Bibliography

References

Guffey, M. E., Rhodes, K., & Rogin, P. (2011). Business communication: Process and product (6th Canadian ed.). United States of America: Nelson.

Key Listening Skills

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Control distractions - move to a location where there is less noise or other conversations happening to better hear the other person talk.

Understand facts from opinions - Facts are truths and Opinions are personal judgements which can be identified easily when a speaker begins statements as "I think...", "It seems to me...", or "As far as I'm concerned...".

Avoid interrupting and take notes - Wait until the speaker has said all he/she needs to say before adding your own statements. While listening to speakers if you have a pencil and a piece of paper or a little notebook handy take notes on important facts, if not, try to take mental notes and write them down later.

Ask clarifying questions - Ask questions that don't attack the speaker. Open questions are questions without a definite answer to leave room to draw out feelings, motivations, ideas, and suggestions. Closed fact-finding questions should be asked to find key factors.

Paraphrase to increase understanding - Understand what the speaker says and be able to rephrase and summarize it in your own words.

Be aware of gender differences:
Men - Tend to listen to facts. Use interrupting behavior by talking louder or making more noise through banging on objects to control conversation.
Women - See listening as an opportunity to connect with the speaker on a personal level. Women interrupt constructively to elaborate on other members ideas or to generally be involved in the conversation. Also women are less atentive, remain still and nod their heads when listening.

Improving Workplace Listening

 

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• Don't Judge a book by its cover - Pay most attention to content, and not to appearances, form, or other surface issues
• Pause - Be silent for a few seconds after a person has finished to think over your response
• Pace yourself - Do one thing at a time and realize that listening takes your complete effort
• Control - Pay attention to your emotions and actions while and after a person has spoken
• Be involved - Give statements but also include additional comments relevant to the discussion
• Understand - Try to understand and listen for main ideas and avoid replying to everything

Types of Workplace Listening

In a workplace there are several types of listening. Around the workplace you will have people who are fellow colleagues and team members, but you will also have people who are your superiors or even customers which would require you to listen more carefully.

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Listening to you boss is very important because he gives you assignments, instructions, and explanations about how to do your work, and if you're not listening you'd have to ask him/her to repeat the information and they will get an idea of you that you don't pay attention. You must show you are listening by leaning forward and making good eye contact, and make sure to take notes because specific details are hard to remember, don't interrupt, and don't be afraid to ask questions.

When listening to people you work closely with you'd need critical thinking to evaluate what you're hearing, deciding whether the speakers information is on fact, fiction, or his/her personal opinion, and if it's based on logic or his/her emotions. You must let the speaker say everything he/her has to say and remain objective when you disagree. You also need Discriminative listening to understand and remember the information to know its main ideas, understand the argument and realize the reason for it.

In business the phrase 'The customer is always right." goes a long way. Customers like it when employees value their opinions it shows that you care and it makes them feel as if they are making a difference and it makes them feel closer to the company, which in turn results in increased sales and profitability. You'd need to carefully listen to them without interrupting them and to always be nice.

Poor Listening Habits

When in school you are taught to make presentations, reports, and to understand the information read from the teachers notes or textbooks. These focus on reading, speaking, and writing skills, but not as much emphasis is given of listening skills.

Experts say that we listen at only 25% efficiency, meaning we ignore, forget, or misunderstand 75% of everything we hear. This statement is accurate enough knowing the most common bad habits listeners do while listening to someone else speak. The following are a few of the most common factors that contribute to poor listening habits:

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• Lack of training
• Lack of concentration possibly due to other sounds
• Lack of interest leading people to tune-out what a speaker is saying. 
• Interrupting a speaker to get a word in or act like you're paying attention
• Trying to note every word the speaker says instead of only noting the important information.

Listening in the Workplace

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Listening is a critical employee and management skill. When employers look for people to hire or promote they find good listening skills to be a useful asset.
Workers are doing more communication than ever before thanks to the internet, team environments, global competition, and emphasis on customer service. And three quarters of communication has to do with listening.
Everyone thinks they know how to listen. Most believe listening is just responding to noise, which explains why so many are bad listeners.

Listening skills are important for your entire careers success and the following topics have tips to help your skills to improve:

• Poor Listening Habits
• Types of Workplace Listening
• Improving Workplace Listening
• Key Listening Skills

 These tips are mostly meant for workplace situations but can also be applied to your personal life.