Effective listening habits

Identifying their poor listening habits and making an effort to change then can help develop their listening skills. If the listeners pay special consideration to the circumstances that seem to offer such behaviour, they can wilfully attempt to alter their habits. Listening at a workplace and college/ university can be different, since at institutions the professors or lecturers repeat important points and is not the same as workplace. The person must know that their job is to listen carefully and understand what is being said in order to work well. In some situations, listening effectively can be done just by putting our portable devices away or turning them off. More the individuals develop awareness about their listening habits, the more likely they are to alter their bad listening habits. Moreover clearing themselves of bad listening habits, individuals can gain positive listening habits.

Following are some of the behaviours or acts that can help one become effective listener:

1.       Paying attention: The individuals, who really want to be good listeners, they should, at times, force themselves to pay attention to the presenters or speakers. Even though when a the speaker does not have an engaging or attention seeking way of speaking or the topic is uninteresting, the listener must put some extra effort to keep up with the issue and keep them from being distracted by other stuff. Try taking on the challenge to yourself and put out the extra effort to listen.

2.       Listening for the entire communication: Look for a meaning and reliability of similarity in both the verbal and non-verbal messages and keep listening to get some ideas, feelings and purpose including the facts as well. Try to understand the main point by listening and analyzing carefully the clues left by the speaker.

3.       Hearing before estimating: Listening to what others without making any early assumptions can to very helpful for effective listening. In such cases, questioning the presenter in a non-accusing way can be helpful. Rather than giving instructions or judging, a listener can determine what the speaker is trying to say or has in mind, which is often different then the assumptions made by the listener. Asking open ended questions can also get the speaker to speak more about it.

4.       Rephrasing what was heard: The listener can paraphrase the words of the speaker and then ask if that was what s/he meant, then many mistakes and misconceptions can be avoided.

 Sources:

(n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2015, from https://www.cjebaltimore.org/sites/default/files/Improving Your Listening Habits.pdf

Poor listening habits to avoid

Most people spend most of the time listening than they spend on any other type of communication. Yet a large percentage of people never listen efficiently. One cause is that they grow with poor listening habit and continue with them all the way through life. Half of the verbal messages heard in the day are totally understood, whereas the other half is not.

Specialists researched that we listen with only 25 percent efficiency, we ignore, forget, alter or misinterpret 75 percent of everything we hear. Poor listening habits may also lead to lack of training. We are inefficient listeners, since we are able to process speech much quicker than others can speak. Most speakers talk to approximately 125- 175 words per minute, listeners can listen to about 450 words per minute. Causing delay, bringing up day dreaming, which decreases listening efficiency.

The following list comprises of some of the most common poor listening habits:

1. Self-styled listening: Often, people who are thinking about something else intentionally try to look like they are listening.  Such gestures may leave the speaker thinking that the listener has heard some significant information or orders presented by the speaker when this is not really true.
2. Interrupting: The thought of even interrupting makes one a bad listener, because they don’t want to wait until the whole point is made clear by the speaker and would forcefully stop the speaker in the middle of a sentence. This also makes disturbs other listeners and is not professional at all.
3.  Listening but not hearing: Occasionally an individual listens only to facts or details or to the way in which they are presented and fails to get the definite importance of the communication.
4. Not paying attention: Listeners may let themselves to be unfocussed or to think of something else.  Furthermore, not wanting to listen frequently contributes to lack of consideration.
5. Feeling protective: The listeners assume that they are aware of the speaker’s objective or the reason why something was told, or for many other causes, they presume to be criticized.
6.  Practising: Some individuals only listen until they want to say something or it is their turn (like in a presentation), then they stop paying attention and start rehearsing what they will say and have other concerns.
7.  Hearing what is predictable: People often think that they heard speakers say what they expected them to speak. Alternately, they decline to hear what they don’t want to hear and end up missing some importation information due to their predictions.

 Sources:

(n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2015, from https://www.cjebaltimore.org/sites/default/files/Improving Your Listening Habits.pdf

A Good Listener

Being a good listener can help you to see the world through other’s point of view. It improves your knowledge and increases your capability of understanding. It also widens your connection with the outer world by helping you expand your communication abilities. Good listening skills can offer you with a deeper level of understanding about somebody’s situation, and helps in understanding which words are best to use at specific situations and which ones to avoid.

Listening is considered as critical employee and management skill which helps one become a well- rounded candidate who can be employed or promoted.

Good listening abilities are essential for professional success, organizational efficiency and satisfaction. Several studies and specialists report that good listeners make good leaders and that they improve more quickly in their organizations. Listening is mainly significant in the workplace because we spend so much time putting effort into it. Workers spend different time listening depending on their post, such as

Type of workers	Communication time spent on listening (%)
Employees	30-45
Officials or Executives	60-70

But the study shows that, a normal person pays attention with only 25 percent efficiency, which means that we are allowing a lot of information that can be important to be missed by not paying attention (According to Huffington post).

A website called Queendom, offers a listening skills test which lets us know how good of a listener we are. It examines us on certain statements and situations by letting us choose the option that best applies to us. Being truthful in this test will let you know how efficient you are while listening by the test scores.

To become a good listener and pay attention, one must be totally involved in the conversation.

1. Use neutral words, such as “I see,” “Go on,” “I understand,” “Yes.
2. Gestures like nodding your head or smiling can be helpful.
3. Make attempts “echoing” or basically rephrasing what somebody just said to make yourself attentive. 
4. Ask questions.

All this would be helpful to make yourself get involved into the discussion and make it interesting. Getting involved like this can also make others realize how efficiently you are listening and understanding what is being said, which will leave a good impact on others. Active listening is also a manner of showing concern for attendants and implies to further assurance and trust.

Sources:

•  How to Be a Good Listener. (n.d.). Retrieved October 29, 2015.
•  Holmes, L. (n.d.). 9 Things Good Listeners Do Differently. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
• 10 Ways to Be a Better Listener: Good Listeners: Customer Service Training. (n.d.). Retrieved October 29, 2015.