Listening Understanding the Most Difficult Skill

Understanding Listening SkillsIntroduction

• For decades, there are complaints about people lacking of listening skills.

• Even though listening is the communication skill we use most frequently, it is also the skill in which we’ve had the least training.

Understanding Listening SkillsIntroduction

• Unfortunately, many experts say that a person only remembers a fraction of what is said to them.

• And studies also confirm that most of us are poor and inefficient listeners.

Understanding Listening SkillsBarriers to Effective Listening

• Listening barriers may be:– Psychological:

• the listener's emotions.

– Physical:• noise and visual distraction.

Understanding Listening SkillsBarrier 01 – Low Concentration

• Low concentration can be the result of:– Psychological situation:

• lack of interest in the subject material, stress or personal bias.

– Physical situations: • such as visual distractions,

physical discomfort, inadequate volume.

Understanding Listening SkillsBarrier 02 - Trying too hard

• Listeners need to be able to prioritize the information they receive in order to pick out what is most important.

• Often, the information that the audience needs to know is delivered along with information that is less pertinent or even not relevant at all.

• When listeners give equal weight to everything they hear, it makes it difficult to organize and retain the information they need.

Understanding Listening SkillsBarrier 03 - Jumping ahead

• When listening to a speaker's message, it is common to sometimes overlook aspects of the conversation before all of the information is presented.

• It tends to cause listeners to enter the conversation before the speaker finishes her message and, as a result, form opinions without first obtaining all pertinent information.

Understanding Listening SkillsBarrier 04 - Focusing on style, not substance

• When listening to a speaker, we can get distracted by other elements than the message that has been transmitted.

• A different approach or the style that the speaker communicates can draw the listener's attention away from the real information, affecting his opinion unfairly.

Understanding Listening SkillsBarrier 05 - Cultural Differences

• Cultural differences (including speakers' accents, vocabulary, and misunderstandings) can also obstruct the listening process.

• To avoid this obstruction, listeners should make a point of being aware of potential cultural differences in advance.

Understanding Listening SkillsConclusion

• Don’t expect to become a good listener overnight since it demands time, patience, concentration and hard work.

• This means we need to make a real effort to listen carefully and concentrate more of our mental capacity on the listening act.

• So think of listening as a skill that must be mastered.

• Learn to be where the conversation is, concentrating on every second of it.

• The following are referenced in this presentation:

– Dr. Carol Kinsey Goman http://www.workcabin.ca/articles/hr-articles/why-listening-so-difficult/

– Bob Weinstein http://www.reliableplant.com/Read/25082/Why-listening-is-so-difficult

– Mike Shoultz http://www.digitalsparkmarketing.com/creative-marketing/effective-listening-skills-2/

– Information Listening http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informational_listening

Understanding Listening SkillsOur References

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