In both our personal and our professional lives, we spend more time listening than we do speaking. Our education and training, however, more often focuses on how to improve our speaking ability than on how to improve our listening skills. Few of us, in fact, ever receive training in listening skills that will contribute to successful communication. Effective listening goes beyond hearing and reacting to sounds. Solid listening skills enable us to purposefully analyze, understand and respond to the verbal messages of other people.
Significance
Of all communication skills, listening is by far one of the most important, if not the most important. Effective communication in personal and professional relationships hinges on the listening skills of those involved. Effective listening skills are crucial in a variety of industries, such as health care and law enforcement, and essential in many other ones as well, from business to education. Stephen Covey, in his seminal book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” identified listening as one of the key practices for effectiveness in relationships and in life.
Function
Listening serves a variety of functions in the communication process, from building relational rapport to aiding in conflict resolution. Listening skills enables two or more communication participants to send, receive and understand spoken messages. Listening skills can help groups of people to plan projects and troubleshoot problems, as well as develop stronger working relationships. Ronald B. Adler and Jeanne Marquardt Elmhorst, in “Communicating at Work,” explain that listening skills broadly contribute to the quality and productivity of organizations.
Types
Three primary types of listening contribute to effective communication between individuals and within groups. Informative listening is the most common type of listening in many professions. This type of listening employs a variety of strategies to ensure accurate understanding of information in a message. Evaluative listening is most often used to understand and to clarify the motives and purposes of a speaker. Supportive listening is employed when a listener seeks to identify and help to meet a specific need of an individual or a group.
Skills
Specific listening skills that enable effective communication include minimizing interruptions, asking helpful questions and practicing positive non-verbal cues. Minimizing interruptions involves choosing a non-distracting communication environment and talking less, while asking helpful questions entails responding with clarifying questions and paraphrasing to ensure understanding. Practicing positive non-verbal cues encompasses making eye contact and using appropriate facial expressions and body language to communicate comprehension or lack of comprehension.
Considerations
Although listening is a natural ability, effective listening is a learned skill, and most people benefit from even moderate coaching in listening. Skills in listening are shaped not only by education and training, however, but also by gender and cultural backgrounds. In fact, marked differences can be observed in styles of listening between men and women as well as between individuals from different cultures. Part of developing more effective listening skills includes learning how to navigate different listening styles.
References
- “Communicating at Work”; Ronald B. Adler, Jeanne Marquardt Elmhorst, 2005
- “Strategic Communication in Business and the Professions”; Dan O’Hair, Gustav W. Friedrich, Lynda Dee Dixon; 2007
- “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”; Stephen R. Covey; 1989
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