Listening Skills

Geeta Kwatra
 Listening and Hearing
Hearing is simply the process of perceiving sound
through your ears. Your ears pick up sounds and
send them to your brain, which then interprets
these sounds as speech or music. Hearing can
happen in just a split second.

Unlike hearing, listening is an active process that

involves actively focusing on what you hear and
giving your full attention to the person or people
speaking. It also requires understanding what
you're hearing and processing it so that you can
respond appropriately.
 Key Differences between Hearing and
Listening

 Difference # 1. Hearing is a passive process, while

listening is active.

 Difference # 2. Hearing does not require

understanding, but listening does.

 Difference # 3. Hearing can happen without any

effort, but listening requires concentration and
focus.
 Difference # 4. Hearing is simply the physical process
of perceiving sound, while listening involves
understanding and responding to what you've heard.
We may hear dogs barking but listen to another
person talk and respond accordingly.

 Difference # 5. You can hear many things concurrently

(cars, barking, TV in another room, people chatting),
but can only listen to one thing at a time.
 Tips for Becoming a Better
Listener
 1. Pay Attention
 Focus your full attention on the person speaking
put away your phone, stop what you're doing, and
make eye contact. Nothing has aggravated me
more or made me avoid future conversations with
people than when someone completely and
repetitively was distracted while I was speaking.
 2. Live in the Moment
 Be present in the moment – don't let your
mind wander or get distracted by other
thoughts. This is difficult to do, but there are
ways to train yourself to be more present. It
is easier to be present if you are paying
attention as noted above.
 3. Have an Open Mind
 Keep an open mind and try to understand
what the other person is saying without
judging them or jumping to conclusions.

 It may be easy to jump to conclusions if you

don't agree with someone or if you think they
are wrong about something, but it's
important to remember that everyone is
entitled to their own opinion.
 4. Non-verbal Signals
 Like any other species, humans
communicate in ways that go beyond our
verbal ability. Pay attention to non-verbal
cues such as facial expressions and body
language. Have you ever talked to
someone that said something verbally but
their face (especially their eyes) said
something different?
 6. Be Polite
 Avoid interrupting or finishing the other
person's sentences for them. Have you ever
tried in vain to speak to someone that simply
would not let you finish a sentence? It did
not feel well, did it? Well, imagine the shoe
on the other foot.

 While some topics may make us excited and

want to speak up, if you are having a real
conversation with someone, it is best to let
them finish before jumping in.
 5. Have Questions
 Ask questions to clarify what you've heard
and show that you're interested in what the
other person is saying. By asking questions,
you are indirectly letting the person know
you have been listening well and seek some
clarification.
 Use Repetition Practice active listening by
repeating back what you've heard to show
that you understand. You don't have to
repeat everything word for word of course.
However, you may want to repeat a key
phrase or main point.
 Listening Process
 1. Sensing and attending
 Listening begins with physical hearing of the
message and taking note of it. Sensing is,
thus, the first step of the listening process.

 You hear sounds and then attend to them in

order to receive the message. Once you are
able to recognize the sound patterns, comes
the next stage: understanding and
interpreting the message.
 Understanding and interpreting
 The second stage in the listening process is to
understand and interpret the meaning of the message.

 In the listening process, understanding implies that you

are able to assign the intended meaning to the content
or verbal part of the message.

 Interpreting in the listening process implies that you are

able to ascertain the emotional meaning the speaker
attaches to the message by his or her use of nonverbal
signs, such as tone of voice and body movement
 3. Remembering
 Remembering is the process of storing the
meanings that have been received so that
they may be recalled later.

 A good reason for taking notes in a seminar

or meeting, for instance, is that it is easier to
forget than to remember.
 3. Responding
 The fourth stage in the listening process is that of responding
to the message.

 At this stage you complete the process of listening by

providing feedback to the speaker.

 If the message has been analyzed, interpreted, and evaluated

correctly, the feedback will be appropriate.

 The importance of your feedback is that it is the way the

speaker knows you sensed (heard) the message, understood,
interpreted, and evaluated it – in other words, that you have
been listening.
 Habits that hinder Listening

 1. Calling the Subject Dull

 2. Criticizing the Speaker
 3. Getting Overstimulated
 4. Listening Only For Facts
 6. Faking Attention
 7. Tolerating Distraction
 8. Choosing Only What's Easy
 9. Letting Emotion-Laden Words Get In The Way
 Categories of Listening

 1. Informational listening
 When you want to learn something, you’ll use
informational listening to understand and retain
information.
 2. Discriminative listening
 Discriminative listening is the first listening type
that you’re born with.

 Everyone innately has discriminative listening

skills.

 You use this type of listening before you even

know how to understand words. Instead of relying
on words, discriminative listening uses tone of
voice, verbal cues, and other changes in sound.
 3. Biased listening
 Biased listening is also known as selective listening.

 Someone who uses biased listening will only listen

for information that they specifically want to hear.

 This listening process can lead to a distortion of facts.

That’s because the person listening isn’t fully in tune
with what the speaker wishes to communicate.
 4. Sympathetic listening
 Sympathetic listening is driven by emotion.

 Instead of focusing on the message spoken

through words, the listener focuses on the
feelings and emotions of the speaker.
 5. Empathetic or therapeutic listening
 Empathetic listening is useful to help you see
from other people’s perspectives.

 Using this type of listening, you can try to

understand someone else’s point of view as
they’re speaking. You can also try to imagine
yourself in the other person’s shoes.
 6. Critical listening
 If you need to analyze complex information,
you’ll need to use critical listening.

 Using critical thinking while listening goes deeper

than comprehensive listening. Instead of taking
the information at face value, you can use critical
listening to evaluate what’s being said.

 Critical listening is crucial when problem-solving

at work.
THANK YOU