03 active listening

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Active Listening

Communication Skills & Technical Report Writing


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Active Listening

Listening is an important skill We can define listening as follows

Listening is a process of receiving,interpreting, and reacting to a messagereceived from the speaker.

No communication process is completewithout listening

According to Management guru TomPeters, listening is an essentialmanagement and leadership skill

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Active Listening

Similarly effective listening is extremelyimportant for students, as they spend mostof their time listening to lectures

An Example

In a biology class, the teacher asked the studentsto refer to the book entitled Origin of Speciesby Darwin. One of the students sincerelyrummaged through the library book-shelveslooking for Orange and Peaches, but to his

utter dismay, he just could not find it.

In reality this is an embarrassing situationthat could happen to any of us who do notlisten attentively.

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Active Listening

Several studies have indicated thatBusiness people spend almost 45 per centof their working time in listening

Hearing and listening are not the same People often use these two words

interchangeably.

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Active Listening Hearing is dependent on the ears, and everyone

can hear without deliberate effort

Hearing is merely the vibration of sound waves onthe eardrums followed by the firing of electro-chemical impulses in the brain

On the other hand, listening requires voluntaryattention and then making sense of what is heard

It requires a conscious effort to interpret thesounds, grasp the meanings of the words, andreact to the message

The interpretation of sound signals is a cognitiveact, which completely depends on the knowledgeof the listener and also on his attitude towards the

sender and the message5


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Types of Listening1. Appreciative listening

This is listening for deriving aesthetic pleasure, as wedo when we listen to a comedian, musician, orentertainer

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Empathetic listening

When we listen to a distressed friend who wants tovent his feelings, we provide emotional and moralsupport in the form of empathetic listening.

When psychiatrists listen to their patients, theirlistening is classified as empathetic listening

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Types of Listening

3. Comprehensive listening

This type of listening is needed in the classroom when students have to listen to thelecturer to understand and comprehend themessage.

Similarly, when someone is giving youdirections to find the location of a place,comprehensive listening is required toreceive and interpret the message.

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Types of Listening4. Critical listening

When the purpose is to accept or reject the message or toevaluate it critically, one requires this type of listening.

For example

Listening to a sales person before making a purchase or

listening to politicians making their election campaign speechinvolves critical listening

Similarly, when you read a book with the objective of writing abook review, you use your critical abilities.

Although all these types of listening are important, wemainly involve ourselves comprehensive and criticallistening.

Even as students, you are primarily involved in these two

types of listening during classroom lectures orcommunicating work.

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Traits of a Good Listener

1. Being Non-evaluative

Listeners verbal and nonverbal behavior shouldsuggest the speaker that he is being properlyheard and understood

One should not evaluate the speaker for the ideasand feelings he possesses

Listener behavior should convey the impression tothe speaker that he/she is being accepted withoutmaking any judgment of right or wrong, good orbad, suitable or unsuitable

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Traits of a Good Listener2. Paraphrasing

If one wishes to clarify a point, he/she cansimply paraphrase what the speaker hassaid and enquire from the speaker whetheryou have heard it accurately

Use phrases like the following ones toensure that you have paraphrased theinformation correctly:

As I gather, you want to tell...

So you mean to say that. ..

Oh! your feeling towards.. .

Do you mean that. ..

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Traits of a Good Listener

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Reflecting Implications One should go a bit beyond the contents of

the speaker indicating him your appreciationfor his ideas and where they are leading

You can use phrases like:

I am sure if you did that, you would be in a positionto.. So this might lead to a result which. .

So you are suggesting that we might..

Will that help us to alleviate the problem of. .

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Traits of a Good Listener4. Reflecting Hidden Feelings

Sometimes, you have to go beyond the explicitfeelings and contents of what is being said tounravel the underlying feelings, intentions,beliefs, or values that may be influencing thespeakers words

You try to empathize or identify yourself with thespeaker, to experience what he or she feels

You can express your sentiments by usingphrases such as:

If I were in your place, I would not have handled thesituation so well. That must have been a satisfyingexperience.

If I was in such a situation, I would have sought the helpof seniors.

If that had ha ened to me Id have been ver u set.12


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Traits of a Good Listener5. Inviting Further Contributions

In a situation where you havent heard orunderstood enough yet to respond withempathy and understanding, prompt thespeaker to give you more information

Phrases such as the following can beused:

Can you throw more light on.

It would be great if you can expand more onthis.

that, what happened?

How did you react when.. .13


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Traits of a Good Listener6. Responding Non-verbally

Show as an active listener by adopting certainpostures and sending non-verbal signals whichcommunicate your interest in what the speaker issaying

These include:

regular eye contact (without staring),

body leaning slightly towards the speaker;

head nods and a slightly titled head.

You can also occasionally use some receptive utterances asyes, un-hum, to indicate that you are following what thespeaker is saying.

But be careful not to over do the uh-huhs

Attentive silence is more effective than too manygrunts

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Active Listening VS Passive Listening Listening to various forms of

communication in an unconscious manneris passive Listening

e.g., While at the dining table, we glance at thetelevision while busy eating or talking tosomeone else and some sounds enter our ears.

We have to be alert to fully follow thedialogue and develop the ability to listen toothers patiently and carefully

The responsibility of the listener is to showkeenness in the speaker and speech by hisexpressions, alertness, and by asking

questions about the speech if required.15


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Active Listening VS Passive Listening Exercise can certainly help you to improve

your listening skills:

Concentrate on the theme, supporting ideas, andalso the digression (departure from subject), ifany, in the speech.

write down the gist of what you heard.

A persons body language, or non-verbalcommunication is involuntary and therefore,

more truthful. pay considerable attention to the physical

messages conveyed by a speaker in order toassess the accuracy and sincerity of his speech.

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Dealing with Distractions In the process of developing your active listening skills,

you should train yourself to avoid physical distractionsand concentrate on the message fully

An attractive face in the room, sometimes even thefragrance of perfume, can be the reason for distraction

However, a careful listener has to exercise a greatdeal of mental discipline to remain focused on themessage sent by the speaker.

Often, after a period ofcontinuous listening, peopleget tired and start losing interest in the message.

Many a time, such a problem arises because ofbraintime. On an average, a person speaks around 130150 words per minute but has the capacity to listen to600700 words per minute.17


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Dealing with Distractions Since a listeners capacity to absorb

information is much more than a speakersability to talk, a lot of time is available for thelistener to evaluate the message

Sometimes a listener focuses on themessage in fragments and hence completeattention is lost

Effective listening is only possible if thelistener patiently listens to the completespeech

Listeners require mental preparedness andenergy to concentrate on the speakerswords as well as his non-verbal cues ofcommunication like posture, gesture, eyecontact, facial expressions, etc.

Sometimes noise distracts the attention of18


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Implications of Effective Listening While working in an organization, you will

use your listening skills in a variety ofsituations:

listening to distressed and dissatisfied workers,

listening during telephonic conversations,

listening while taking instructions,

conducting a meeting, and many

Listening patiently to employees enables themanagers to feel the pulse of the organization.

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Implications of Effective Listening Demoralization sets in leading to lowered

productivity. Effective listening is very vital for the success

of an open-door policy.

When employees are encouraged to freelywalk into a managers room and encouragedto speak up, they no longer harbor negativefeelings.

Effective listening will thus improve working

conditions and nurture harmony andcohesion in the organization if bothmanagement and employees listen to eachothers messages patiently.

The morale of the organization as a whole

is thereby boosted, resulting in increasedroductivit .20


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