“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... ... middle of paper ... ...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 . 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 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.
Interpersonal listening: is the power to interpret things and to make healthy communication. A person that listens properly can transfer the accurate message to the specified person or to any receiver. If we listen properly we can effectively accomplish our assigned activities. Listening can prevent unnecessary mistakes. That is why people say, before you talk, think twice. If we listen to our family we can avoid some of the problems easily. If we listen to our friends, we canform good relationships. If we can listen to our groups, teams, and communities, we will be good leaders. When someone listens carefully until the speaker finishes, it helps the listener to get the whole message in order to answer any needed questions.There should be no worries of what to say after the speaker finished his /her speech. Sometimes being quiet is preferable. A good listener will make a good judgment.Listening skills also interoperates with verbal and non verbal communications which helps to receive messages sent by other people.
Listening is not something that just happens (that is hearing); listening is an active process in which a conscious decision is made to listen to and understand
Poor listening can lead to misunderstanding and miss important information, deficiency clarification conduct assumption, which following consequence is inefficiency in work, errors and mistakes. In long term, bad listening skill can make significant effects to the business’s profit. Poor listening can also hurt other feeling, which results in bad teamwork and ineffective performance. For example, when the employee does not listen correctly what the customer need, they can make wrong assumptions and giving the guest bad services. The final outcome is the customer would be angry and the company might lose profit. Bad listening skill between staff in a long period of time might cause interpersonal compromised. People usually listen with their own beliefs and a close-mind, while their partner might have different values. People beliefs act as a shield that stops new ideas and fresh evidence from reaching their mind (Monippally 2013, pg. 67). For instance, employees within a hotel can come from all over the world, they have different beliefs and values, but they do not listen with an open-mind and put themselves into other person position. Eventually, there would be no trust between staff and organization cannot operate effectively. When the communication within an organization is ineffectively, it will cause bad effect on the profit and performance of that
Whenever someone hears the word “listening”, they likely think of hearing what other people are saying. However; listening is far more than just hearing what someone is saying. There is a difference between listening and hearing. Hearing is the physiological occurrence when soundwaves hit a human’s eardrum. On the other hand, listening is more complex because the process contains being mindful, receiving the message, selecting and organizing the message, interpreting the message, responding and remembering the message. Mindfulness is giving someone your undivided attention when they are speaking. This is definitely something that I need to improve on, especially when I am talking on the phone. My dad is a truck driver so we mainly communicate through the phone and sometimes
Listening is key to all effective communication, without the ability to listen effectively messages are easily misunderstood – communication breaks down and the sender of the message can easily become frustrated or irritated. If there is one communication skill you should aim to master then listening is it. The Learning skills is very important in business because managers always develope the habit to listern to the needs of the customers, what they need and what they like.
Keys to productive listening are; concentrating on what you hear, body language signifying your focused attention, open minded evaluation, avoiding defensiveness, paraphrasing as a response tool, observing and absorbing the emotional content, and lastly questioning to clarify intended meaning. (Lewis, T.
The interpersonal communication skill of listening is can be defined as the manner of receiving, understanding, remembering, evaluating, and responding to verbal and/or nonverbal messages. (DeVito 2011) The skill of listening is a crucial element in any form of social interaction particularly within the workplace. A five-stage plan has been produced that integrates all the main skills involved within listening. Listening involves many different skills: attention and concentration (1); learning (2); memory (3), critical thinking (4) and lastly, feedback. By implementing these skills in listening you can develop your ability to be a strong listener. (DeVito 2011).
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.
According to listening expert and researcher Dr. Ralph Nichols "The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them”. Listening as Nichols points out is both necessary and an integral aspect of the communication process and is one of the most important skills one can acquire. Although critically important in everyday and professional affairs the specific skill of effectively listening unfortunately is lacking in most people. 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.
Listening is an aspect of communication that vital the building of understanding and of a relationship between individuals. Listening can be an active
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. I also learned that my strengths as a listener are understanding and interpreting. My weaknesses are hearing and remembering. I also observed how well I adjust my hearing to different listening situations. Additionally, I created some listening goals that I would like to accomplish this term.
Learning to listen – Don’t listen passively and wait for your turn to speak, but engage in the listening process. Pay attention to what the person is saying and even repeat the key points in your head.
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.