Listening Techniques for a Work Relationship

Good listening skills facilitate effective communication.

Effective listening skills ensure that you hear and understand verbal communication. While important in any situation, listening techniques for a work relationship can make the difference between an advancing career and one that flounders. Honing your active listening skills can help ensure your professional success. Once you possess listening proficiency, you can use those skills in every area of your life.

Listen More

Strive to increase the amount of time you spend listening in proportion to the time you spend speaking. Gaining insight and information from others requires a substantial amount of listening. If you are talking, you are not listening effectively. Pay more attention to the quiet time you spend listening and focusing on what others are telling you to become more aware of listening and to increase it.

Effective Listening

Once you become aware of the ratio of your listening time to your speaking time, begin transforming your listening time into effective listening. Effective listening requires total concentration. According to the authors of “Business Communication,” if people speak up to 200 words per minute and they can comprehend up to 500 words per minute, the difference gives the brain a significant amount of time for distractions instead of listening. Use this extra time to enhance your effective listening instead of letting yourself be distracted.

Focused Listening

Remove distractions or tune them out as much as possible to focus your listening. Maintain eye contact with the speaker to show that you are paying attention and trying to understand the communicated words. Use body language such as relaxed and quiet gestures to communicate listening. Give encouraging responses to show you are listening -- nodding your head or saying “uh-huh” at appropriate times, for example.

Paraphrasing and Summarizing

After a speaker communicates, an effective listener paraphrases the information to ensure understanding. Restating information in your own words back to the speaker helps you understand it fully and it also enables the speaker to correct any misperceptions or errors in comprehension. After paraphrasing, a natural exchange may result where the speaker and listener engage in questions and responses to clarify ideas and information. At the end of an effective communication exchange, the listener should summarize the perceived message in a few key points.

References

• Business Communication; A. C. Krizan, et al.
• Mind Tools: Active Listening