In todays life we find it a bit difficult to make important decisions or to perform the tasks in a shorter span of time because we are used to taking our time in analyzing and understand the situation and then acting on it. But on the other hand, the need to be agile and alert is very important these days and it depends on us how to manage our time and activities. The paper would talk about the skills of listening in detail by first introducing it, then the need of active listening, barriers to active listening, and tips for active listening.
There is a significant difference between hearing and listening hearing is natural process where as listening is a skill. We hear everything ranging from traffic noise to our friends voice over telephone, but listening deals with the hearing where we actually understand it and make sense out of it. We might be hearing but we might not be listening. Now lets discuss the importance of active listening skills.
Importance of Listening Skills
Whether it is our daily routine life or our working life, active listening has become so much important for us to remember the facts and things because information is bombarded to us from various sources. Talking about the working environment, active listening can make employees more productive and effective in their work not only this, there are several other reasons that emphasize the importance of active listening. Employees would be able to understand the assignments in a better way build up good relationships or rapport with the supervisors, customers, or with other co-workers perform better when working in teams or groups resolve problems or complex tasks effectively manage time efficiently and answer the questions to others at a later stage when required.
Barriers to Listening and Ways to improve it
Many students and employees forget the information imparted in the lecture or any meeting because they make certain mistakes while listening however, they try to listen actively but some mistakes while listening can put all their effort in vain. First of all, listeners must be neutral and put aside all their biases, prejudices, or emotions attached to a particular matter being discussed. Such biases keep the listener from understanding the gist of the topic being discussed under a certain situation or cause. Secondly, listeners must try focusing on the speakers words and not his way of speaking, dressing, color, physique, or accent. Many listeners often trust the speaker who speaks confidently and is well-dressed, even if he or is not accurate or true in his speech.
Third, noise must be ignored and the attention must be made to what the speaker is talking about for instance, the noise of traffic, fans, air conditioner, should be overlooked. These noises often distract the listener and evade him or her from listening actively and remember what is being discussed. Fourth, listener must predict and forecast in advance as in what the speaker would talk after this this would help developing schemas and making sense of the speech. Fifth, jumping to the conclusions should strongly be avoided. This happens when the listener knows about the topic being discussed at hand. In fact, the speaker must be given enough time to speak and must be listened until he makes his final conclusion about a certain topic (Mc Kay, 2010).
Sixth, objects like cell-phones often distract the listeners and as well as the speaker, which breaks the decorum of the speech or meeting. Therefore, proper eye-contact must be maintained with the speaker, nodding must be done when understanding something and appropriate questions should be asked to clarify things at a certain interval. Seventh, talking and asking with the person sitting aside the point that was not picked up before leads to the losing of upcoming points therefore, such points must be noted down and asked later. Eighth, adding past knowledge to the current speech might make a clutter of the information that might be two-sided therefore, give positive feedback and clarify such things that do not make sense or cause anomaly (Mind Tools, 2010).
Interview Results
Three interviews were conducted with people two students and one employee regarding the importance of listening skills, barriers to listening, and ways of improving it. The findings showed that the students thought of listening process as an important one. The reasons behind it were the remembering of class lectures, home assignments, and important information imparted at seminars. They thought that major barriers to listening are noise, being impressed by the speakers personality, and not paying proper attention moreover, they suggested that avoiding distracters and focusing on what the speaker is talking and forecasting what would he say, can improve listening. Whereas, the employee considers listening as important due to manage time effectively, be more punctual, more focused, build good relationships with customers, and be more productive. Near him, barriers were jumping to conclusions, impressed by speakers personality, and continuously thinking of what was not picked or not understood and not listening the rest of the speech.
There is a significant difference between hearing and listening hearing is natural process where as listening is a skill. We hear everything ranging from traffic noise to our friends voice over telephone, but listening deals with the hearing where we actually understand it and make sense out of it. We might be hearing but we might not be listening. Now lets discuss the importance of active listening skills.
Importance of Listening Skills
Whether it is our daily routine life or our working life, active listening has become so much important for us to remember the facts and things because information is bombarded to us from various sources. Talking about the working environment, active listening can make employees more productive and effective in their work not only this, there are several other reasons that emphasize the importance of active listening. Employees would be able to understand the assignments in a better way build up good relationships or rapport with the supervisors, customers, or with other co-workers perform better when working in teams or groups resolve problems or complex tasks effectively manage time efficiently and answer the questions to others at a later stage when required.
Barriers to Listening and Ways to improve it
Many students and employees forget the information imparted in the lecture or any meeting because they make certain mistakes while listening however, they try to listen actively but some mistakes while listening can put all their effort in vain. First of all, listeners must be neutral and put aside all their biases, prejudices, or emotions attached to a particular matter being discussed. Such biases keep the listener from understanding the gist of the topic being discussed under a certain situation or cause. Secondly, listeners must try focusing on the speakers words and not his way of speaking, dressing, color, physique, or accent. Many listeners often trust the speaker who speaks confidently and is well-dressed, even if he or is not accurate or true in his speech.
Third, noise must be ignored and the attention must be made to what the speaker is talking about for instance, the noise of traffic, fans, air conditioner, should be overlooked. These noises often distract the listener and evade him or her from listening actively and remember what is being discussed. Fourth, listener must predict and forecast in advance as in what the speaker would talk after this this would help developing schemas and making sense of the speech. Fifth, jumping to the conclusions should strongly be avoided. This happens when the listener knows about the topic being discussed at hand. In fact, the speaker must be given enough time to speak and must be listened until he makes his final conclusion about a certain topic (Mc Kay, 2010).
Sixth, objects like cell-phones often distract the listeners and as well as the speaker, which breaks the decorum of the speech or meeting. Therefore, proper eye-contact must be maintained with the speaker, nodding must be done when understanding something and appropriate questions should be asked to clarify things at a certain interval. Seventh, talking and asking with the person sitting aside the point that was not picked up before leads to the losing of upcoming points therefore, such points must be noted down and asked later. Eighth, adding past knowledge to the current speech might make a clutter of the information that might be two-sided therefore, give positive feedback and clarify such things that do not make sense or cause anomaly (Mind Tools, 2010).
Interview Results
Three interviews were conducted with people two students and one employee regarding the importance of listening skills, barriers to listening, and ways of improving it. The findings showed that the students thought of listening process as an important one. The reasons behind it were the remembering of class lectures, home assignments, and important information imparted at seminars. They thought that major barriers to listening are noise, being impressed by the speakers personality, and not paying proper attention moreover, they suggested that avoiding distracters and focusing on what the speaker is talking and forecasting what would he say, can improve listening. Whereas, the employee considers listening as important due to manage time effectively, be more punctual, more focused, build good relationships with customers, and be more productive. Near him, barriers were jumping to conclusions, impressed by speakers personality, and continuously thinking of what was not picked or not understood and not listening the rest of the speech.
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