Chapter 6 Effective Listening

Distinguishing the Difference: Hearing and Listening Hearing is the physical process of receiving audio stimuli, but not necessarily interpreting the stimuli Listening is a dynamic and transactional process of: receiving, recalling, rating and responding to stimuli 2 Chapter 6

Listening Receiving - acknowledging the reception of both verbal and nonverbal stimuli Responding – providing feedback to another communicator during an interpersonal exchange 3 Chapter 6

4 Listening Recalling – understanding, storing and remembering messages – Rating – Opinion

The Importance of Listening New technologies have changed whom we listen to, what we listen for, when we listen, and how to listen Employers list Listening as the number 1 skill in employees 5 Chapter 6

Barriers: Why We Don’t Listen Noise – anything that interferes with the transmission of a message – Physical – Semantic – Psychological 6 Chapter 6

Barriers: Why We Don’t Listen Preoccupation – Conversational narcissism – when a communicator is extremely self- focused to the exclusion of the other person Selective listening – attending to some messages and ignoring others 7 Chapter 6

Poor Listening Habits Talkaholism – compulsive talkers that dominate the conversation and monopolize encounters Pseudolistening – pretending to listen 8 Chapter 6

Poor Listening Habits Gap filling – people who assume they know what the person is going to say next and don’t need the speaker to continue 9 Chapter 6

Poor Listening Habits Defensive listening – when people take offense at innocent comments and interpret them as negative or hostile criticism Ambushing – listening with an intent to use the information against the individual 10 Chapter 6

Styles of Listening People-centered – listening with a concern for others’ emotions and feelings Action-centered - listening with a preference or emphasis on organized, accurate and concise messages 11 Chapter 6

Styles of Listening Content-centered – listening with a focus on the facts and details of the message Time-centered – listening with a focus on conveying a message in the shortest amount of time possible 12 Chapter 6

Culture and The Listening Process Individualistic cultures value direct communication, or speaking one’s mind Collectivist cultures value harmony, and believe in conversational politeness 13 Chapter 6

Choices for Effective Listening Evaluate your current skills Prepare to listen Provide empathic responses Use nonjudgmental feedback 14 Chapter 6

Choices for Effective Listening Practice active listening – where the listener communicates reinforcing messages to the speaker 15 Chapter 6