HOW
TO LISTEN EFFECTIVELY SLIDES
INTRODUCTION
Many people think
listening is easy. Perhaps this is true
because you have confused the physical act of hearing, with the more complex
process of listening.
Although many have
spent a lifetime hearing people speak, few have learned the skill of
listening. It is not a passive, but an
active skill that must be learned and practiced.
In addition, you must
have purpose a goal beforehand, just as in any communication task.
You hear with your
ears, but listening involves your intellectual, psychological and physical
powers.
Managers spend about 40 percent of their workday listening , but a
Listening errors and inefficient techniques cause
workplace injuries, management/subordinate disagreements, employee problems,
mistakes in filling customers’ requests and even cancellations of contracts.
EFFECTIVE LISTENING & BARRIERS
Because the effective listener works to receive
complete information, he saves time since the job is done correctly the first
time; helps to see if people understand information or not because questions
and comments are encouraged; and, creates a cooperative and productive work
environment because workers’ ideas and problems are listened to fully and
correctly.
These benefits are so important that major
multinational corporation such as General Motors, AT&T and others have
invested million of dollars and thousands of hours in listening training for
their managers and employees. In fact,
when I consulted for AT&T and Duracell Battery in the late 1980s,
attendance at the listening seminars was mandatory for managers and their
assistants.
In these seminars, it was shown that effective
listeners need to overcome several external and internal
barriers to listening.
There are 3 major
categories of barriers:
1) Physical
2) Emotional
3) Psychological
1) Physical. External barriers at the office may be the
noise from computers, telephones, talking employees, street traffic or other
physical distractions such as a boring speaker or an uncomfortable room that
prevent you from listening properly.
2) Emotional. Examples of internal barriers are poor
health, empty stomach, and tiredness which prevent the
person from concentrating fully on what is being said.
3) Psychological. This category includes biases, cultural
differences, lack of interest or motivation to
concentrate, along with boredom.
In
this category, the most damaging internal factor is our own brain. Scientific research shows that we can think
about four times faster than we can speak, which adds up to about 125 spoken
words to every 500 we think. [see # 9 below]
125 spoken words to every
500 we can think
So, as our brain becomes bored with the slowness of
the spoken word, it is easy to understand why our minds wander to other
subjects during a conversation, speech or lecture.
9 TACTICS TO MORE EFFECTIVE LISTENING
These problems are complex, but don’t despair. You can learn to modify your approach to
listening and become more effective by practicing the following nine tactics.
1) Listening
for things you can use.
You
always can learn something from what is being said. Ask yourself:
“What
can I use?” “What is important for
me?” Then, identify the main
and supporting points.
Finally summarize the entire message.
2) Judge
the message, not the messenger.
His
physical appearance, nationality or accent should not influence your opinion.
This
is easier said than done, but you must try your best.
3) Listen
for the feelings behind the facts.
Listen for the emotional
content of his message. Sometimes the way
he says something means more than the words he uses.
4) Wait
until the speaker finishes.
Do
not formulate or “pre-plan” your response, especially when you feel you
disagree. Listen completely, or you may miss the full
meaning as you think about your great response.
You may also find the speaker saying to you “That’s what I
just
said! Weren’t you listening to me?”
5) Resist
Psychological Barriers.
Avoid wandering and
letting daydreaming, as you have not filtered out from your mind the problems in
tips 2 and 4 above.
3 Barriers to Listening
Preplanning
– thinking of your response while the
other person is
talking.
Wandering – when you hear a word and
that makes
your mind “wander”
to the memory or event related
to that word. This is usually involuntary.
Daydreaming – This is voluntary. For some reason,
you do not want to
listen so you “dream” about another
subject or event
without sleeping.
6) Resist
physical distractions.
Sounds,
people and office environment can disrupt listening. Find quiet area.
Pick a free, relaxed time
so you can concentrate on the message.
Avoid trying to listening to someone in your office while you
talk on the telephone or you are being
interrupted by other people.
You will not be able to listen – we can only do one
thing at a time properly and fully.
7) Take
notes and ask questions.
Take
written notes, if possible, but do not write every word of the speaker. Instead,
outline. Later,
summarize and fill in details. Asking appropriate
questions helps to
fully understand instructions, new information or complex,
technical ideas.
8) Exercise
your mind.
Concentrate on the main
points, then summarize them. Try to visualize or imagine the situation in
your mind. Connect the message with a
related, personal experience and you will remember the information better and
longer. Although difficult at first,
these will become easier after time.
9) Be
Aware, to Avoid
People
can think up to four times faster than the average person speaks. So, the
effective listener should BE AWARE that his mind can work
against his effective listening.
If you are
aware of this fact, then
you can avoid pre-planning, wandering and daydreaming.