Listening is a skill that requires active, rather than passive, participation to advance shared understanding and minimise misinterpretation. Active listening strategies such as analysing and displaying non-verbal body language, clarifying meaning and accuracy, expressing understanding for the speaker’s feelings through empathy and moments of silence contribute to effective communication. These methods encourage the speaker to convey his or her thoughts and minimises misinterpretation between sender and receiver. In order to discuss this topic it is necessary to determine the definition of the terms effective communication and active listening. Effective communication occurs when there is a shared understanding between sender and receiver (Eunson 2008: 9). Active listening is a listening skill that ‘focuses on ... clues, ie, utterances and/or behaviours that are not explicit but may have special meaning and suggest unshared ideas, concerns, and expectations’ (Lang et al 2000: 222). Active listening is as much a visual activity as it is an auditory activity. Non-verbal body language such as eye contact and body positioning allows the listener to fully understand the point that the speaker is communicating while, for the listener, displaying positive messages through these channels lets the speaker know that there is interest and full attention is being given to what is being said. Simon Armson illustrated this point when he said ‘If you listen to everything that you hear, not just the words, but what’s going on around them, you get a much richer picture’ (cited in Theobald & Cooper 2004: 103). Non-verbal signals such as eye contact, mirroring the speaker’s mannerisms, facing the speaker with an open body posture and n... ... middle of paper ... ...an, DT 2009, The basics of communication: a relational perspective, Sage Publications, Canada. Eunson, B 2008, Communicating in the 21st century, 2nd edn, Wiley, Milton. Rogers, CR & Farson, RE 1987, ‘Active listening’, Global Effectiveness Training, viewed 25 March 2011, < http://www.go-get.org/pdf/Rogers_Farson.pdf>. Theobald, T & Cooper, CL 2004, Shut up and listen!: the truth about how to communicate at work, Kogan Page, London ; Sterling, VA. West, R & Turner, L 2009, Understanding interpersonal communication: making choices in changing times, 2nd edn, Wadsworth Cengage Learning, Boston. Lang, F, Floyd, MR & Beine, KL 2000, ‘Clues to patients’ explanations and concerns about their illnesses: a call for active listening’, Archives of Family Medicine, vol. 9, March 2000, pp. 222 – 227, viewed 27 March 2011, .
Listening and responding to others has a major role to play in good communication and as such, satisfy their own purposes in life. People communicate with each other for getting information across, for learning and evaluating purposes, for listening and observation purposes or for mere enjoyment or recreation. However, it is a well known fact, that no two people listen, communicate or respond in the same way, and we know that it is true because research in the field has proved that it is so. According to
The Importance of Listening for Professional and Personal Relationships Listening is essential for communication, yet is a skill in which most are lacking. Though we are listening constantly, knowing what to listen to requires an enormous amount of discipline and practice, which is vital for communicating effectively. Learning to listen will benefit all relationships from professional to personal and not being able to listen effectively can cause these relationships to deteriorate. “Indeed, although aware of the instrumentality of listening, even trained communicators often fail to listen correctly or at opportune times” (Cline, 2013). In order for all of areas of communication in an individual to flourish, listening must be emphasized.
For example, James Van Fleet sheds light on the most effective strategies you can take and use in every one of your relationships with every communication and moment of interaction with others. For example, one of the huge components of good communication is active listening. Though "listening" by itself may seem mundane, Van Fleet presents real-life examples of how this works. One of the benefits of Conversation Power is the fact that you can listen to this audiobook repeatedly for different occasions.
Most times listening can be taken for granted and be confused with hearing. People are so focused on getting their message across that they forget to stop and pay attention to what others are saying. Another important part of how we communicate is the verbal and non-verbal elements of a message. Verbal communication is everything we say; nonverbal communication includes everything else. The way you stand, your facial expressions, and even the clothes you wear can add meaning to what you are saying. The phrase “actions speak louder than words” summarizes the importance of nonverbal communication. Imagine being in a room full of people where no one is talking. Chances are you can tell who is anxious, who is sleepy and even who is relaxed. Someone is able to know all this because of all the nonverbal signals taking place around you. Every day people are surrounded by situations in which they have to interpret a message based on what they see and hear. As a customer, as well as an employee, you can come across circumstances in which your listening skills and your ability to read gestures can lead to either successful or very frustrating
Communication and active listening are the key components which can help patients to feel more deeply seen and understood. When we integrate a holistic approach other than just medical, it helps the patient reduce stress, produces better
A vital aspect of interpersonal communication is the style in which one listens. While every individual possesses their own preferred method of listening in communication, it can be enlightening to analyze our own strengths and weaknesses so as to maximize effectual communication. Within the confines of four main listening style categories, I have chosen those which best describe my own personal listening style.
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.
Bienvenu, S. & Timm, P. R. (2002). Business Communication, Developing Strategy and Skills. Prentice Hall.
Listen up! Are you really listening? What is Listening and why is it important? This paper will address the viewpoint of listening skills and its outcome. Listening is an essential tool, which is one of the constructive aspects in the communication process, for communicating with other people. To listen well is a talent that is learned. However, for people to listen effectively, they would need to practice to obtain the skill. ”As with any new skill, learning to listen takes effort, attention, and practice” (Stewart, 2006, p. 202).Listening skills allow people to make sense of and understand what another person is saying. In other words, listening skills allow you to identify with the meaning of what people are talking about.
It involves active listening and reflects the accountability of speaker and listeners. Information is conveyed as words, tone of voice, and body language. According to dimbleby et al(1992) Communication is a learnt activity and is provided by the media which forms a bridge between the sender and the receiver. In the process A speaker transmits a message and must ensure that the message is delivered clearly. A listener takes utterance of the message and must be an active listener and give feedback. Communication is a process that includes linear influencing and transactional views from different dimensional barriers (İşman et al., 2003). One-way communication where the sender cannot get any feedback is the linear view. On the other hand, the influencing others view is the existence of a two-way communication which includes feedback as well as nonverbal communication, but it does not include at the same time sending-receiving feedback th...
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.
communication as addressed in our book, Looking Out, Looking In. I strongly suggest you take notes on
One of the main aspects in communicating is listening. An effective listener is one who, not only comprehends how the speaker feels but, also understands what they are stating. Building a strong connection between the speaker and the listener is one of the first steps to become a good listener. By building this connection speakers should first be in an environment with open minded listeners, it makes them feel more comfortable to state their opinions, feelings and ideas. Listeners should avoid being judgmental. The individual does not have to agree with the ideas, values or opinions of the speaker; however, to fully understand them, one must put aside their criticism. Speakers will believe that they can trust the listeners with their information when they know that they will not be judged. Miscommunication happens frequently, listene...
To be effective listeners, the listening process should be incorporated into our lives. We should be attentive to what people say, clarify what the speaker is trying to come across, and respond in a way the speaker can understand what we are saying. I think I was aware that I needed some improvement in certain areas of this process but I feel as everything is slowly changing. In the future, I’m going try not to interrupt people, get distracted, tune out, and try to get a bigger picture of what the person is telling me. If good listening habits are applied in our day-to-day life, we can easily communicate with anyone and everyone.