Listening Skills

Effective Listening Tips

Communication is nothing but exchanging of information from one person to another person. It is a way of reaching others with ideas, facts, opinions, feelings etc. Communication is a process that involves two parties namely – the sender and the receiver who are also called the speaker and the listener. Both of these parties should interact with each other by listening carefully what is being conveyed by the other person or else the purpose of communication will not be achieved.

At this juncture, it is very much essential to examine a top-notch quote of the world’s renowned philosopher J. Krishnamurti. His beautiful quote on listening goes like this “So when you are listening to somebody, completely, attentively, then you are listening not only to the words, but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, to the whole of it, not part of it.” By going through these great words we should understand and a vivid idea about what actually listening is. How much difficult it is to listen carefully to the other person who is interacting with us.

Listening is an art and while listening to somebody we should keep all our prejudices aside and pay complete attention to what the speaker is trying to convey. Unfortunately at the present moment, people are very keen in speaking only and ignoring the significance of listening. One should always remember an important thing about listening i.e. one cannot become a good communicator unless one is a good listener.

Tips to develop Effective Listening Skills:

• Numerous tests have confirmed that we are inefficient listeners. Hence it is essential on our part to make a conscious effort to develop this important segment of communication. Given below are some important tips to help you develop effective listening skills:
• Always remember good listening begins with making and maintaining good eye contact with whoever is speaking. Never fail to maintain eye contact while interacting with others.
• Do not be rigid in accepting new ideas and information.
• Try to create a good impression in the mind of the speaker that you are listening to him attentively. Keep on asking some questions.
• Never interrupt and overtake the speaker which will surely annoy him/her and as a result of this he/she cannot deliver the original content that actually lies in his/her mind.
• Respect the speaker for his knowledge, experience, talent and skills.
• Stop taking with others.
• Refrain from argumentation and criticism.
• Avoid distractions as much as possible in order to concentrate better on what the speaker is going to say.
• You should also avoid making predictions beforehand itself.
• Ignore the appearance and dress of the speaker; instead focus only on the content. 

Since effective listening enhances the quality of communication, we should always strive for becoming effective listeners in our lives. With good listening skills, we can overcome misunderstandings and achieve better results.