LISTENING SKILLS | BUSINESS COMMUNICATION | NEP

Listening is one of the most critical skills in communication.

Effective listening enhances understanding, builds relationships, and prevents conflicts, yet it is often overlooked or misunderstood.

Definition of Listening

Listening is the active process of receiving and interpreting verbal and non-verbal messages. Unlike hearing, which is a passive, physiological process, listening requires attention, comprehension, and interaction with the speaker.

Key Characteristics of Listening:

Attentiveness: Focusing on what is being said.

Interpretation: Understanding the meaning behind the words.

Retention: Remembering the key points of the conversation.

Feedback: Responding to the speaker appropriately.

Active Listening

Active listening refers to a conscious, deliberate effort to understand and respond to the speaker with empathy and attention. It involves full engagement with the speaker's message, both verbal and non-verbal, to ensure that the listener accurately comprehends the communication.

Features of Active Listening:

Concentration: Active listeners pay full attention to the speaker, avoiding distractions.

Non-verbal Cues: Eye contact, nodding, and facial expressions show engagement.

Clarification: Asking questions to ensure understanding (e.g., "Can you explain that again?").

Paraphrasing: Summarizing what the speaker said to confirm understanding (e.g., "So, you're saying that…").

Empathy: Demonstrating emotional understanding by acknowledging the speaker’s feelings (e.g., "That sounds really challenging").

Passive Listening

Passive listening occurs when the listener hears the message but does not actively engage with or respond to it. While information is being received, the listener does not provide feedback or clarification, and the depth of understanding is typically superficial.

Characteristics of Passive Listening:

Minimal Engagement: The listener does not ask questions or seek clarification.

Limited Response: The listener may nod or give minimal responses without indicating full comprehension.

Distraction: The listener may be physically present but mentally preoccupied or distracted.

Reduced Retention: Information is likely forgotten quickly because of lack of active involvement.

While passive listening can be appropriate in certain situations (e.g., casual or entertainment contexts), it is generally less effective in meaningful or complex communication.

Blocks to Effective Listening

Several barriers can prevent effective listening, which leads to misunderstandings, miscommunication, and conflict.

Common Blocks to Effective Listening:

Prejudices and Biases: Prejudging the speaker or topic can lead to selective listening, where the listener only hears what they want or expect to hear, rather than what is being communicated.

Distractions: External distractions (noise, technology) and internal distractions (thinking about something else, emotional stress) interfere with the ability to focus on the speaker.

Assumptions: Assuming we already know what the speaker is going to say can lead to tuning out or interrupting them.

Emotional Reactions: Strong emotions (anger, frustration, excitement) can cloud judgment and prevent clear, rational listening.

Multitasking: Trying to do multiple tasks while listening reduces attention and leads to incomplete understanding.

Lack of Interest: When a listener is uninterested in the topic, they may not invest the effort needed for active listening, leading to disengagement.

Guidelines for Effective Listening

Improving listening skills requires conscious effort and practice. Here are some guidelines that can help enhance listening effectiveness:

Be Present and Focused: Avoid distractions, give your full attention to the speaker, and stay mentally present during the conversation.

Maintain Open Body Language: Use non-verbal cues like maintaining eye contact, nodding, and leaning slightly forward to show attentiveness and interest.

Suspend Judgment: Keep an open mind and listen without forming conclusions or judgments until the speaker has finished. Avoid interrupting or assuming what the speaker will say next.

Practice Patience: Let the speaker finish their thoughts before responding. Even if there are pauses, resist the urge to fill them; this often leads to deeper insights.

Ask Clarifying Questions: If something is unclear, ask for clarification. This demonstrates that you are paying attention and want to fully understand the message.

Paraphrase and Summarize: Restate the speaker’s message in your own words to ensure you have understood correctly. This also shows that you are engaged and processing the information.

Acknowledge Emotions: Recognize the speaker’s feelings and provide empathetic responses. For example, “I can see that this is frustrating for you.”

Avoid Distractions: Minimize external distractions by turning off your phone or stepping away from noisy environments during conversations. Also, practice controlling internal distractions, such as wandering thoughts.

Importance of Silence in Communication

Silence is a powerful tool in communication, often overlooked but essential for effective listening. Silence creates space for reflection, encourages the speaker to share more, and allows the listener to absorb information more deeply.

The Role of Silence in Listening:

Encourages Elaboration: Pausing after a speaker finishes a thought can prompt them to continue and provide more detail.

Gives Time for Reflection: Silence allows both the listener and the speaker to process information. It helps the listener formulate thoughtful responses rather than reacting impulsively.

Reduces Pressure: Allowing silence in a conversation can reduce the pressure on the speaker to constantly fill the space with words, making them feel more comfortable and understood.

Demonstrates Respect: By allowing silence, the listener shows that they value what the speaker has to say and are not rushing to impose their own views.

Calms Emotions: In emotionally charged conversations, silence can help diffuse tension, giving both parties time to calm down and approach the discussion more rationally.

Non-verbal Communication: Silence can also serve as a form of non-verbal communication, signaling contemplation, respect, or agreement without the need for words.

Conclusion

Listening is a critical component of effective communication, especially in professional, academic, and personal interactions. By cultivating strong listening skills, one can enhance their academic performance, teamwork abilities, and professional relationships.

LISTENING - ADVANTAGES / DISADVANTAGES & EFFECTIVE LISTENING

 What are the responsibilities of a good listener? OR Explain consideration before starting listening?

Ans: There are following responsibilities of good listeners;

1. Preparation for listening:- A listener should prepare himself to listen. This preparation includes following point:

(i) No talking:- A listener must not talk when he is going to listen otherwise, the idea may not be received or it may be interrupted.

(ii) Avoiding distraction:- The listener should not distract his attention from the speaker to some other object. Shuffling papers or doing any other thing may disturb the person of receiving ideas.

(iii) Good environmental condition:- The listeners should arrange a suitable condition before listening. Noise of traffic, poor ventilation, extraordinary warmness or coldness and many other such things cause problems in listening.

2. Concentration on message:- A listener is required to concentrate on verbal and non-verbal message. For having good concentration, following points are to be considered:

(i) Controlling emotion and feelings:- Sometimes it happens that speaker’s words hurt the feelings of listeners. In this situation the listeners should control his/her emotion and feeling because if he loses temperament, he cannot get the message.

(ii) Avoiding evaluation:- The listener should concentrate only on listening and avoid jumping to conclusion or evaluating the message.

(iii) Showing interest:- The listener should show his interest to the topic so that the speaker can be motivated to convey his ideas in a better way.

What are the faults/pitfalls of listening?

Ans: Listening is a very important aspect of oral communication. If there is any lacking or fault in listening, it might cause failure to communication process. So, people should be well aware of faults in listening so as to improve the overall communication ability. These faults are enumerated as under:

(1) Prejudice against the speaker.

(2) External Distraction.

(3) Thinking speed.

(4) Premature evaluation.

(5) Semantic stereotype.

(6) Delivery of speech.

(7) Language.

(8) Sluggishness.

The explanation of above mentioned points is as under:

1. Prejudice against the speaker:- Sometimes the speaker conflicts with our attitude. The summary of these conflicts is as follows:

(i) Personality of the Speaker:- If the speaker is not liked by the listener, the listener may not pay attention to listening. For example a business person might not listen to his rival because he is biased with the personality of that rival.

(ii) Thoughts of speaker:- If the thoughts of speaker are in contrast with the listener’s thoughts the listening process could be damaged.

2. External Distraction:- External environment affects listening a lot. Noisy fans, poor light, distracting background music, overheated or cold room, poor ventilation and many other things distract a listener’s attention from the speaker’s message.

3. Thinking speed:- On average, most of us speak between 80 and 160 words per minute. Whereas, people have the ability to think at the rate of up to 800 words per minute. Despite this fact, the listener may have slower thinking process due to the following reasons:

(i) Competition of concentration:- The listener could not concentrate on the message because he has many things to think besides listening to the message.

(ii) Doing some other activity:- The listener might be involved in doing some other activity.

4. Premature evaluation::- When the listener starts evaluating the message during the process of listening, he/she is not attentive enough to the message. This is another fault of listening.

5. Semantic stereotype:- There are many topics to which the listener has emotional and psychological belongingness. So, the topic and issues which hurt his feelings are not absorbed by him easily.

6. Delivery of speech:- A monotone can easily put the listener to sleep or cause him to lose the interest.

7. Language:- Another fault of listening is the language. If the speaker using such words, idioms, or structure of language with which the listener is not familiar, the speaker will face difficulties in conveying his message.

8. Sluggishness:- If the listener is mentally or physically tired, or habitually lazy, he would feel difficulty in listening to the message.

What are the guide lines to effective listening? OR How can good listening habits be developed?

Ans: Listening is very important aspect of communication. Around 20% of overall communication is listening. Therefore, one should strive for adopting good listening habit. There are following guidelines for good listening:

(1) Preparation before listening.

(2) Listening to understand, not to refute.

(3) Focusing the attention.

(4) Concentration on context.

(5) Taking notes.

(6) Curbing the impulse to interrupt.

(7) Asking questions.

(8) Summary & evaluation.

The details of each point are as follows:

1. Preparation before listening:- As already mentioned that listening plays important role in communication. So one should prepare himself before starting listening. In preparation, there are following guidelines:

(i) Stop talking:- Human brain can perform one activity efficiently at a time, so during listening there should be no talking by the listener.

(ii) Remove distraction:- Noisy fan, traffic noise, entrance of unauthorized persons may interrupt the listening process. All these barriers should be removed.

(iii) Good environmental conditions:- There should not be extraordinary cold or warm environment and ventilations should be proper.

2. Listening to understand, not to refute:- There could be many topics to which the listener has reservations. Apart form these reservations, the listener should try his best to understand the message.

3. Focusing the attention:- There may be many objects on which the listener should construct a mental outline of where the speaker is going in his speech.

4. Concentration on context:- The listener should keep in mind the background and theme of speech. This thing enables him to absorb the material quickly and efficiently.

5. Taking notes:- Listener should keep on taking notes. Hence, he should jot down ideas rather than sentences. In this way, he/she could make the message safe for a long time.

6. Curbing the impulse to interrupt:- One should avoid interrupting the speech until the speaker invites questions. This habit puts the speaker and listener both at ease.

7. Asking questions:- Asking right question on right time is quite different form interruption. Listener should have an idea to know right time to ask questions.

8. Summary & evaluation:- The listener should summarize and speech but not during listening process.

Why should a business communicator know about listening? OR Discuss advantages of good listening: OR What is the purpose of listening? Discuss;

Ans: Listening is an important aspect of business communication. It stands third after writing and speaking. A business communicator has to listen to various customer, employees, officer, suppliers, financiers etc. Obviously, it is an unavoidable task for a business person. This important reason as to why a business communicator should known about listening is enumerated as under.

(1) To gain new information and ideas.

(2) To question and test evidence and assumptions.

(3) To be inspired and motivated.

(4) To improve overall communication.

The explanation of these points is as under:

1. To gain new information and ideas:- A business person has to get new information and ideas from various parties. For example He gets the information from customers regarding the product. He takes various ideas from the employees inside the organization. He receives order or instruction forms his superiors. He gets training form his instructor. All these activities require him to be a good listener.

2. To question test evidence and assumptions:- Any activity, particularly business, activity requires good analytical skill to survive in the environment. A good listener does not feel much difficulty in doing so. The message of speaker mostly consists of facts (Verifiable data) or opinions (inferences). Good listeners test those facts and opinions against assumptions and then question the speaker. In this way he is able to analyze the massage and treat it on its merit.

3. To be inspired a motivated:- A dynamic business man wants to be motivated again and again. Good listening enables him to take inspiration from the message and brings about enthusiasm in his attitude.

4. To improve overall communication:- A business person needs strong communication skills to survive in the market. And to face a high degree of competition. This can only be achieved by having strength in all areas of communicating i.e. writing, reading, speaking and particularly listening.

What do you mean by good listening and bad listening? Discuss,

Ans: Good listening means a person’s ability to understand the message effectively and efficiently. It results in improved communication and quick feedback.

ADVANTAGES OF GOOD LISTENING:

Listening is not just heart. It is respectively that permits understanding of what is heard and makes the listener a sharer in communication. Listening is a skill that requires parlance and lact. There are certain advantages of good listening

1. It leads to helpful positive attitudes.

2. It permits the speaker and listener to improve communication.

3. It provides a feed-back to the speaker who can adjust to the situation and helps his/her give better presentation.

4. It creates better understanding of the two parties.

Bad listening:-

It means a person’s disability to understand the message partially or completely. It results in 

(i) Poor hearing (ii) Poor understanding (iii) Poor interpretation,

It can be overcome by following the guidelines of listening.

TYPES OF LISTENING

Listening is the conscious processing of the auditory stimuli that have been perceived through hearing.

Listening differs from obeying. Parents may commonly conflate the two, by telling a disobedient child that he "didn't listen to me". However, a person who receives and understands information or an instruction, and then chooses not to comply with it or to agree to it, has listened to the speaker, even though the result is not what the speaker wanted.

TYPES OF LISTENING

1. DISCRIMINATIVE LISTENING :

Discriminative listening is the type of listening, whereby the difference between difference sounds is identified. 

If listener cannot hear differences, then they cannot make sense of the meaning that is expressed by such differences.

People learn to discriminate between sounds within their own language early, and later are unable to discriminate between the phonemes of other languages. This is one reason why a person from one country finds it difficult to speak another language perfectly, as they are unable distinguish the subtle sounds that are required in that language.

Likewise, a person who cannot hear the subtleties of emotional variation in another person's voice will be less likely to be able to discern the emotions the other person is experiencing.

Listening is a visual as well as auditory act, as we communicate much through body language. We thus also need to be able to discriminate between muscle and skeletal movements that signify different meanings.

 

2. COMPREHENSION LISTENING :

This listening is to make sense of the sounds . To comprehend the meaning requires first having a lexicon of words at our fingertips and also all rules of grammar and syntax by which we can understand what others are saying.

The same is true, of course, for the visual components of communication, and an understanding of body language helps us understand what the other person is really meaning.

In communication, some words are more important and some less so, and comprehension often benefits from extraction of key facts and items from a long spiel.

Comprehension listening is also known  as content listening, informative listening and full listening.

3. CRITICAL LISTENING :

Critical listening is listening in order to evaluate and judge, forming opinion about what is being said. Judgment includes assessing strengths and weaknesses, agreement and approval.

This form of listening requires significant real-time cognitive effort as the listener analyzes what is being said, relating it to existing knowledge and rules, whilst simultaneously listening to the ongoing words from the speaker.

 

4. BIASED LISTENING :

Biased listening happens when the person hears only what they want to hear, typically misinterpreting what the other person says based on the stereotypes and other biases that they have. Such biased listening is often very evaluative in nature.

 

5. EVALUATIVE LISTENING :

In evaluative listening, or critical listening, listener make judgments about what the other person is saying. They seek to assess the truth of what is being said and also judge what they say against our values, assessing them as good or bad, worthy or unworthy.

Evaluative listening is particularly pertinent when the other person is trying to persuade , perhaps to change the behavior and maybe even to change the beliefs. 

Within this, person also discriminate between subtleties of language and comprehend the inner meaning of what is said. 

Typically also we weigh up the pros and cons of an argument, determining whether it makes sense logically as well as whether it is helpful to us.

Evaluative listening is also called critical, judgmental or interpretive listening.

 

6. APPRECIATIVE LISTENING : 

In appreciative listening, we seek certain information which will appreciate, for example that which helps meet our needs and goals. We use appreciative listening when we are listening to good music, poetry or maybe even the stirring words of a great leader.

 

7 .SYMPATHETIC LISTENING :

In sympathetic listening we care about the other person and show this concern in the way we pay close attention and express our sorrow for their ills and happiness at their joys.

 

8. EMPATHETIC LISTENING :

When we listen empathetically, we go beyond sympathy to seek a truer understand how others are feeling. This requires excellent discrimination and close attention to the nuances of emotional signals. When we are being truly empathetic, we actually feel what they are feeling.

In order to get others to expose these deep parts of themselves to us, we also need to demonstrate our empathy in our demeanor towards them, asking sensitively and in a way that encourages self-disclosure.

 

9. THERAPEUTIC LISTENING

In therapeutic listening, the listener has a purpose of not only empathizing with the speaker but also to use this deep connection in order to help the speaker understand, change or develop in some way.

This not only happens when you go to see a therapist but also in many social situations, where friends and family seek to both diagnose problems from listening and also to help the speaker cure themselves, perhaps by some cathartic process. This also happens in work situations, where managers, HR people, trainers and coaches seek to help employees learn and develop.

 

10 .DIALOGIC LISTENING :

The word 'dialogue' stems from the Greek words 'dia', meaning 'through' and 'logos' meaning 'words'. Thus dialogic listening mean learning through conversation and an engaged interchange of ideas and information in which we actively seek to learn more about the person and how they think.

Dialogic listening is sometimes known as 'relational listening'.

 

11. RELATIONSHIP LISTENING :

Sometimes the most important factor in listening is in order to develop or sustain a relationship. This is why lovers talk for hours and attend closely to what each other has to say when the same words from someone else would seem to be rather boring.

Watch the video by clicking the link: TYPES OF LISTENING

Relationship listening is also important in areas such as negotiation and sales, where it is helpful if the other person likes you and trusts you.

LISTENING

Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process.

Listening is key to all effective communication, without the ability to listen effectively messages are easily misunderstood – communication breaks down and the sender of the message can easily become frustrated or irritated.

Process of Listening involves

- Receiving - Hearing the sounds produced and accepting them without any barriers disrupting communication

- Interpreting - Giving meaning to the words and thus understanding what the speaker is trying to say.

- Remembering - The ability to listen well will enable you to remember and retain what you have heard.

- Evaluating - Assess the message by applying thinking skills and evaluate the message

- Respond - Provide feedback. This will enable the sender of the message to know that you have understood the message.


IMPORTANCE OF LISTENING

- Listening attentively is a mark of good manners.
- Listening helps you follow orders / instructions better
- Listening enables the important objectives of communication such as motivations, boost to morale, etc.
- Listen patiently to your workers and customers so that they can communicate their grievances or problems and thus the company will be able to resolve the issues
- Listening encourages group communication, and makes activities like committee meetings, conferences, seminars, etc. a session where one can develop oneself.


CULTIVATING GOOD LISTENING SKILLS

- Listening cannot take place if you are talking. The anagram of 'listen' is 'silent'
- Avoid listening to more than one person at a time.
- Have an open mind. Be willing to listen to, discuss and even accept other people's views and opinions if you are convinced about them.
- Arrive in time so that you can settle yourself  physically and mentally and help you concentrate on listening.
- Focus on what is being said
- Avoid distractions such as tapping a pen, shifting papers etc. as this distracts both the speaker and the listener
- Motivate the speaker by taking interest in what he/she is saying
- Do not lose you temper, as angry people neither listen nor understand properly
- Do not judge a speaker before the speech is completed
- Ask the speaker questions only after the speech is over

Watch the video by clicking the link: Listening