Tweet

Improving Listening Skills

Guest post by: Robert Whipple

Article Overview: Reflective listening (also called Active listening) is the best method for people to improve communications. The technique works, but it requires skill and a lot of practice to do it well. This article focuses on this topic and gives a few pointers.

Improving Listening Skills

Most organizations have some sort of survey or feedback mechanism where they request input on employee satisfaction. In the vast majority of cases the issue of communication comes out #1 or #2 on the list of concerns. There is a huge gap between what employees see as adequate communication and what leaders and managers typically provide.

Communication is a broad topic area consisting of numerous methods, but I believe most leaders are pretty good at talking. Where they fall short is listening. Reason: when most people are "listening" what they are actually doing is getting ready to speak. The majority of mental processing power is focused on what the listener is going to say when he or she has a chance to enter into the conversation. A key reason for this is that we can think about three times faster than the other person can form and say words, so there is a lot of free time mentally to focus on our agenda.

The best defense for listening deficiencies is the technique of "active listening" also called "reflective listening." This is where the listener follows a four point process while listening to the other person.

1. Attend the other person by putting down any distracting activities and focusing attention intently on the other person.

2. Follow the conversation and make gestures or grunts that let the person know you are hearing the input.

3. Listen closely enough so you can interject brief comments along the way to confirm you are getting understanding of the true meaning.

4. Do not interrupt the other person until your are convinced the essence of the message has been communicated.

These four steps will ensure you get the bulk of the communication, but they require practice if you are going to perfect this technique. The challenge with active listening is remembering to consciously do it as much as possible until it becomes a habit. One trick I use is to be alert for communication situations where the other person is upset, or in an emotional state. These times are more critical to listen deeply and are a great opportunity to practice your active listening skills.

One precaution on using this technique is to not be too heavy handed with the reflections. If you are clumsy or too obvious with the reflections, it will annoy the speaker, and he or she will terminate the conversation early.

If all managers and leaders used active listening more, then employees would have less dissatisfaction with communication in organizations.

Related Articles
  3 Time Tested Useful Tips For Effective Listening
  Communication Categories - Which one are you
  Are You Hearing What I’m Saying? – 10 Tips That Will Help You Improve Your Listening
  Enhance Your Listening Skills
  LISTENING SKILLS IN COACHING
  Learn the Powers of Effective Communication
  Sales Coaching Tip: Change Your Role to Increase Sales
  3 Ways to Improve Your Listening Skills
  Improve Your Active Listening Skills
  Success Comes When You Are Sold on You - the 3 Step Formula
  Are your listening skills costing you or making you money?
  The Art of Heart-Listening
  Active Listening Produces Sales Success
  The Key to Attracting Clients
  Can You Hear Me Now? Great Executive Coaches Are Not Just Great Talkers They're Great Listeners
  How to Practice your Closing Sales Skills
  My Own Personal Gravity
  The Sales Meeting Objective – Is It Mutually Beneficial?
  Sales Skills For Service Professionals Part 2
  Communication skills and personal development plan

Article Tags: active listening, attending, communication, Listening, reflective listening



Related Forum Posts
Re: Five Personality Traits of Successful Business Owners - 1. Focus 2. Ability to Adapt 3. Hard Work 4. Good planning 5. People Skills
Re: How do I find a direct mail list of potential customers - Hi WhyNot, Is it possible there are websites about the Federal Government. It needs to delve into it to find the key person. Listening for once to the news could pinpoint who is really in charge of this department. I wish you wisdom to connect with the right people. Nothing is too difficult, if you put your mind to it. Maybe some one else has a supportive idea.
Re: How to Get Over Your Fear of Failure, Make Every Second Coun - Hi Evan, I've just been listening to a couple of your MTM videos while packing parcels. I especially enjoyed this one on JKR. Listening to stuff like this while packing orders is one of my better ways of "making every second count!"
Re: Books for Business Owners - Hi DougSchadle, Thanks for sharing your favorite business book with us! A good book I'm reading now is "Maximum Achievement: Strategies and Skills That Will Unlock Your Hidden Powers to Succeed" by Brian Tracy as it was a birthday gift from a friend. Tracy's book is helpful in identifying what's important in your life and then setting an action plan to achieve it.
Ideas on Using Twitter for Business - 1. Build an account and immediate start using Twitter Search to listen for your name, your competitor's names, words that relate to your space. (Listening always comes first.) 2. Add a picture. ( Shel reminds us of this.) We want to see you. 3. Talk to people about THEIR interests, too. I know this doesn't sell more widgets, but it shows us you are human. 4. Point out interesting things in your space, not just about you. 5. Share links to neat things in your community. ( wholefoods does this well). 6. Don't get stuck in the apology loop. Be helpful instead. ( jetblue gives travel tips.) 7. Be wary of always pimping your stuff. Your fans will love it. Others will tune out. 8. Promote your employees outside-of-work stories. ( TheHomeDepot does it well.) 9. Throw in a few humans, like RichardAtDELL, LionelAtDELL, etc. 10. Talk about non-business,


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

10 Golden rules to survive the Global Crisis

Living on The Edge of Chaos...

SEO and the Entrepreneur

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.