Listening Skills

Lecture 14
 Introduction
• Deliberate act of attentively hearing

• Paying undivided attention

• Hearing, a physical act of senses receiving sounds

• Hearing has the ears, but listening involves mind

 How Do We Listen?
• It is rightly said “we have two ears but one tongue”.

• Listening, can be improved through training

• Quran Says “And he (Ibn Al Munaya) said, "And this is the listening
that is loved by Allah ."
 Listening As a Management Tool

• Why do Far-sighted business heads and senior executives use careful listening?

• Read the case “case of Maruti Udyog”

• Managing Director Jagdish Khattar’s innovative has used methods of
seeking suggestions from employees. Maruti’s decision to showcase a
concept car at Delhi’s annual Auto Expo was born out of an event
called ‘Tea with the MD’. Almost every fortnight, Khattar used to get
together with a group of young Maruti engineers and managers in an
informal meeting that encouraged them to articulate their ideas for
the company’s growth.
• Khattar’s purpose was to elicit valuable suggestions for Maruti’s
growth by holding informal tea-sessions with his engineers and
managers or by walking around at dealers’ conventions, urging his
dealers to make suggestions for improving sales and distribution. This
was how he hit upon a formula that saved the company nearly INR 4
million.
• Realizing that dealers hesitated to express themselves in an open
forum, Khattar urged each of them to put down three of their
suggestions on a piece of paper. He said, ‘On the five-hour flight back
from Bangkok to Delhi, I went through each and every sheet. Our
dealers had made several suggestions on how we could de-bottleneck
distribution.
• I realized that increasing the sales force and opening small dealership
extensions in rural and semi-urban areas could easily cut down on
investments’. Khattar would routinely talk with and listen to
youngsters before walking into his office. His example demonstrates
how providing opportunities to others to express valuable suggestions
holds the key to the successful management of problems.
 Role Play
• Telephone Conversation. ...
• Going to the Shop. ...
• Booking a Hotel. ...
• Sharing Opinions. ...
• Job Interview. ...
• Getting Everyone to Speak. ...
• Argument Between Neighbours.
 The Process Of Listening
• Undivided attention
• Hearing
• Understanding
• Interpreting
• Evaluating
• Empathizing
• Conceptualizing
 Factors That Adversely Affect Listening
• Lack of Concentration & its reasons:

• Hearing faster than speaking

• Paying attention to the speaker and not the speech

• Listening too closely

 Unequal Statuses
• Formal and informal status levels affect the communication

• A subordinate would generally listen more and speak less

• The exchange of ideas is blocked when………….

 The Halo Effect
• Awe of a speaker

• An honest speaker is trusted

• The listener’s impressions determine the effectiveness of such

communication.
 Complexes

• Lack of confidence or a sense of superiority may

hinder communication

• Misplaced notions of self-worth

 A Closed Mind

• Listening depends on one’s curiosity to know things

• Some persons feel too satisfied with their way of doing

things

• A closed state of mind acts as a barrier

 Poor Retention

• Logical sequence of thoughts is essential

• Listener must retain some cues

• Poor retention causes the failure

Premature Evaluation and Hurried Conclusions

• Listening patiently

• pre-judging can distort the intended meaning

• Twist the meaning

Look at the following sentences and link them, as in the example
above, to develop a more coherent text.

Memo from: HR Manager To: Managing Director

Date: 5th March 20XX Ref: GHL/13/PO

(1) ............. we have agreed in principle to try and cut down on staff,
there are two serious problems in R&D. (2) ............., the person in
charge of ordering from the stores is also responsible for updating the
database. (3) ............., at the end of the month, when most people want
replacements from the stores, and (4) ............. require information from
the database, he is unable to perform both tasks quickly enough.
(5) ............., he is practically unoccupied during the first week of every
month, when he could be helping someone else, (6) ............. I suggest
we try to reorganize his job to improve efficiency. (7) ............., the
administrative secretary has got rather set in her ways, and
(8) .............,is still refusing to use the new software. I (9) .............
recommend that she should be invited to retire early, (10) ............. we
will have complete chaos as far as record keeping is concerned. If we
were to appoint a more flexible and better trained secretary to replace
her, there would be several advantages over the present arrangements.
 Abstracting

• Acts as a barrier

• Listener approaches a message from a particular point of

view

• Focuses his or her attention on selected aspects

 Slant
• Biased presentation of a matter by the speaker

• Speaker may adopt an oblique manner

• Important aspects of the message are suppressed, left out

• Well-informed listeners usually do suspect the

cover-up/slant.
 Cognitive Dissonance

• When listeners fail to accept or respond to new information

• They may be unprepared to change the basis of their beliefs

and knowledge.

• Cognitive dissonance is a barrier

Guidelines For Improving Listening Skills

• Speak less, listen more

• Do not be a sponge
• Observe body language
• Focus on the speaker
• Separate the ideas from the speaker
• Listen for what is left unsaid
Guidelines For Improving Listening Skills

• Avoid becoming emotional

• Do not jump to hasty conclusions

• Empathize with the speaker

• Respect the speaker as a person

Answer
6. so/therefore
• 1. Although/While
• 2. Firstly 7. Secondly
• 3. Consequently 8. furthermore
• 4. also 9. therefore
• 5. In contrast
10. otherwise