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.
