The document discusses the importance of active listening skills. It defines active listening as requiring the listener to fully absorb, understand, respond to, and retain what is being said. It emphasizes comprehending the verbal and non-verbal aspects of a message, retaining key points through memory or note-taking, and responding to confirm understanding. The document provides tips for practicing active listening, such as listening carefully with eyes and ears open, paying attention, and using skills like communicating with intent, listening with senses, searching for feeling words, and clarifying messages.
2. “ One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say”
- Bryant H. McGill
• Active listening is a valuable technique involving all the senses of
the listener, that requires the listener to thoroughly absorb,
understand, respond, and retain what is being said.
• Comprehend. The listener pays attention to
the speaker’s verbal and non-verbal
language to fully understand what they’re
trying to communicate.
• Retain. The listener tries to remember key
points of the speaker’s message using their
memory or via note-taking.
• Respond. Listener responds to the speaker to
confirm his/her understanding of speaker’s
message and to further their discussion on
the subject. This only happens after
analyzing and remembering what the speaker
3.
4. How to practice active listening?
• Sophisticated Skill- Takes practice.
• If grown in an environment where it was not practiced, then
learning this skill gets even more difficult.
For example- Dealing with parent’s queries on technology. some
children listen actively teach patiently and some get irritated. The
latter one can grew up and consider listening actively as very difficult
task
• Importance- better communication and problem solving
• To practice- listen carefully with eyes and ear open!
pay attention!
• Skills required- communicating with intent, listening with your
senses, searching for feeling word, clarifying message
5. Communication with Intent
• Listen actively – one of important barrier to effective communication ,
people often listen to speak, instead of listening to understand.
This can be over come by reflective listening.
• Open healthy dialogue- communication or discussion between groups
or people, dialogue should be meaningful, constant, honest ,
constructive .
• Choose the right format- by watching tone and body language,
choose words wisely and listening carefully.
• Positive body language- while in conversation person should have
open body posture, stand with straight spine ,communicate with fully
focused and bearing good energy level.
• Expression- speaker should express himself as per situation ,not to
be over reactive while conversation.
“Most people do not listen with intent to understand; they listen with the
intent to reply”
6. Listening with sense &
Feeling words
• Reinforce what others feel , not just what they say
The starting point for emotional listening is reinforcement – nodding
your head and saying yes and “ I understand encourages others to open
up and share their feelings .
• Read nonverbal cues
Emotional listening requires studying someone’s expressions , tone of
voice , and body language to draw conclusions about how they are
feeling .
• Acknowledge your own feelings without succumbing to them
If you feel yourself getting annoyed , acknowledge that to yourself and
then immediately move on toward trying to understand what motivates
the other person.
• Probe for more details
If someone says , “ I’m happy with that raise , ” you can assume she is .
But sometimes words need to be deconstructed. For example , when
7. Clarifying with words
Clarification is the skill we use to ensure that we have understood
the message of the speaker in an interpersonal exchange. We should
use some steps..
• Admit if you are unsure about what the speaker means.
• State what the speaker has said as you understand it, and check
whether this is what they really said.
• Ask for specific examples, use non directive questions
Example:
“I'm not quite sure I understand what you are saying.”
“Why do you feel this way?”