1. Importance and Role of
Listening Skills in Business Communication
Presented By:
50 - Sudhir Sharma
52 - Sevitha Shetty
54 - Khushal Thakkar
56 - Kirti Thosar
58 - Vasu Vemuri
60 - Vishwanath Srinivas
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Topics
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 Introduction & Process of Listening
 Types of listening skills
 Barriers of listening skills
 How to improve listening skills
 What Speakers Can Do to Ensure Better Listening
 Business Scenarios where listening skills are imp.
- Vishwanath
- Sevitha
- Khushal
- Kirti
- Sudhir
- Vasu

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To begin with....Reality Check
 Most of us have developed as business people in organizational cultures that
emphasize the persuasiveness of the speaker.
 We've spent countless hours, and a great deal of money, attending to our
appearance, business dress, body language, facial expression, selection of
language, tone of voice, charts, graphs, and on and on. The importance of
these factors is not denied.
 However, they're not the only factors influencing communication.
 And are they powerful enough, when we're trying to get the best from a
diverse group of people, build a customer-focused organization, or influence
those who disagree with us?
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A Husband’s Nightmare!!!!
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Listening
33%
Speaking
26%
Writing
22%
Others
19%
Recent Study that shows average time spent by
a personnel on a workplace
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Why is Listening so important ?

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Why is Listening so important ?
 Helps in taking instructions correctly without any errors
 Solve customer’s complaints more effectively
 From 95% of communication, 45% is of listening
 An essential management and leadership skill
 Good listening helps you to take better decisions and make better policies in
organization
 On the contrary lack of proper listening can lead to embarrassing situations
because of a gap in coordination and understanding

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The Process.....
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Selecting – Choosing
Stimuli
Attending – Focusing
Attention
Evaluating – Analyzing
and Judging
Responding - Feedback
Hearing – Receiving data
Understanding –
Assigning Meaning

8. Types Of Listening
Informative
Listening
Appreciative
Listening
Critical
Listening
Empathic
Listening
Discriminative
Listening

9. Kinds of Listeners

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BARRIERS TO LISTENING
Effective listening is arguably one of the most important skills to have
nowadays. Personal relationships need effective listening skills to face
complicated issues together. Business people and employees need
effective listening skills to solve complex problems quickly and stay
competitive. Students and professors need it to understand complex issues
in their fields. Thus, it is beneficial if we can understand and eliminate
listening barriers that blocks deep, harmonious and lasting relationships.

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Barriers to listening take many forms. It is inevitable that barriers will
exist in any interaction, but anything which stops concentration,
allowing the mind to wander off the topic, must be recognized and
overcome if fully successful communication is to take place.
BARRIERS TO LISTENING

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Distraction in your mind
Wandering attention
Planning a reply
Lack of interest
Common Barriers to Listening

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Being self centered
Avoiding what is difficult
Excessive note-taking
Emotional blocks
Common Barriers to Listening

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Looking for every opportunity
to interrupt
Impatience
External noise and disturbance
Poor health
Common Barriers to Listening

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Ways to Improve Your Listening
1) Increase your listening span:
Do not interrupt
Let speaker to complete
If you don't get , ask the speaker to repeat
2) Be prepared to listen:
Gather relevant information

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Ways to Improve Your Listening
3) Take time to listen:
Don't put limitations on your listening time
4) Use Thinking-Speaking time difference:
Mentally summarize & review
5) Be Objective:
Do not make judgment too fast

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Ways to Improve Your Listening
6) Listen between the lines:
Don't just listen to what is being said
Try to understand the attitudes, needs and motives
behind the words
7) Listen for ideas as well as facts
Understand what the facts
Practice of Listening

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Ways to Improve Your Listening
8) Give your full attention:
let the speaker know you are interested
Look for speaker’s main idea
If the speaker pauses briefly, don't rush to fill the silence
Use open-ended questions to encourage elaboration

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Ways to Improve Your Listening
9) Restate the message (Feedback):
When speaker finished, restate the main points
good organizing strategy for you
It also gives the speaker assurance that the message has
been received

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Ways to Improve Your Listening
10) Don't monopolize:
Resist the urge to dominate a situation or to feel that you
know everything about a situation
Be open to new ideas and allow the speaker to have his or
her say
11) Use of Verbal & Non-verbal cues:
Eye contact
Nodding head
Casual remark

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What Speakers Can Do to Ensure Better Listening

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Business Scenarios where listening skills are important
Listening skills are imperative for
• Career success,
• Organizational effectiveness, and
• Employee satisfaction.
In professional environment Active listening is generally employed
Workplace listening includes understanding the listening process and its
barriers that hamper the flow of listening process
Note: Listening Process = Perception, Interpretation, Evaluation, and Action
Like other skills, there are specific techniques for improving workplace listening
effectiveness.
It is imperative to become aware of the role of nonverbal communication in
communicating in the workplace, as understanding messages wholly entails
more than simple verbal messages.

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• Seniors
• Peers
• Subordinates
• Customers
• Suppliers
Role & Importance of listening while communicating with

24. THANK YOU
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