...The Importance of Active Listening Communication is an essential of our everyday life; something we do as naturally as taking our next breath. Many of us see listening in much the same way. Communicating goes much deeper than just instinctive reaction. It takes work. Communication requires active listening and an understanding of interpersonal relationships to have satisfying workplace relations. “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” ~~Steven R. Covey Communication is more than speaking and hearing. Hearing requires no effort, but listening does. To actively listen you have to pay attention so you can process and analyze the message to respond appropriately. Yes, active listening is work, sometimes hard work but the one thing that is more important in the office than your education, qualifications, or experience, is your ability to be an active listener. Active listening improves understanding through being attentive to the speaker; allowing you to reflect on the message instead of planning your next response. Attentive listening minimizes defensiveness and allows for constructive conversation and problem-solving. Active listening requires listening, reflecting, and acknowledging. Feedback from acknowledgment reduces misunderstanding and allows decision making in the workplace without errors. Active listening is an important part of building relationships in the workplace. Every environment whether it be...
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...1. Active Listening Hear what people are actually saying. Listen attentively. Often when people talk, we don’t listen attentively, we are often distracted. Listening is one of the most important life skills you can have. We listen for many purposes such as to find out information, to understand, to learn, etc. We listen to so much and for so many purpose that we assume we are good listeners. Research have shown that a person usually only remembers 25-50% of what we hear. The ability to listen attentively can enhance communication both at work and at home. Relationships are built around the ability to listen and communicate effectively. 2. Clarify We have discussed this in the earlier chapter. Clarification...
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...According to the textbook, the responsibility of a leader in an organization is to provide a vision of the future that supplies the organization with positive and sustainable momentum. It also allows the organization and the employees to continue to grow. Good leaders or managers are capable of persuading huge amounts of people through the use of some kind of rule. In addition, as a manager should build brilliance culture in the delivery of excellence health care services. Furthermore, you should build a culture of establishing trust and improving communication among all employees. Besides, as a health care manager, you need to have an effective listening skills. Listening effectively can help you calm down one’s emotions for them to feel...
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...Self-Discovery thru the Art of Listening: An Annotated Bibliography Diane Jones Saint Petersburg College INTRODUCTION The resources listed in this annotated bibliography are intended to bring to light the importance of listening, in our professional lives as well as in our personal lives. The focus is learning to listen and the importance of being a good listener. Whether in a business relationship or a personal relationship, communication is the key --- forty-five percent of which is listening. Having good listening skills can lead to career advancement. For instance, a manager needs to have the ability to listen nonjudgmentally for valid information and to understand others point of view in order to make managerial decisions. Active listening can help you better understand thoughts and feelings of others and provide positive communication in your relationships. A portion of this research involves self-knowledge and how to get to know yourself better. We are always talking to ourselves, silently, in our heads, thinking… without really paying attention or analyzing our thoughts. Are we really even listening to ourselves? Perhaps we could discover a part of our unknown selves… I am now wondering what all I have missed out on in my lifetime from hearing rather than listening. There is an art to listening and it must be learned and developed through practice. Learning to listen effectively is a complex, challenging, and lifelong undertaking. These resources offer...
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...communication through actions, gestures, expressions, and tone of voice. The importance of these actions can set the tone for the conversation that ensues, thus the importance of demonstrative communication is essential. Body language such as actions and gestures and general bodily movement during conversation can be a very dominant device. An important aspect of body language is eye level. An individuals eye level during a conversation can set the tone, if someone is looking at the ground and not making eye contact the conversation can be observed as negative. Arm positioning is also important in body language, if someone crosses their arms or has their hands in their pockets also gives off the same negative vibes. These little gestures and actions can have a conversation take the turn from positive and confident to negative. Body language is essential in face-to-face interactions. These factors would play a huge role in how the receiver of the message would perceive the sender and if they would in fact receive the message. According to Huntington (2014), “Nonverbal cues affect how people understand what you are attempting to communicate, and their reaction corresponds to how you delivered your message. If you are expecting a certain response by the receiver of your message, your nonverbal communication affects their response.” This urges the importance of positive body language, and the importance of this even in a professional setting. This shows that negative body language...
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...Week Two Individual: Using Language Effectively Maria Lobitos XCOM/200 March 23, 2013 Ellen Riordan The importance of listening in communication is colossal. “The importance of listening in communication is often well illustrated when we analyze our listening skills with those closest to us.” (Staiano. 2006.) For example, when we are conversing with family members such as spouse and children. When our children are talking sometimes we respond with uh-huh when they are trying to tell us something. Then when we are asked with a question, we respond with, “I am so sorry but what did you say again?” We tend not to listen completely because we are occupied on coming up with a response. Also even when listening to a music. Our mind tend to wonder and not really paying attention to the words of the song we are listening to. One of my experience in the past in regards to having a hard time listening was when we had a staff meeting at work and I was not able to properly decode information that did not make sense to me. It is because my own attitude of “already know the topic” that I brought to the staff meeting had an effect to my ability to listen to the manager. Since I already knew the topic, I was not that focus to the what the manager was saying and when the time came and the manager asked a question, I was not ready to respond. I was more preoccupied with my own thoughts that I did not focus on the message. Also, since the topic has been discussed many times...
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...BSHS/385 WEEK THREE EFFECTIVE LISTENING STRATEGIES The main objective of listening is to establish empathy between the helper and client by listening to the clients words, sensing their feelings, and interpreting their thoughts. It is very important that clients know and feel that their helper is paying attention and care about the story they are telling. I have reviewed three articles that can really help me in my career when it comes to being an active and effective listener. Article one: The human side of teaching: Effective Listener. This article is very informative by offering effective listening suggestions. It suggest that professionals listen fully to clients without any interruptions. By waiting for the client to pause on speaking, giving the professional time to empathize before asking questions. This is very important to focus on the client and conversation at hand, so you’re able to give feedback to the client. Also, listen with your eyes, ears, and body. Who knew by sitting a certain way or spot would show your client that you’re giving your undivided attention and allow you to notice those non-verbal gestures or expressions. Taking notes allows you to be more engaged with any speaker and prove that you are listening effectively (Boyd, 2001). I am a strong believer of eye contact when talking with someone. Article two: The gift of listening: JUST Listening Strategies. This article discuss how listening with sensitivity is a key component when...
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...Effective Listening Strategies Paper Laura Bedford Harper BSHS 385 Connie Cucuzza September 21, 2015 Effective listening is more than just hearing what an individual is saying. Effective listening is letting go of all distractions and focusing solely on the verbal and nonverbal. Through using understandable language, detaching self from solution oriented listening and applying active listening skills. A listener will be better equip to understand and aid the speaker when the time comes. In Blyth's article from 2012, he spoke with the emphasis on word count. He expressed that for listeners to comprehend, two hundred and fifty words per minute is suggested, and however, one hundred and twenty-seven is optimal. To prove his theory, Blyth used compound words for which the listeners may not have to understand, therefore stopping to see if they were following and reading their body language. This concept resulted in comprehension of the word or giving up in attempting to understand. By doing this study, listeners missed out on what was being said during this contemplative process. Blyth went on stressing the importance of the audience comprehension of what is being said by the speaker. Floyd (2011) states that listeners develop their meaning from the dialogue, and that is presented. However, researchers suggest that the assumption of listening skills can be similar to those of reading skills. Blyth disagrees with this theory and states that when reading the individual can...
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...Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, is a learned power of doing something competently: a developed aptitude or ability. The skill of listening is a skill that I believe everyone should have but most people lack. Many people do not realize that listening is not merely the act of hearing a sound but of paying close attention to what someone is saying and trying to understand the message that they are trying to relate to you. Most times people say they are listening when in all actuality they are merely hearing you but not even attempting to understand what is being spoken of. The advantages of being a good listener are vast. This skill can positively affect many parts of our everyday life and interaction with people. Nevertheless, it is a skilled that is overlooked in today’s unmindful society. The reason I believe that listening is of such importance is because nowadays people have developed the mentality of “every man for himself.” People are not concerned about their fellows anymore. We are only concerned about our own issues and problems. Listening is a skill that is acquired throughout a lifetime. It is an important virtue when it comes to communication.People should be taught from childhood the importance of learning how to listen. If we realized how much we would benefit from being good listeners, I believe that things would change. Lack of listening skills affects marriages, parents and children, teachers and students, employers and employees, foreign affairs, and the list goes...
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...communication: is usually understood as the process of communication through sending and receiving wordless messages. Such messages can be communicated through gesture; body language or posture; facial expression and eye contact. After learning about non-verbal communication process, I found out that it has huge importance in our lives. Sometimes non-verbal messages depicts messages which have greater importance than verbal messages. That’s why we need to be careful about this. Then we learned about four basic communication skills: Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening. Among these four skills listening is very important. Other three skills we have learned systematically in our lives. But we have never learned about listening in a formal manner. As a nation we lack mutual respect for one another. That is why our listening skills are not that much developed. Before participating this class I always thought that listening and hearing are same things. But later on I learned that these two things are completely different. Hearing is a physical process. But listening is a psychological process which involves inferring subliminal messages from the surroundings. Listening is very important in our lives because by doing this we can find out about audiences mind settings before initiating a communication. In later class session we were introduced with the communication process...
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...Unit 6 Written Assignment: The importance of developing interpersonal skills It is important to not only develop your interpersonal skills, but be aware of them. Unlike other skill sets, it is likely that you are already in possession of some interpersonal skills. They are important is business, because they determine how interact with people, approach tasks and influence many aspects of our working lives. This is why they are given such high regard in business (Open University , 2013). Listening Listening is regarded as part of a communication. As well as the act of listening, there is also a degree of analysis involved in this skill. In fact, there are five stages to the listening process they are, receiving, understanding, remembering,...
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...Overview This paper offers the non-subject specialist an overview of the literature which has influenced the development of listening and interpersonal skills in UK higher education. It refers to articles, seminal texts and writers within the field. In order to provide some context, the first section of the review covers some issues relating to the definition of listening and interpersonal skills and some examples are presented to demonstrate their interdependence. The importance of these skills within occupational and educational domains is also highlighted. The review then goes on to place listening and interpersonal skills in context by exploring historical perspectives, factors influencing current developments and providing an indication of issues which may affect future development. The paper introduces different approaches to listening and interpersonal skills within some key disciplines and considers the extent to which the teaching and learning of listening and interpersonal skills has been integrated within these discipline. In conclusion we consider emerging themes relating to advances in technology and widening participation, including the cross cultural agenda. A glance at the definitions section below will reveal the substantial overlap that exists between this topic and some of the other LearnHigher learning areas, most notably those relating to oral communications and group work. Although we acknowledge this overlap at various points during the review, readers...
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...Listening pairs with leadership to form a crucial skill in our ability to communicate well with others. Personally, I define leadership as a quality a leader has to motivate his or her team and work with them towards a common goal by utilizing each group member’s talents successfully. To successfully accomplish this, a leader must listen to its group so he or she can learn how to best utilize each member’s strengths and weaknesses. Everyone can understand what it is like to work within a team and to look towards the leader for understanding and help. Within many work or professional environments and situations, leaders have basic responsibilities, which are modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, challenging the process, enabling others to act, and encouraging the heart. I believe it is important to look at each of these and realize how they would be unattainable for a leader without effectively listening to his followers. This can be accomplishment by understanding provided information, showing interest in the topic being discussed, and providing...
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...Communication and Listening Rebekah Gardner Teamwork, Collaboration, and Conflict Resolution SOC/110 November 03, 2014 Larry Bohleber Communication and Listening How do people communicate? How do they listen? These are some of the questions that I will answer. I will also provide examples of verbal and nonverbal communication as well as explain how knowledge of nonverbal communication can help when communicating with others. I will also analyze my personal results for the Student Listening Inventory and explain what I do well and where I can improve. How Do People Communicate Communication takes place when two or more people interact with one another. People communicate by using both verbal and nonverbal communication and listening to both verbal and nonverbal communication. Verbal communication involves the use of words and language whereas nonverbal communication focuses on message components other than words to show meaning (Engleberg and Wynn, 2013, p. 125). Some examples of verbal communication are face to face meetings, faxes, emails, and virtual meetings. Some examples of nonverbal communication are tone of voice, physical appearance, and eye contact. Nonverbal cues often give meaning and further insight to verbal communication. Knowledge of Nonverbal Communication Knowledge of nonverbal communication is essential when trying to generate a message’s true intent. A person may be verbally explaining their position but what...
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... Sapp 1 Listening Audience Essay 2/4/14 SPC2017 Ms. Sullivan Throughout my career, I have attended many meetings and functions, each having different topics or atmospheres. Generally, I focus on the speakers or material, more than what the listening audience does. My experiences with these types of events were peaceful and without conflict. I had never thought watching people listen would give me any information on anything. However, I recently attended a meeting I was looking forward to watching the audience. I recently began working for a new agency, an agency that has many conflicts between management and employees; there have even been grievances filed. It is because of this I chose to observe the listening audience of a meeting we held in our Jacksonville office on December 31, 2013. This meeting had me interested in the audience due to the variety of speakers we had, from management to Union representatives and because we were addressing resolution of issues. As I began reading the Human Communication textbook, I was able to relate what I was reading in chapter 4 to what I had seen. Often, the importance of listening is taken for granted; we hear things throughout the day without even noticing. We listen to friends, family, and nature; whatever it may, be we hear it without thinking about it. This is such an unconscious occurrence we sometimes forget how important it is not to just hear but really listen. To appreciate the importance of listening one must consider...
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