Listening Skills
Listening Skills Overview
A wise man talks less and listens more. Likewise the best communicators in the world listen more than they talk, and if you want to become like them, it is important to learn and acquire listening skills. When you develop such skills, you will not only improve your relationships with your spouse, children, or parents but you will also be able to enhance your relationship with your boss, colleagues, and your customers. Effective listening skills are not something that you develop overnight and in order to do well at it, you must make a commitment to improve.
This section is dedicated to help you learn and develop listening skills. Listening Skills training program not only outlines various aspects of listening, but also contains invaluable tips and techniques to help you become a master listener.
Training Objectives
By the end of this self-paced training, you will be able to:
Understand the importance of listening
Identify the types of bad listeners
Learn how to become a great listener
Know the key to effective listening
Learn the art of active listening
Understand how you can improve children’s listening skills especially in school
Know how to listen effectively while speaking with someone over the phone
Target Audience
Everyone needs to develop their listening skills if they want to be able to communicate effectively. Thus, this training program is designed to help all people in their quest to develop and enhance their listening skills.
Are you an effective listener? A lot of times, when someone at work makes a mistake, it is generally agreed that a communication error has occurred. But whose fault was it? Was it the fault of the person giving instructions? Or was it the fault of the individual who did not understand – or failed to properly listen to – the instructions? Let us take a look at an example. Bill is a manager at a technology company. For an individual with a high executive position, he has all the skills one might expect. Whenever anyone talks to Bill, he…
What is Active Listening? In a word, active listening is the key to success in life. It means the difference in listening, processing, and using information to one’s advantage, and merely “hearing” what a person is saying (i.e. letting it go “in one ear and out the other”) – effectively letting important opportunities pass us by. Indeed, active listening entails listening with the entire body – while also observing the other person’s entire body. It means being aware of the other person’s tone of voice, body language, eye signals, and verbal responses to non verbal stimuli. It also means using…
How to be a better listener Is listening a problem for you? There is a reason why human beings only have one mouth but two ears – that is because listening is twice as difficult as talking is. This is why it is often necessary for people to actually practice listening before they acquire the skill known as listening well. Communication is a two way street; if a speaker is merely sending out signals that are not being absorbed by the passive participant – the listener – in this case, you – then he is wasting his time. In order…
Improving Listening Skills on the Phone How can I become a better listener on the phone? While listening well can be quite a challenge to most of us, even more of us tend to tune out when we are on the telephone. Indeed, in this day and age, when the Internet seems to be everywhere, we tend to forget the importance of the “old fashioned” telephone call when it comes to making business transactions. Listening well on the phone can be key for succeeding in business – and in life. The fact is, listening well is not a science –…
Become an Active Listener Can you hear what people are really saying? If you feel that you are lacking in the communication skills department, this can be detrimental in the long run in terms of your career. It is simply not possible to influence, negotiate, and persuade people – all tools that you need to be a success in the work place – when your listening and communication skills are sub par. Every one relies on other people to accomplish tasks, and if the lines of communication among people are blocked, then that makes accomplishing these tasks all the more…
November 10, 2007
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Become a Better Listener in the Classroom What are the most common obstacles to classroom listening? Let us face the facts here: In order to be a good student, you have to become a good listener. There is no way around it. You cannot take notes unless you are really listening to what is being said. The difference between merely hearing what your instructor is saying and actually listening to them is engagement. Once you become engaged with what the speaker is saying, you will be able to latch on to the important points and thus make good notes –…
November 12, 2007
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Classroom Listening as key to a Bright Future A lot of people confuse listening with hearing. The truth is, the two are very distinct. Most of us can hear, but not all of us are effective when it comes to listening. Listening is a skill that has to be developed over time. Below, we will review some of the questions that every student should ask himself or herself at some point when attending a class. This helps them become better listeners – and more successful in life outside the classroom. What does the lecture consist of? If you are in…
November 15, 2007
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Why do you need to have good listening skills? You might recall that several years ago on TV there was a public service announcement that talked about the importance of listening skills. The PSA differentiated between hearing, which is merely a physical ability, and listening, which is actually a skill. By being able to listen, we are able to effectively make sense of what another person is saying. It greatly enhances our understanding and our overall abilities in life. It can also be vital in determining such vital perks as career promotion and generally opening doors that might otherwise not…
November 16, 2007
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What are the main types of effective listening? There are essentially three types of careful listening that you will want to follow. They are paraphrasing, open questioning, and feeling reflection. The first of these, paraphrasing, is mainly just re-stating what someone has said in your own words. To use an example, someone might say something along the lines of, “I can’t believe he just quit his job. What a mistake he has made!” In response, you might say, “So you seem to think he quitting his job was a bad idea.” This is an example of paraphrasing. You have just…
November 19, 2007
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Can Communication Save My Relationship? The answer to this question is a resounding yes. But communication, it must be kept in mind, is a two way street. When most people hear the word “communication,” they automatically think of talking. But listening is of equal importance. Some experts even say it is of prime importance. Whatever the situation you find yourself in in your love life, you can improve it greatly by focusing on this core component of one’s interpersonal skills. All relationships need communication in order to survive. Chances are, if your relationship is failing because you are arguing all…
November 23, 2007
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Listening Better in School Is Listening Important for My Studies? Listening is one of the key strategies for assimilating knowledge in to one’s brain for long term use. On average, college students spend around fourteen hours each week listening to lectures in classrooms across the nation. But are they really listening? You have to realize that there is a major difference between merely hearing and actively listening. Hearing can be thought of as “passive listening.” You might hear the sounds of someone’s voice and are thus aware that a person is speaking, but you are not actively processing what is…
November 27, 2007
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Improving the Listening Skills of Children Do you find yourself repeating things? Getting a child to listen can be one of the greatest challenges that a parent has to face early on. Indeed, one method that parents tend to employ is to simply repeat the same instruction over and over again. You might find yourself saying, “How many times do I have to tell you…?” This rarely, if ever, helps the child to learn what they have done wrong, because the answer to the question is a number! It has nothing to do with what you wish to communicate to…
November 30, 2007
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Listening Skills: Become a Better Listener What does it mean to listen? The vast majority of us will spend our lives relying on our listening skills. No matter what our profession happens to be, listening plays a key role in any communicative environment. Like all other skills, listening requires a lot of practice – it is not necessarily something you are just born with. Everyone has the capability of listening – but can you listen well? Indeed, listening well is more important than just merely allowing the information to flow in one ear and out the other. When we listen…
Master Listener What is Active Listening? Every expert communicator already knows the importance of active listening. Active listening includes the ability to perform such skills as paraphrasing, mirroring, and clarifying. If you are already good at active listening, then you realize that it is good to vary these skills when you are in the process of conversing with someone. But chances are you feel insecure with your listening abilities – otherwise you would not be reading this article! Let us go over some of the things you need to know in order to make the transition from being a poor…
December 10, 2007
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Who are the main types of bad listeners? You might find in your work environment that some individuals are simply not very good at listening. This can create a myriad of problems and make the performance of the most mundane day to day tasks nearly impossible to accomplish. But there are ways of helping these people improve their listening skills. But first, we need to take a look at what kind of “bad listeners” are out there. There are essentially three types of bad listeners. They are self absorbed individuals, unfocused individuals, and rules driven individuals. Self absorbed people will…
December 14, 2007
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