improve your Active Listening

             How to improve your Active Listening

“Smart people talk while wise people listen.”

Active Listening is not just hearing to the words but requires the listener to give feedback and respond to what they hear from the speaker. In other words, it is a technique of reaffirming the message that you have received from the other end.

Our mind thinks four times the speed that someone can speak. Which means you can easily lost while someone is speaking, for active listening it is important that our mind stay focus on the speaker.

How important listening skill is for communication we can figure it out that from the image below.

Percentage of Communication

Communication Mode	Standard training period required	Percentage to Time Used
Writing	12 Years	9%
Reading	6-8 Years	16%
Speaking	1-2 Years	30%
Listening	0-few hours	45%

Active listening can reduce confusion, misunderstanding and eliminates stress and tension. Listening skills form the basis of Teamwork skills, Management skills and continued learning.

Components of Active Listening

There are primary three components involved in Active Listening

• Comprehending: Analyze what is being said
• Retaining: Remember what speaker has said
• Responding: Respond both by verbal and non-verbal feedback to the speaker

What is the difference between the Active listening and Effective Listening?

Active listening is a process in which the listener takes active responsibility to comprehend the content and feeling of what is being said and then checks with speaker to see if he/she heard what it is intended to communicate, while aneffective listening is comprehending the word and not necessary to respond with the feedback to the speaker.

What does it take to be an Active listener?

It is believed that we only hear the first 2-5 minutes of a conversation, and in order to remain active listener throughout the conversation, you need to remember the following points

• Establish eye contact with the speaker
• Focus on content, not delivery
• Understand the complexity of listening
• Listen without making judgment
• Ask open ended questions (What happened? what do you mean? Etc.)
• Reflect back to the speaker what you think you are hearing
• Allow speaker to finish before you start
• Avoid negative mannerism like distracting speaker by the hand-movement,
• Avoid thinking about what you going to say next
• Encourage the speaker with nods and affirmative words
• Pay close attention to a speakers body language
• Do not let your own thoughts divert you from what is being talked about
• Act like mirror and reflect feelings that you see and hear, particularly when person tone of voice does not match its word

Expected barriers while Active Listening

• Environmental barriers
• Physiological barriers
• Psychological barriers
• Selective listening
• Personal reactions
• Negative listening attitudes
• Poor motivation
• Trying to listen to more than one conversation at time

Barriers within the listener

• Comparing
• Personal experience
• Automatic talking
• Mind reading
• Judging
• Day dreaming
• Perceptual errors

How to improve your hearing skills

To improve your hearing skills you can practice following techniques

• Repeat the speaker words: This technique involves repeating the speaker’s word in your mind. It will reinforce their message and help you to control mind drift
• Selective listening: It is a technique where listener remembers the list of an object and after 30 seconds write them on paper and compare those object name with the original list
• Group Storytelling: It sound silly but very effective for good listening practice. In this technique each in the group adds one line to the existing line and pass on to the next listener. At the end, the story is narrated loudly by any one individual
• Telephone game: A message is circulated to each individual by whispering into their ears without knowing the next player and the final player will recite this word loudly to see whether it is the same word that was circulated

Active Listening Techniques

Type of Action	Purpose of Action	Implementation	Examples
Encouraging	Showing interest in what speaker is saying To keep the person talking	Don’t agree or disagree Use positive tone of voice	I see…. Yes….
Restating or Clarification	To assure that you are listening	Restate the other’s basic ideas, emphasizing the facts	If I understand what you…… In other words this is something…..
Paraphrasing	To show that you are listening and understanding	Restate the others basic feeling	You feel that…. You must feel annoyed…….
Summarizing	To pull out important ideas, facts, etc. To establish basis for further discussion	Reflect, restate and summarize the basic ideas behind the conversation	This must be the reason why you…… It seems that what was done……

Conclusion:

People do not learn much while they are talking, so active listening is an attempt to bring more clarity about the subject and to improve their comprehensive ability. Active listening is important

• To understand the other party’s proposals and strengths
• To discover the needs of the members or teammates
• To express to others that their idea or proposals are understood