Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Importance of effective listening
Importance of effective listening
The importance or improvement of listening skills
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Importance of effective listening
Effective Listening
The ability to listen well is an important tool for understanding others. Sadly, very few people know how to listen well. In fact, most people can think of only one or two good listeners in their lives. Listening is not simply agreeing - it is much more. Good listeners are able to better understand and respond to others, complete assignments accurately, settle disagreements before they escalate, and establish rapport with difficult people.
Listening is often confused with hearing. This serious misconception can lead us to believe that good listening is instinctive. In fact, good listening is an active, sophisticated process – a learned behavior – that demands focus and attention. Listening takes place on several levels. We often move from one level to the other throughout the day, sometimes even within a single conversation. Our listening level often depends on the situation. Some of us listen to our boss but not to our team members. Others listen well at work but tune out their spouse or kids at home.
The Three Levels of Listening
Deep Listening
We all need to strive to be good listeners. Deep listeners are able to free themselves of any distractions. Including their own thoughts and feelings. They listen to the talker without judgement and place themselves in the talkers shoes. They notice the words and the feelings behind the words, what is not said and they acknowledge and
respond respectfully. This level of listening is heart centered, which opens the door to respect and understanding.
Content Listeners
Most people think content listening is real listening. Content listeners listen to words of a communication but ignore all the other elements of the message. They often liste...
... middle of paper ...
...tiating an appropriate response and getting to the heart of the issue under discussion.
Conclusion
In conclusion, reflecting content refers to clarifying the main idea of the message and the details that support it. Reflecting feeling refers to verifying the emotions surrounding the message. Emotions are difficult to identify because they are abstract. Talkers don't always come right out and say how they are feeling. Sometimes a listener must go beyond the content and dig deeper for the meaning of a message. The listener needs to take a more active role, checking for verbal and non-verbal cues that indicate feelings and emotions.
References
Netsyndicate, Inc. (1999) Are you really listening? available at http://www.click2learn.com/lessons/netsyndicate/listen/sections/index.html
Pearson, J., & Nelson, P. (1997). An introduction to human communication
Listening is an important skill that many people take for granted. Listening empathelicay means putting oneself in “someone else’s shoes”. Listening only to get information takes away much of what the speaker is saying, by being able to empathize with someone one is on the same wavelength. In this world, there exist many different cultures and subcultures.
Graham .D. Bodie and Villaume. (2013) cited in Keaton SA. Listening Goals and Communication. Interpersonal Communication Consultant .pg. 86. Web. Accessed in May 2014
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.
(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).
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 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 a passive capacity or only digesting and processing bits and pieces of the speaker’s message. This type of listening lends itself to frequent miscommunication, mixed messages and overall misunderstandings. Effective listening on the other hand provides concise communication, decreases interpersonal conflict and mistakes and also...
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.
There are several counseling skills that are effective when working with addicted clients. One skill is Active listening. Active listening allows the counselor to connect to and reflect attitudes, emotions, and thoughts of his or her clients (Myers and Salt). An example of an active listening skill is paraphrasing. Paraphrasing is described as the verbal response from the counselor which rephrases the main idea of the client’s message. Engagement is another counseling skill that is effective when working with addicted clients and are dire when establishing a positive counseling relationship (Myers and Salt). Facilitation of engagement can be demonstrated through qualities of immediacy, warmth, genuineness, as well as a non-judging attitude,
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...
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.
When you use effective listening while receiving information from your superiors, you will retrieve the main point of any thought given to you. You will also be able to ask tactful,
Last, I am determined to become a more patient listener in all areas of my life. A lot of times I fall victim to not letting people who are close to me fully state their opinions without me cutting them off and putting in my two-sense. I need to allow the speaker to finish their thought and process everything that is said and then politely respond to them. It is definitely easy to interrupt and state my case, but I am focused on training myself to concentrate and be respectful and listen. Whether this is geared towards something I am passionate about at my company or a story my mother is telling, I need to put myself in the speaker’s shoes.
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.
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.
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...