This document discusses listening skills and defines listening. It dispels common myths about listening and explains why listening skills are important. Specifically, it outlines that listening improves relationships, knowledge, understanding, and leads to better results while preventing problems from escalating. The document defines listening as a mental process that requires active attention compared to merely hearing, and provides rules for good listening such as stopping talking, removing distractions, being patient, and asking questions.

1. SAPANDEEP SHARMASAPANDEEP SHARMA
M.Sc PsychologyM.Sc Psychology
E-mail: sapan26oct@yahoo.com
Listening SkillsListening Skills

2. McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Myths about listening
• Listening is the same as hearing
• Listening is connected to intelligence
• Listening cannot be learned
• Listening is automatic
• Listening means agreeing

3. Why listening skills are important
• Improves relationships
• Improves our knowledge
• Improves our understanding
• Prevents problems escalating
• Saves time and energy
• Leads to better results

4. Listening is the most powerful form
of acknowledgment
…a way of saying, “You are
important.”

5. WHAT IS LISTENING?
If you ask a group of people to give a one
word description of listening, some would
say hearing.

6. BUT LISTENING…
• Is following and understanding the
sound---it is hearing with a purpose.

7. DEFINITION OF LISTENING
• The process of receiving, constructing
meaning from, and responding to
spoken and/or nonverbal messages; to
hear something with thoughtful
attention

8. Listening v/s Hearing
• Hearing- Physical process; natural and
passive
• Listening- Physical & mental process;
active; learned process; a skill

9. “Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.”
—Jimi Hendrix, rock musician

10. McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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The Listening Process

11. LISTEN TO UNDERSTAND
Before I can walk in
another person’s shoes,
I must remove my own.

12. Problems
• Pseudo Listening
• Selective Listening
• Critical Listening

13. McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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“A good listener tries to
understand thoroughly what
the other person is saying. In
the end he may disagree
sharply, but before he
disagrees, he wants to know
exactly what it is he is
disagreeing with.”
Kenneth A. WELLS

14. Solutions
• Awareness
• Be physical and mentally prepared to listen
• Set a goal
• Sitting Position
• Listening is a skill
• Pretend to be fascinated if you have to

15. McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Ten Rules for Good Listening
Rule Listening Reasoning Behind the Rule
1. Stop talking You cannot listen if you are
talking.
2. Put the person at ease Help a person feel free to talk;
create a permissive environment.
3. Show the person you Look and act interested; listen to
want to listen understand, not to oppose.
4.Remove distractions Don’t doodle, tap, or shuffle papers; shut
the door if necessary to
achieve quiet.

16. McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Ten Rules for Good Listening
Rule Listening Reasoning Behind the Rule
5. Empathize Try to see the other person’s
point of view.
6. Be patient Allow plenty of time; do not
interrupt; don’t start for the
door or walk away.
7. Hold your temper An angry person takes the wrong
meaning from words.

17. McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Ten Rules for Good Listening
Rule Listening Reasoning Behind the Rule
8.Go easy on argument Don’t put people on the defensive
and criticism and cause them to “clam up” or become angry;
do not argue- even if you win, you lose.
9. Ask questions This encourages a person and shows that you
are listening; it helps to develop points further.
10. Stop talking This is first and last, because all other guides
depend on it; you cannot listen effectively while
you are talking.
Source: Adapted from Human Behavior at Work, Fifth Edition, by Keith Davis. 1977.