard (p 32). It also is an active experience wherein the listener is fully engaged and has absorbed the information of the speaker while showing interest and providing feedback, all while demonstrating that they have heard and understand the message. It is a fair assertion that most people in varying relationships and environments listen in what is considered passive capacity, or only digest and process bits and pieces of the speaker’s message.
As The Gift of Listening describes, “Opening one’s heart and listening at a deep level does not come easily and is rarely achieved simply by life experience” (Browning & Waite, 2010, p. 151) There are different aspects to being a good listener that are often difficult to achieve and lead to poor listening. One significant challenge to listening is the attention needed in order to actively listen to another person. Proper listening does not occur due to a passive process but instead it takes deliberate action and thought towards what a person in saying. Like previously stated, actively listening is achieved by sitting in a comfortable and open way and maintaining good eye contact. When a person does not exhibit these techniques good listening often does not occur. The challenge of utilizing different techniques in order to listen to others in a better way often gets blocked by barriers that make active listening unable to occur. In our society today one major barrier to listening is technology. In a casual setting, proper listening often doesn’t occur due to someone being tied to their cell phone. The millennial generation is often guilty of passively listening to others due to the mobile technology that is being used today. Many conversations occur without eye contact or full focus on what the other has to say and instead is spent staring at a
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...
Those not thoroughly educated in communication tend to confuse the terms “hearing” and “listening.” Although they appear to mean the same thing, utilize the same body part, and are both required for functional communication, there is a great difference between these two actions. Hearing involves the perception of sound using the ears, while listening is based upon giving attention to the sound being perceived. Additionally, because these concepts are different, there are also several different ways of improving hearing and listening. Thus, there are several differences between these two concepts, and it is important to signify these differences in order to practice effective communication.
Thesis statement: Non-verbal communication is as important as what people say; however, if not examined carefully can be misinterpret because of lack of awareness. This lack of knowledgecan cause misunderstandings in everyday life.
In all aspects in life effective listening plays an important role in our lives, both professionally and personally. As many of know from experience listening is never easy in fact it can be difficult to understand what is being said by the speaker. Because of laps in attention we tend to misunderstand some of the messages that are being relayed to us or disregard them altogether. Effective listening is important for receiving the correct feedback from those you’re speaking with and requires a focus that should be central to what is being said or what topic is being discussed.
In our growing, diverse society it’s very important to have diverse communication skills. The reason for this is because it brings richness in our society. Effective communication helps us better understand a person or situation and enables us to resolve differences, build trust and respect, and create environments where creative ideas, problem solving, affection, and caring can flourish (Robinson, Lawrence, and Jeanne Segal). It helps our society flourish. Communication is the process of understanding information through the transmittal of words, actions, hidden messages, signals or thoughts. Communicating in a world of diversity may require more than just a transmittal of words. Communication sometimes require more than one process depending on who you are communicating to. Communicating in a world of diversity has many benefits. Communication is split into two parts which is listening and speaking. Speaking as well as listening goes hand in hand with each other. Speaking and listening is verbal and nonverbal. Listening is one of the most important aspects of effective communication (Robinson, Lawrence, and Jeanne Segal). It’s not always what is being said but rather what is being done. Non-verbal communication is a big part in communication also. Both the talker and listener are participating in non-verbal communication. Non-verbal communication is depicting the body language, body movement, gestures, postures, eye contact, or either one of the five senses. Developing the ability to understand and use nonverbal communication can help you connect with others, express what you really mean, navigate challenging situations, and build better relationships at home and work (Robinson, Lawrence, an...
Listening is one of the most powerful tools of communication and is a process that is used to receive, convey a meaning, and respond to both verbal and nonverbal messages. It is what we choose to do and it requires more work than speaking. Oftentimes, people simply misunderstand the difference between listening and hearing. Hearing is a passive process that takes in sounds and noises and listening is what you choose to do. This selective process includes 5 phases that can be acquired for us to become effective listeners in the future. The 5 phases are attending, understanding, remembering, critically evaluating (listening), and responding. Once the 5 different areas are understood, we will become aware of what needs to change and how we can change them. This will also allow us to improve our listening skills in the workplace, school, at home, etc.
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.
Communication is one of the most important factors in our lives. It dictates the relationships formed with the individuals in personal and professional lives. Effective communication provides a foundation for trust and respect to grow. It also helps better understand a person and the context of the conversation. Individuals often believe that their communication skills are much better than what they actually are. Communication appears effortless; however, much of what two people discuss gets misunderstood, thus leading to conflicts and distress. To communicate effectively, one must understand the emotion behind the information being said. Knowing how to communicate effectively can improve relationships one has at home, work and in social affairs. Understanding communication skills such as; listening, non-verbal communication and managing stress can help better the relationships one has with others.