Ways of improving your listening skills

The process of listening at work (e.g. internal communications, meetings, advocacy etc) it’s essential to accomplish your tasks. Below there are few tips on how to improve your listening skills: 

• Concentrate on what the speaker has to say by avoiding distractions (eg. looking out the window or thinking about how you might accomplish the task at hand).Adopt the attitude “I must hear what the speaker has to say now!” and take notes. If you listen well when needed the notes will fill in the gaps later.
• Don’t involve yourself emotional with what the speaker says. You might not agree with what he says but you can build later strong arguments in your favour.
• Try to be “open minded” to what is been said. If you adopt an offensive attitude from the beginning you will not be able to listen well.
• Ask questions when you don’t understand something. Listening should not be seen as a passive process. Interrupting the speaker might not be the best approach in all the situations but at least the speaker can see that you pay attention to what’s been said. 
• Position yourself at the table closer to the speaker and have direct eye contact with him. If you stay far from the speaker it’s easier to get distracted. 
• Pay attention at the ways in which the message is delivered: tone of voice, body language, words which are repeated, breaks between ideas, etc and take notes.  
   

Related sources:

“Listening to others in meetings” 

“Listening skills”  

“Improve your listening skills”

“Are you really listening? How to improve your ability to listen to others”

“Better listening skills help you pay better attention” 

Listening is the essential phase in the communication process

Effective communication can not be achieved without listening. However – in practical terms- the employees and the employers forget to listen. There are many varied reasons but it’s essential to remember that an interdependent relationship between employers and employees in terms of listening and feed back is essential for success. This relationship should not challenge issues such as power and authority in a company.  There are few common situations where it is obvious that the link – employer –employee is broken.  

Situation 1: I will leave the door open but call me before you come! 

The employer creates the illusion that he/she is accessible to everyone when the reality is different: he wants to have full control of everything and everyone. In the meetings he acts the same- every member of the team can make suggestions but the final decision comes from the boss. In some situations his decisions were taken before the planned meeting.  

Situation 2: I completely agree with you! What were you saying? 

 This is another form of misunderstandings between employer and employee. It usually occurs when there is a lack of understanding and questioning. The employees do not get the message from the boss and the boss assumes that everyone is happy. Some of the causes can be related to lack of interest for the issue, no respect for employer’s opinions, authority etc. In this situation none of the parts listen or they listen what they want to hear.

 Situation 3: Did the boss say something? I did not hear it. 

This is a particular case because it deals with defensive attitudes. The employees do not want to listen and/or accept feedbacks from the employers. Somehow the company still survives because of its size (different departments, different managers etc). In these companies the productivity is misleading. 

Related articles: 

“Listening, the key to employee commitment” (Bennet Simonton) 

« Leadership listens » (Dan Bobinsky) 

“Boss, are you listening? ”(Aparna Karthikeyan)  

“Listen Up: Communication Depends on Learning to Listen “(Marie Wallace)