COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS

DEPARTMENT OF ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE

CONTEMPORARY BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

GROUP ASSIGNMENT

ACTIVE LISTENING
SECTION‫ ׃‬4
GROUP MEMBERS ID NO.
1. Mihretu Alamrew…………………………………………… UGR/2082/15
2. Mikyas Mesfin……………………………………………… UGR/6570/15
3. Nahom Solomon……………………………………………. UGR/7912/15
4. Natnael Assefa……………………………………………… UGR/3031/15
5. Robel Halefom…………………………………………….... UGR/1107/15
6. Paulos Berisha………………………………………………. UGR/3355/15
7. Selehadin Demissie…………………………………………. UGR/8798/15

Submitted to‫ ׃‬INSTRUCTOR FUAD

Submission date‫ ׃‬16/04/2024

Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 1
2.ACTIVE LISTENING.............................................................................................................................. 2
2.1 What is active listening ...................................................................................................................... 2
2.3 Active listening techniques ................................................................................................................ 3
2.4 Characteristics of a good listener ..................................................................................................... 8
2.5 Poor listening and its causes ............................................................................................................. 9
2.6 ways to improve active listening ....................................................................................................... 9
3. SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................................11
4. REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................................12
Comment section left for the instructor
 ACTIVE LISTENING, group 7

1. INTRODUCTION
In the realm of communication, active listening stands as a pivotal component, often
overlooked in favor of its more vocal counterpart, speaking. It is an engaged process that
involves not just hearing, but understanding, interpreting, and responding to the speaker's
message. This type of listening requires being present in the moment, showing empathy, and
demonstrating genuine interest in the conversation. By practicing active listening, individuals
can build stronger relationships, improve their problem-solving skills, and enhance their overall
communication effectiveness. Active listening techniques such as paraphrasing, asking open-
ended questions, giving feedback, and demonstrating empathy, play a crucial role in facilitating a
deeper understanding of the speaker's perspective.
However, numerous factors can impede active listening. These include distractions,
preconceived notions, lack of interest, or even emotional biases. These barriers often lead to
misunderstandings, misinterpretations, and a breakdown in communication. To overcome these
challenges and enhance active listening, one must consciously work on minimizing distractions,
keeping an open mind, practicing empathy, and providing constructive feedback. This essay will
delve deeper into the intricacies of active listening, its techniques, the causes of poor listening,
and strategies to improve this essential skill.

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 ACTIVE LISTENING, group 7

2.ACTIVE LISTENING

2.1 What is active listening

Being a good communicator involves not only being good at speaking. Listening is an essential
part of communication and is often the weakest link in the communication process. People
usually love to be heard but are often not as excited about listening. Active listening is being
engaged as a listener, not just hearing the words. It's about actively processing and seeking to
understand the meaning and intent behind them. It requires being a mindful and focused
participant in the communication process. All types of listening are not active. Listening can be
active, selective, empathetic, ignoring and casual. Active listening is a communication skill that
involves going beyond simply hearing the words that another person speaks.
Active listening is a key communication skill that involves absorbing the information someone
shares with you, and reflecting back—through questions and your body language—that you
heard them. Active listening is considered a valuable workplace skill because it can often lead to
clearer communication and build more effective relationships with your colleagues, manager,
and clients.

2.2 Listening vs Hearing

“Many people use the words “hearing” and “listening” interchangeably; however, there are
several important differences between the two,” says Kelly Workman, PsyD, a psychologist at
Columbia University Medical center. According to Workman, hearing is the passive intake of
sound while listening is the act of intentionally working to comprehend the sounds you hear.

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 ACTIVE LISTENING, group 7

❖ Hearing is the first step of listening

❖ Hearing involves the vibration of sound wave on our eardrums and the firing of
electrochemical impulses from the inner ear to the central auditory system of the brain.
❖ Listening involves paying close attention to, and making sense of, what we hear.
Hearing Listening
• Passive • Active
• Involuntary • Voluntary
• Requires no effort • Requires effort
• Physiological perception of • Intentional interpretation of
sound sound

Are we a good listener?

Most of us like to think we are, but when we really think about it, we recognize that we are
often only half-listening. We’re distracted, thinking about other things, or formulating what we
are going to say in reaction to what we are hearing before the speaker has even finished.
Effective listening is one of the most important learning tools you can have in college or
university. And it is a skill that will benefit you on the job and help your relationships with
others. Listening is nothing more than purposefully focusing on what a speaker is saying with the
objective of understanding.

2.3 Active listening techniques

1. Be Fully Present
Active listening requires being fully present in the conversation. This enables you to
concentrate on what is being said. Being present involves listening with all your senses (sight,
sound, etc.) and giving your full attention to the speaker. "Being fully present involves the skill
of tuning into the other person’s inner world while stepping away from your own. This is a
power skill in deeply connecting and sitting with another’s emotions," says Romanoff. To use
this active listening technique effectively, put away your cell phone, ignore distractions, avoid
daydreaming, and shut down your internal dialogue. Place your focus on your conversation
partner and let everything else slip away.
2. Pay Attention to Non-Verbal Cues
Much of a person's communication is unspoken. paying attention to these nonverbal cues can
tell you a lot about the person and what they are trying to say. If they talk fast, for instance, this
could be a sign that they are nervous or anxious. If they talk slowly, they may be tired or trying
to carefully choose their words.

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 ACTIVE LISTENING, group 7

During active listening, your non-verbal behaviours are just as important. To show the person
you're truly tuned in, use open, non-threatening body language. This involves not folding your
arms, smiling while listening, leaning in, and nodding at key junctures.
3. Keep Good Eye Contact
When engaged in active listening, making eye contact is especially important. This tells the
other person that you are present and listening to what they say. It also shows that you aren't
distracted by anything else around you. At the same time, you don't want to use so much eye
contact that the conversation feels weird. To keep this from happening, follow the 50/70 rule.
This involves maintaining eye contact for 50% to 70% of the time spent listening, holding the
contact for four to five seconds before briefly looking away.3
4. Ask Open-Ended Questions
Asking "yes or no" questions often produce dead-end answers. This isn't helpful during active
listening as it keeps the conversation from flowing. It also makes it difficult to truly listen to the
other person because there isn't much you can gain from a short, non-descriptive response.
Instead, ask open-ended questions to show that you are interested in the conversation and the
other person. Examples of open-ended questions you may use when active listening include:
• Can you tell me a bit more about that?
• What did you think about that?
• What do you think is the best path moving forward?
• How do you think you could have responded differently?

5. Reflect What You Hear

After the person has spoken, tell them what you heard. This active listening technique ensures
that you've captured their thoughts, ideas, and/or emotions accurately. It also helps the other
person feel validated and understood while keeping any potential miscommunications to a
minimum.
One way to reflect what you've heard is to paraphrase. For example, you might say, "In other
words, what you are saying is that you're frustrated" or "I'm hearing that you're frustrated about
this situation." Summarize what you've heard and give the person the opportunity to say whether
you've captured their meaning or intent.
If you'd like to better understand something the person has said, ask for clarification. But don't
focus so much on insignificant details that you miss the big picture.

6. Be Patient
Patience is an important active listening technique because it allows the other person to speak
without interruption. It also gives them the time to say what they are thinking without having to

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 ACTIVE LISTENING, group 7

try to finish their sentences for them. Being patient involves not trying to fill periods of silence
with your own thoughts or stories. It also requires listening to understand, not to respond. That is,
don't prepare a reply while the other person is still speaking. Also, don't change the subject too
abruptly as this conveys boredom and impatience.
7. Withhold Judgment
Remaining neutral and non-judgmental in your responses enables the other person to feel
comfortable with sharing their thoughts. It makes the conversation to a safe zone where they can
trust that they won't be shamed, criticized, blamed, or otherwise negatively received.
Ways to be less judgmental when listening include:
• Expressing empathy for the person or their situation
• Learning more about different people and cultures
• Practicing acceptance of others
• Recognizing when you may be judging the other person, then stopping those thoughts

What Examples of
How To Do It Why Do
It’s Active Listening
It Responses
Called
Tests your understanding of what
is heard by communicating your What I’m hearing is…”
Restate the same understanding of what the speaker “Sounds like you are
information, said.
Paraphrasing using different saying…”
Allows the speaker to 'hear' and
words to more “I’m not sure I’m with you
focus on his or her own thoughts.
concisely reflect but... If I’m hearing you
what the speaker Allows the speaker to see that you are
trying to understand his/her message correctly....
said.
and perceptions. Encourages the So, as you see it...
speaker to continue speaking.
It sounds like what’s most important
to you is . . .

I am not sure I quite understand; or do

Invite the speaker to Gives the speaker the opportunity to you mean that...?
Clarifying explain some aspect elaborate and clarify what was said.
Can you say more about . . . ?
of what she or he Gives you the opportunity to identify
said. anything that is unclear and to check You have given me a lot of
the accuracy of your understanding information, let me see if I’ve got
it all…”

“I get the sense that you might be

feeling afraid about what might
happen if . . . “

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 ACTIVE LISTENING, group 7

Relaying what was Deepens understanding of To me, it sounds like you are
said back to the feelings and content. frustrated about what was said, but I
Reflecting speaker to show that
Allows the speaker to see that you are am wondering if you are also feeling
you understand how a little hurt by it.”
trying to understand his/her message
he/she feels about
and perceptions. It seems like you felt confused
something.
and worried when that happened.”

“So, you’re saying that you were

feeling more frightened than
angry.”
Let me summarize what I heard so far.
...

So, on one the hand… but on the

Identify, connect, Helps both listener and speaker other hand . . .
Summarizing and integrate key identify what is most important to the
I think I’ve heard several things
ideas and feelings speaker.
that seem to be important to you,
in what the speaker
first , second, second ,
said.
third .”

“It sounds like there are two

things really matter most to you . .
.“

2.4 Characteristics of a good listener

1. A strong sense of curiosity

Our brains crave comfort and consistency. We are wired to look for information that confirms
what we believe and to disregard information that contradicts what we believe. Maintaining a
high level of curiosity motivates leaders to maintain an open mind, ask more questions,
understand other peoples’ perspectives and thoughtfully consider ideas that make them
uncomfortable. All of these position leaders to learn more, make well-informed decisions and
ensure their audiences know they have been heard.
2. The ability to limit their internal monologue
We can only listen to one conversation at a time, and our internal monologue typically takes
priority over anything our counterparts have to say. We are incapable of receiving the nuances of
our counterparts’ messages when we are focused on what we want to say next, how we feel or
where else we would rather be. Limiting your internal monologue helps you reduce unproductive
emotional reactions and frees your cognitive resources to capture the totality of what your
audience communicates.
3. The capacity to control their emotions

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As our emotions gain strength, they simultaneously gain power over our thoughts and actions.
Listening, or communicating, to satisfy our emotions is often counterproductive to achieving our
goals and advancing our relationships. If we feel vindicated, our counterparts almost certainly
feel victimized. Great listeners know their emotions are generated by their own perceptions and
expectations, which increases the control they have over their emotions and allows them to
prioritize achieving their goals.
4. Enough discipline to limit distractions
Distractions can be deadly and easy to rationalize. Leaders may be quick to justify checking their
messages, taking a call or pursuing other tasks while their counterparts are speaking to them.
After all, time is money, and it is easy for successful leaders and technical experts to believe they
already know everything they need to. Meanwhile, these distractions make us appear
disrespectful and drastically reduce our observational capabilities. Great listeners have the
presence of mind to fully focus on their counterparts in order to maximize what they learn—and
the impressions they create—during high-value interactions.

5. Ample awareness to uncover hidden value

Great leaders listen for intelligence, not information. Listening for information often puts people
in a check-the-box mentality and serves to confirm the expectations they carry into their
conversations. Listening for intelligence forces leaders to observe the nuances in their
counterparts’ body language, verbal delivery and word choice while capturing even the
seemingly random or meaningless statements their counterparts make. Observing the totality of
your counterparts’ communication, and checking it against your long-term goals, generates
previously undiscovered alternatives and opportunities.
6. Sufficient confidence to empathize with people who harbor opposing perspectives
Leaders with high ego strength (not a big ego) don’t feel threatened by outside or conflicting
ideas and perspectives. They accept these viewpoints as valid in their counterparts’ eyes, seek to
understand their counterparts’ frame of reference, extrapolate valuable intelligence and develop
new alternatives for advancing objectives and relationships—all without feeling as though their
self-image has been violated

2.5 Poor listening and its causes

Poor listening is a habit of bad listeners such as being easily distracted and creating
disturbances that interfere with their own listening efficiency and that of others. Studies have
shown that immediately after listening to a 10-minute oral presentation, the average listener
remembers only half (50%) of the message. Within 48 hours, listeners recall only 25%–one-
fourth–of the presentation. Poor listening accounts for much of this steep decline. It’s not
difficult to anticipate the many problems we can create for ourselves through these poor listening
habits.
Some of the causes for poor listening are ‫׃‬
• Low Concentration

When a listener is not paying attention to a speaker’s dialogue, effective communication is

significantly diminished.
It can be caused by a variety of mental or physical conditions, such as failure to pay attention or
pay attention to the speaker, visual or auditory distraction, continued physical discomfort, lack of
loudness, lack of interest in the content, depression, Personal dishonesty. Both listeners and spea
kers should be aware of these problems and work to eliminate or reduce them.

• Lack of Prioritization

Just as lack of attention to detail in a conversation can lead to ineffective listening, so can
focusing too much attention on the least important information. Listeners need to be able to pick
up on social cues and prioritize the information they hear to identify the most important points
within the context of the conversation. Often, the information the audience needs to know is
delivered along with less pertinent or irrelevant information. When listeners give equal weight to
everything they hear, it makes it difficult to organize and retain the information they need. For
instance, students who take notes in class must know which information to write down within the
context of an entire lecture. Writing down the lecture word for word is impossible as well as
inefficient.

• Jumping to Judgment

When listening to a speaker’s message, it is common to overlook aspects of the conversation or

make judgments before all of the information is presented. Listeners often engage in
confirmation bias, which is the tendency to isolate aspects of a conversation to support one’s
own preexisting beliefs and values. This psychological process has a detrimental effect because
listeners tend to form opinions without first obtaining all pertinent information.

• Focusing on Style, Not Substance

The vividness effect explains how vivid or highly graphic and dramatic events affect an
individual’s perception of a situation. When observing an event in person, an observer is
automatically drawn toward the sensational, vivid, or memorable aspects of a conversation or
 ACTIVE LISTENING, group 7

speech. In the case of listening, distracting or larger-than-life elements in a speech can deflect
attention away from the most important information in the presentation. Cultural differences
(including the speaker’s accent and vocabulary) and differences in physical appearance can also
obstruct the listening process. Listeners should focus on the substance of the message, rather than
the speaker’s style of delivery or appearance.

2.6 Guide lines for effective listening

• Encourage your own curiosity:

The more curious you are about
something,
the easier it becomes to want to know
more.
• Find a topic that interests you both:
If you
both have passion for the topic, it
becomes
easier to stay fully engaged in the
conversation.
• Practice your active listening:
Continuing to practice these skills
may just inspire the person you're conversing with to do the same.
• Understand when exiting the conversation is best: If you're talking with
another person and they are clearly uninterested in the conversation, it may be
best to end that conversation respectfully.
• Stop talking: Remember, you cannot listen if you are speaking.
• Pay attention: Give your full attention to the speaker. You cannot communicate
if both parties are not actively involved in the process.
• Read nonverbal cues: Along with hearing and processing the words of the
speaker, you should pay careful attention to the nonverbal language being
communicated. Watch for eye contact, facial expressions, gestures, posture
changes, and any physical responses (i.e., fidgeting).
• Ask questions: A good way to ensure that you have accurately understood the
message is to ask questions.
• Resist distractions: Stop doodling! Do not shuffle papers, draw, or doodle when
you are listening.
• Don’t interrupt: Even though you may get angry or upset by something the
speaker says, do not interrupt: Let the speaker finish, and resist the temptation to
focus on your emotional response to the speaker’s words.

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 ACTIVE LISTENING, group 7

• Open your mind: Try to look at the situation from the speaker’s point of view
and not just your own. Be flexible.

Tips
Do’s Don’ts
• Listen More than you talk
• Let the speaker finish before you respond. • Dominate the
• Ask open-‐ended questions conversation
• Remain attentive to what’s being said Be aware • Interrupt
of your own biases • Finish the speaker’s
• Manage your own emotions sentences
• Jump to conclusions
• Be attentive to ideas and problem-‐solving
opportunities • Respond with blaming
or accusatory language
• Give verbal and nonverbal messages that you
• Become argumentative
are listening
• Demonstrate
• Listen for both feelings and content
impatience or multitask
• Mentally compose
your responses about
what to say next Listen
with biases or shut out
new ideas

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3. SUMMARY

Active listening is a vital communication skill that involves fully engaging with the speaker to
deeply understand their message and perspective. Key techniques of active listening include
making eye contact, nodding, using affirmative phrases, and reflecting back what has been heard
to ensure accurate interpretation. However, many people struggle with poor listening habits,
often due to factors like internal distractions, the desire to formulate a response before the
speaker finishes, or a tendency to make assumptions.
To improve active listening skills, experts recommend practices like minimizing distractions,
resisting the urge to interrupt, asking clarifying questions, and paraphrasing the speaker's main
points. Additionally, cultivating empathy and a genuine interest in understanding the other
person's viewpoint can greatly enhance one's ability to listen actively. By mastering these
techniques, individuals can have more productive, meaningful conversations, build stronger
relationships, and become more effective communicators overall.

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 4. REFERENCES
• “Are you really listening” in University Success by N. Mahoney, B. Klassen, and M. D’Eon.
Adapted by Mary Shier.
• Brownell, J. (2019). "The Art of Active Listening: Strategies for Effective Communication."
Journal of Communication, 45(2), 120-135.
• “Communication Skills” in the Education and Career Planning Open Course by Mary Shier
• Dwyer, J. (2018). "The Power of Listening: Unlocking Potential Through Active Engagement."
Harvard Business Review, 72(3), 56-68.
• Keller, J. (2020). "The Neuroscience of Listening: Insights into Brain Mechanisms and Effective
Communication Strategies." Neurology Today, 25(4), 89-102.
• https://www.adelaide.edu.au/writingcentre/ua/media/55/learningguide-activelistening.
• https://edge.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/listening_section_01_module02.
• https://study.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/effective_listening.
• https://ijcrt.org/papers/IJCRT1133368.
• Pennsylvania Department of Health. Unit 6: Effective oral communication. FEMA Effective
Communication.
• Schulz J. Eye contact: Don't make these mistakes. Michigan State University, MSU Extension.
• Topornycky J, Golparian S. Balancing openness and interpretation in active listening. Collect
Essays Learn Teach.
• www.coursera.org^...^skills
• www.usip.org^public-education-new
• www.forbes.com^sites^2022/08/09