Have you ever wondered that why we have two ears and only
one mouth? Mr. Mark Twain once replied to this. He said – “This is because God
knew that listening was twice as hard as talking!” Today active listening holds
a great importance across all levels of hierarchy in every organization. Often
poor listening leads to terrible situations of conflict in an office. Developing
good listening skills is one of the most important skill development aspects that organizations intend their employees
to imbibe and practice.
Significance of Active Listening
Active listening enables a person to clearly understand and
connect properly with another person. This greatly assists in gaining him the
trust and the confidence of the person who is speaking. Take the case of a
patient talking to his doctor. Unless the doctor hears out the problems faced
by his patient, he will not be able to diagnose the problem and accordingly
prescribe the appropriate medicines. A wrong diagnose can cause even a fatality
and raise doubts on the credibility and professional skills of the doctor!
Categories of Listening
Ability to ‘filter’ vital information, ability to focus and
enthusiasm levels of the listener are the factors that broadly decide the
categories of listening. These are:
a)
Hearing –
Means hearing sounds without focusing on anything else
b)
Simple listening –
This mainly represents only the physical presence of a listener
c)
Active listening – The
best situation where the listener is aptly present both physically and mentally
Barriers to active listening
Even if one decides to practice active listening, some
natural and self-imposed barriers emerge to spoil the party.
a)
Forcing others to listen first and speak later
b)
Listening to multiple people simultaneously
c)
Not updated with previous conversations
d)
Rapid/Slow flow of communication from the
speaker
e)
Distractions like nearby conversations, running
TV or radio etc.
M/s Global Academy of Consulting & Training conducts
specific and need-based skill development training programs for individual professionals and
organizations. The module-based training program on “Business Communication”
covers such important facets of listening skills. For more information on this
and other training programs, simply log onto http://globalact.in or
write to info@vivkbindra.com.
