Communication involves speaking and listening, but active listening skills are vital to ensuring the speaker knows you’re engaged. Active listening involves more than just hearing what a person is saying. It also involves letting them know you’re listening with your body language, demeanour, and response to make them feel heard. We refer to this entire process as active listening. This article explores what active listening is and why it’s important. We also discuss nine ways to improve your workplace active listening skills.
What is Active Listening?
Active listening is a type of listening skill that involves being fully focused and paying attention when someone is speaking to you. It also entails engaging in conversation, reflecting on, and paraphrasing the speaker’s words. Displaying appropriate body language, letting them talk without interrupting, and withholding comments or judgment are all ways to exhibit active listening.
Why is Active Listening Important?
The primary goal of active listening is to acquire accurate information and understand people and their situations before responding to them. Active listening differs from hearing, as there is more focus on the intention to understand the speaker’s message fully. It’s a conscious decision to listen attentively and understand what someone is trying to communicate. Nonverbal cues such as nodding the head, maintaining eye contact, and smiling are all aspects of active listening. This is a sought-after soft skill held in high regard by many employers, coworkers, customers, and other professional contacts. Some consider it to be the most crucial element in the communication process.
Ways to Improve Your Active Listening Skills
1. Face the Speaker and Maintain Eye Contact
Eye contact is a vital element of effective communication. It’s, therefore, crucial to face the speaker and maintain eye contact with them to show them you’re listening. Ensure that you and the speaker are at the same level. If they are standing, stand with them, and if they’re sitting, sit down to be at the same eye level. Putting aside books, computers, papers, and other distractions when listening to someone speak is also courteous. This shows that you have given them your undivided attention and value what they say.
2. Relax While Listening to the Speaker
Relax when maintaining eye contact with the speaker so they can see your interest in what they say. You can look away from the speaker occasionally to avoid tension in the conversation. Mentally filter out distractions like noise and background activities. It’s also advisable to avoid letting your feelings, thoughts, or opinions distract you. Remain focused on the content of the speaker’s saying instead of their speech, mannerisms, diction, or accent.
3. Pay Attention to Body Language and Nonverbal Cues
Nonverbal communication makes up almost half of what someone says when talking to you. Nonverbal communication includes eye contact, body movements, posture, space, touch, and facial expressions. Paying attention to your speaker’s nonverbal cues is important as it increases your awareness and improves your ability to engage and interact with them more.
People mostly communicate more with their actions than they do with words. Observing your speaker’s body language will help you understand their words’ true meaning. For instance, observing a speaker’s facial expressions can help you interpret the speaker’s emotions and respond appropriately. Listening to your speaker’s tonal variation and fluctuations in their voice, such as volume, rhythm, pitch, and tone, can effectively interpret what they are saying. A loud and serious tone, for example, conveys stronger feelings than a low and softer tone.
4. Be Open-Minded
Being open-minded in active listening involves being receptive to new ideas, arguments, and information. Being open-minded involves learning new things that may conflict with your existing opinions. To be open-minded, you need to empathize, be curious, and listen attentively to what others say. Exercising these interpersonal skills is essential; you can use this opportunity to understand other people’s feelings and beliefs.
5. Let the Speaker Finish Without Interrupting
First, allow the speaker to finish speaking if you’d like to contribute to the conversation. Interrupting them mid-sentence may disrupt their thought and take the conversation off track. If you steer away from the original purpose of the conversation, you can navigate it back to the original topic. This shows the speaker that you were paying attention and are interested in returning to pick up from where you left off. It’s a good sign that you value what they’re saying and are actively listening to them.
6. Create a Mental Picture and Paraphrase What is Being Said
Allow your mind to create a mental picture of what the speaker is saying. Your brain will form this mental picture if you stay focused and keep your other senses fully alert. Repeat what the speaker said, but in your own words, to ensure you understood their message. Paraphrasing helps you to clarify what you’ve heard and clear misunderstandings.
7. Be Empathetic
Put yourself in the speaker’s place and allow yourself to feel what they’re feeling. Mimic their emotions to convey that you understand their feelings with your words and facial expressions. Your ability to be empathetic lets the speaker know you acknowledge and understand what they’re saying, thinking, and feeling as they talk. Empathy is at the heart of effective listening.
8. Ask Questions
When asking the speaker questions, ensure they align with the topic and their core message. Asking the speaker questions signifies that you’re paying attention and want to learn more. If your question has led the speaker astray, refocus and follow up on the topic to get the conversation back on track.
9. Give the Speaker Regular Feedback
Giving the speaker regular feedback indicates that you understand what they are saying. An occasional affirmation like “yes,” or “I see,” shows that you’re engaged and following the conversation. Ask open-ended questions to allow the speaker to elaborate more on the subject. For example, “How would you respond to such a situation? What are our options?” It’s also courteous to wait for the speaker to stop talking before asking questions.
Benefits of Active Listening Skills in the Workplace
Make Better Decisions: As you listen, you gather and absorb the information the speaker is passing on. It’s an opportunity to collect all the facts instead of making assumptions and jumping to conclusions. Listening actively and being open to others’ opinions provides you with more valuable viewpoints about a topic. This may lead you to informed decisions you wouldn’t have thought of on your own.
Identify and Solve Problems: When you listen with the intent to understand, you’re able to look beyond the issue at hand, identify problems, and develop more innovative ways to solve problems.
Reduce Misunderstandings: When paraphrasing what the speaker has said, you clarify that you understood their message. This reduces the possibility of a misunderstanding and saves you time in the long term because you don’t need to correct mistakes.
Resolve Conflicts Easily: Effectively listening helps you understand what people are saying, which allows you to resolve disputes more quickly. By listening to one another, you can find suitable solutions that suit everyone and maintain healthy professional relationships.
Increase Productivity: When you listen actively, you retain more information and gain a better understanding of the task, request, or situation. This allows you to complete tasks with accuracy and on time.
Learn About the Speaker: Carefully listening to someone helps you learn more about them and what they’re talking about in your conversation.
Improve Relationships: Listening creates a feeling of connection and respect in both professional and personal relationships. People respond better to others when they feel heard and that their opinions matter to the other party. When you listen to and pay attention to your co-workers, friends, or family, they will reciprocate and listen and pay attention to you.
Helps Build Trust: Listening to your employer, colleagues, or subordinates makes them feel valued. By listening, you express that you’re interested in their advice, ideas, and input on various topics in the workplace. This ultimately creates a healthy and open working environment for all of you.
Conclusion
Improving your active listening skills is crucial for effective communication and building strong relationships in the workplace. By practising these nine techniques, you can become a better listener, foster understanding, and create a more collaborative and productive work environment. Remember, active listening is not just about hearing words; it’s about understanding and engaging with the speaker on a deeper level.
FAQs
What is the difference between hearing and active listening?
Hearing is the physical ability to perceive sound, while active listening involves fully focusing, understanding, and responding to the speaker’s message.
Why is eye contact important in active listening?
Eye contact shows the speaker that you are paying attention and engaged in the conversation, making them feel valued and understood.
How can I avoid distractions while listening?
To avoid distractions, mentally filter out noise and background activities and focus solely on the speaker’s words and nonverbal cues.
What should I do if I don’t understand the speaker’s message?
If you don’t understand the speaker’s message, ask clarifying questions and paraphrase their words to ensure you’ve correctly interpreted their meaning.
How does empathy enhance active listening?
Empathy allows you to connect emotionally with the speaker, showing that you understand and care about their feelings and perspectives.