What is importance of listening?
Importance of Listening Skills and its Role in Effective CommunicationApril 23, 2021June 22, 2021 Table of Contents
What is listening?People usually tend to confuse listening with hearing. However, in a true sense, they are both not the same. We all hear others but listening involves understanding and comprehending what we hear. This is where the importance of listening lies. Listening is an art but unfortunately, majority of the people take it for granted. Listening requires deliberate efforts to understand the context and meaning of somebodys words. A good listener is more likely to become a good communicator. Hearing and listening may be confused as same things however, they are absolutely different from each other. Some of their major differences are discussed below:
People fail to understand the importance of listening due to several reasons. It involves certain internal and external factors which result in distracting the individual from listening. Some of the reasons which make an individual not listening to another person include:
Importance of Listening Skills and its Role in Effective CommunicationEffective communication plays a major role in the development and growth of relations in practical life, be it personal life or professional life. The importance of listening cannot be denied because it plays a major role in making communication effective. One can experience visible positive change in life after ensuring listening, rather than hearing. Active listening helps an individual in multiple ways. Some of them are discussed below:
1. Is Listening to a Natural phenomenon?Although the importance of listening is pertinent. However, it is interesting to know that listening is not a natural phenomenon. Nature has blessed us with the ability of hearing. The ability of listening is something that we have to carefully develop over time by realizing its importance for our peaceful existence. It requires continuous practice and effort. One may find it difficult to master but it is not impossible. With determination, one can certainly excel in it. 2. How to Listen?As mentioned earlier, one may find it difficult to develop listening skills however, it is not impossible. An individual can reach this goal by adopting few habits. Some of these useful habits are discussed below which can help an individual enjoy the importance of listening:
These few steps, if adopted with care and determination, can bring noticeable constructive changes in the life of an individual. These little steps have the ability to change a persons personal as well as practical life. 3. The Listening ProcessSeveral studies have been carried out and are still being made to understand the listening process in detail. Enormous studies on the subject are self-sufficient to highlight the importance of listening in our daily lives. The phenomenon of listening may seem easy, however, it is one of the most important activities that an individual can indulge into. The interesting listening process can be broken down into five major steps. The five distinct stages of listening include:
The five major steps are discussed in detail below. Receiving: This is the most fundamental step of the listening process. It requires the listener to grasp the information being provided by the speaker. Any misconception or flaw at this step will leave an impact till the last step of the listening process. It involves both verbal and non-verbal communication and information provided. This step involves paying attention to the speakers and avoiding distractions as well as making sure not to interrupt the speaker. Understanding: This is the second stage in the listening process. It accounts for comprehending the information provided by the speaker in the previous step. At this stage, the listener is expected to plan a response to make the communication more interactive. However, before responding, the listener needs to make sure that he listened and understood the complete information. Remembering: The third step looks very similar to the previous two steps of the listening process. However, it is different from them. This stage requires the listener to lock the information provided by the speaker, in his mind. This can be done by focusing on the keywords of the conversation and sending them to long-term memory from short-term memory. To achieve this, the listener can identify the fundamental points of the conversation as well as make the message familiar to him by relating it to something that he already knows or remembers. Evaluating: At this stage, the listener can start preparing a response for the speaker. However, he should keep in mind that he is still the listener. At this stage of the listening process, the listener can break down the provided verbal content into little pieces of information. He should bring himself answers to questions from his recent memory, like:
Responding: Provided that all the previous four steps of the listening process have been dealt with carefully, responding becomes really easy for the listener. However, the listener should avoid completing sentences for the speaker as well as try to address the key points highlighted by the speaker during his talk in the response. Although it may look like a lengthy method, the fact is that it takes place within seconds. This fact makes an individual take benefit from the importance of listening in a much better way. 4. Barriers to effective listeningThe effective process of listening may get interrupted due to several barriers thus damaging the importance of listening. Some of them are mentioned below:
ConclusionIt is really important to carefully understand the difference between hearing and listening. Progressive societies should focus on working out on the habit of listening. In any communication, personal or professional, the message cannot bring its effective result unless there is active listening. Lack of listening is the major cause behind misunderstandings, complications, and arguments which makes the life of an individual difficult. To lead a happy and peaceful life, it is mandatory to realize the importance of listening and ensured as a habit.
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