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The Importance of Active Listening

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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 home, a friend’s house, or work; will have different communication climates. Understanding supportive climates vs. defensive climates and how they affect others helps determine how effectively we communicate.
Defensive climates are characterized by judgment, criticizing, and blame. For example, you don’t completely understand the directions a coworker gave you on how to update your computer. When the computer shuts down you blame the coworker by saying, “He doesn’t know what he is doing, he didn’t give me all of the steps.” In a supportive climate admitting that you don’t understand the instructions gives the coworker an opportunity to help you. Often in a defensive climate, a person is controlling or manipulating, and expresses a lack of concern for others. The owner of the office building where I work is doing construction in the offices next door. He came in on Friday at 11 am and started knocking out walls while we were open for business. Instead of waiting three hours for us to close he showed a lack of concern for our patients or our staff. While this climate is often experienced, it is not conducive to harmonious workplace relationships. Defensive climates within the workplace often decrease morale among employees and can create resentment.
A supportive climate on the other hand, involves communication that describes one’s feelings and needs; “I don’t understand”. It also involves others in solution finding, and is honest, open and respectful, “What does your schedule look like so I can plan construction without interrupting your patient care”. Or it seeks new solutions, “If you can wait until we close at 2 pm we would be happy to help you paint so you aren’t behind”. These are statements that demonstrate respect and understanding of other ideas and feelings. A supportive climate places people on equal ground, and there is always room for seeking new solutions.
Where you live, your education level, where you work, or how much money you make may be judged by society. There is one instance, however, that none of those factors matter and that is in communication. When it comes to workplace communication, we are all on equal playing ground. What we say and how we present ourselves will open the avenue of communication; how well we actively listen will pave the way for productive relationships. How well we listen and how we react to different climates around us is not something we attain through osmosis. We have to work actively at listening and give honest thought to our reactions to improve our daily relations.
The "On the Table" (2015) website puts it simply:
L = Look interested – get interested.
I = Involve yourself by responding.
S = Stay on target.
T = Test your understanding.
E = Evaluate the message.
N = Neutralize your feelings. (What's on the table). Hopefully, you will be in your workplace for a long while. Active listening and improving workplace relations will make it far more enjoyable; if you enjoy what you do it is no longer work.

References
On the table. (2015). Retrieved from https://whatisonthetable.wordpress.com/2015/02/03/listening

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