lesson 4 active listening - key to effective communication · active listening - key to effective...
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Lesson 4 Active Listening - Key to Effective Communication
Good communication skills
• Expressing yourself plainly and clearly
• Communicating effectively with clients, customers, and vendors
• Communicating well with managers and subordinates
*Written communication skills are also important for a manager
Listening
• Best communicators are often the best listeners (not the best speakers)
• Speaking is half the communication model
– Must listen and understand the other person
• Speaking is the easier side of communication
– Know what you are trying to say
• Listening involves knowing the background of the situation, etc. and understanding
Active listening
• Focus on what is being said
– Then know how to respond
– Able to identify and capture requirements accurately
Active listening techniques
• Look at the speaker
– Make eye contact
– Helps speaker feel at ease
• Invest the time
– Dedicate time to someone else
– Do not take phone calls or other business during this time
– Doing other things makes the other person feel his or her business is unimportant
Active listening techniques
• Show an interest
– Do not look as if you would rather be somewhere else
– Avoid looking at other work, checking watch, etc.
• Other person feels as if he or she is wasting time
– Choose to engage verbally and non-verbally
• Leaning toward other person
• Nodding when appropriate
• Smile when appropriate
Active listening techniques
• Clear your biases
– People tend to make sense of information based on their individual experiences
– May selectively hear parts of a discussion that support their point of view
• Draw the speaker out
– Sometimes speaker does not have good skills or is uncomfortable
– Previous techniques help with speaker’s communication
– Follow-up questions also help understanding
Nonverbal techniques
• Listen!
– Conscious attempt to make time to listen
– Resist urge to voice opinion
• Let other person speak (within reason)
– Do not cut him or her off
– Let other express opinion
– Speaker may become annoyed and lose the thought if interrupted
Nonverbal techniques
• Observe non-verbal expressions
– Majority of information in discussion expressed non-verbally
• Easier to communicate in person than on phone
– Look for non-verbal clues
• Leaning back with arms crossed: disagreeing with you
• Red-eyed: upset
Nonverbal techniques
• Avoid using distracting non-verbal expressions
– Be cognizant of your non-verbal behavior
– Rolling eyes signals disagreement
– Checking watch often signals you wish to be somewhere else
– Yawning shows you are bored or tired
– Playing with objects show you are preoccupied or bored
– Tapping fingers signals impatience or boredom
– Crossing arms shows resistance to other’s opinion
– Placing feet on desk shows disrespect
Verbal techniques
• Encouraging statements
– Show your interest
– Keep other person talking
• Restating and summarization
– Repeat and validate you understood and heard correctly
• Reflecting
– Similar to restating but include other’s feelings
Other tips
• May need to interrupt listening to speak to manager or sponsor
– Keep interruptions to minimum
– Note importance of interruption
– Apologize in advance
• Restate commitments to avoid misunderstanding
• People can learn to be good listeners
– Critical skill for managers
• Employees should feel manager is concerned with them as people as well as their opinions
Summary
• A good communicator needs to be a good listener
• Practice the active listening techniques
• Nonverbal techniques include listening, observing, and avoiding demonstrating poor nonverbal behavior
• Verbal techniques include restating and asking the speaker questions