Practical Tips for Effective Listening

While I was going thru all those write ups about Listening and after doing so many training programs on the same subject matter, thought I can add some value to all our readers with this piece of article.

The premise with which I am starting this is “WE LISTEN AT FAR GREATER PACE THAN WE CAN SPEAK”, so with the mind ready to accept so many things why not make full use of it.

It becomes really difficult to listen to someone else as our mind is so fast in thinking and acting according to it, at times this positive feeling can become pit fall for our listening, where we tend to form opinions without fully understanding the concepts and context.

Hence I would suggest the following simple technique for effective listening

Observe:
a. Sense Data: Before forming an opinion understand why something is been told to you and what is the real meaning behind the conversation, this will help to form a neutral opinion.
b. Interpret Statement: Once something is been said, try and analyze the talk for yourself as to why was it told to you in first place.
c. Feeling Statement: This is the difficult part but once mastered will real value add to individuals in their endeavor to be successful. Understanding the feeling of the person who is talking to us.

Acknowledge:
a. Body language: Once the initial step of sensing the meaning of the data, it is imperative to respond to the individual who is talking to you, the acknowledgement can be in the form of positive body language and gestures, this can be a simple nod of the head either in acceptance or refusal of what is being said, a smile on the face (only in case if the talk is a pleasant one)
b. Express: It is the general human tendency to express once feeling about the talk to the person who communicated, so please do express your opinion or feeling to the individual; this will show that you are sensitive to what is being said.

Encourage:
a. Ask questions: For better understanding of the talk it is always advisable to ask question and clarify your view point with the speaker, this will also reduce the ambiguity in understanding and at the same time will give better picture of the course of action.
b. Prompt if need be: At times if the speaker is not all that comfortable in talking, we will have to prompt by giving cues, this will increase his/her confidence and the information sharing will be easy (typically the interviewee will be like this)

Interpret:
a. Listen & repeat what is said: What is said will have to be understood, for the clarity of understanding, paraphrase what is being spoken to you, once the speaker completes his/her talk, this will add credibility and also will let you know what is that you are thinking of the person

Once we follow these simple yet powerful steps I am sure it will increase our listening ability and help us enormously as a professional.

In my experience thus far, I have noticed that people who are facing the front line customers and in the service functions often will have lot of things to do and listen from their clients (internal as well as external) but they struggle to come to terms with what is being said to them as they tend to forget one simple thing, I have noticed and interacted with best sales persons and service guys in the industry and most of them have this habit of carrying a book and pen when ever they are talking to people, this will help in remembering what we talk and accept

Taking notes is one of the best ways in which we can maximize our listening ability, and here is how we can do it.

Good Listeners Take Notes!

Good Notes
- Focus on what is important
- Exclude all trivia and irrelevancies
- Lend tangibility to what is said
- Gaps in the subject become apparent
- Aids in raising pertinent questions

Tips
- Note only important ideas
- Use private code to enable writing quickly

Lastly I would like to share this story of POWER OF EFFECTIVE LISTENING

Swami Vivekananda when he was a small kid of 9 years was a mischievous boy (who will not at that age), he was some one who was not interested in his studies, his parents were really worried about his lack of interest in studies, all efforts from his parents went in vain as they struggled to make him study, as the exams fast approached, Swami decided a way out to escape his parents scolding for not studying, he told them that he would go to his friends place for combined studies, his parents were happy as at least he is aware that he has to study, the real reason of his escape was, he could sleep at his friend’s place when others studied and his parents will not come to know it.

As this sleeping at friend’s place continued till exams started and all his friends were like this guy will not pass as he has not read anything and were laughing in their minds, but when the exams were over and the results were announced, to all their surprise, Vivekananda had scored more marks than all those friends of his who studied together when he slept,

They questioned him on the result and Swami had this to say “you know when guys were reading loud, I was just listening to you all and remembered them” this just goes to show the importance of listening and power of effective listening

I would signoff with a saying that “WE CAN CHOOSE TO HEAR SOMETHING WITHOUT CHOOSING TO LISTEN”

HAPPY LISTENING