Practice Effective Listening When Communicating

Are you a good listener? This is a very valuable soft skill that employers are always looking for in their candidates. People with good listening skills easily understand tasks and projects, building strong relationships with colleagues. They will solve problems, conflicts easily.

Therefore, when interviewing, employers will pay attention to look for those listening and listening skills from candidates. Let’s explore with Glints effective communication skills for young people!

What are listening skills?

Listening and listening is the skill of receiving and correctly interpreting messages in the process of communicating through the other person’s words and body language.

Listening is the golden key to an effective dialogue. Without this ability, communication messages would not be conveyed clearly between people. 

Since then, the dialogue process is also easily interrupted, difficult to avoid misunderstandings, even causing friction and affecting the relationship of speakers and listeners.

So, if someone asked a communication skill that we should practice regularly, you already know it. The answer is listening.

The importance of listening skills in communication

As explained above, listening skills are an essential foundation for you to improve your communication skills. 

And of course, a good communication skill will help you to build relationships in the workplace as well as in society easily.

In addition, effective listening will also help you make decisions faster, and double your chances of persuasion when negotiating business with the other party. 

Besides, 5 other reasons why listening skills are essential can be mentioned as follows:

• Minimize misunderstandings
• Build empathy, mutual understanding
• Increase the trust of people around you
• Improve business relationship
• Improve leadership skills

How to practice effective listening skills

What is an effective communication listening process? Check out the steps below to get the most out of it.

Care

When you listen attentively, it is not simply listening but enjoying. This is like listening to your favorite music. 

Listening intently is easy when you hear a sermon at a religious place of worship, a positive life inspirational speech from top presenters… 

Therefore, if you can use the skill of listening attentively when talking to the other person, you will get great effects that exceed your imagination.

Know empathy

When you listen empathically, you are showing concern for the other person. You are eager to better understand the situation, the feelings they are discussing. You put yourself in the speaker’s shoes to better understand what they are saying.

The goal of listening in communication is to focus all of your attention on the speaker, not on yourself. Therefore, you will easily empathize and understand their point of view.

Comprehensive listening

This is similar to when you watch the news, listen to a lecture or ask for directions on the street, etc., it is imperative that you know the main message that is being sent. Learn to listen by focusing and noting the main ideas of the speaker. Determine the structure of the statements and review the real-life examples they provide as evidence. 

This is one of the more difficult listening skills because not only are you focused, but you are also actively participating in the other person’s presentation. Did you know that this is also one of the effective ways to please your superiors ?

Don’t be distracted while listening

When you’ve chosen to listen to someone, make sure you don’t have any other work. 

You can choose to temporarily put the work aside if the conversation is really important, or you can subtly tell the other person to wait after completing the unfinished business.

Absolutely, do not let your conversation be interrupted, interrupted too much by other private affairs, this will bring an uncomfortable feeling for the other party. The speaker will feel embarrassed, as well as guilty, for disturbing your time.

Reviews and analysis

If you ever intend to buy an expensive product such as a phone, tablet, motorbike, car, etc., you must definitely consult a relative or a salesperson to compare brands. 

This listening skill helps you to evaluate, analyze all the information and make decisions . Listening to evaluate also means you have to think more carefully to make accurate judgments based on what you see, hear and understand.

Respond to the speaker with positive feedback

Positive feedback includes eye contact, nodding approvingly, and responding to the speaker’s body language to show you really care about what they’re saying. 

Reflect and restate what the other person has said to show that you really listened to them. When learning how to listen, show curiosity about them by asking them questions back, and you’re sure to make a great impression. 

For example, one way to demonstrate active listening is to let the interviewer complete the question, without interrupting them, and answer the question to the point. 

Always keep an objective attitude

A person with good listening skills will be an open-minded person with objective thoughts. Always respect the speaker and empathize with their point of view. 

However, you should still keep a separate stance before the other’s narratives. Try to keep your perspective as neutral as possible, and use appropriate expressive language to communicate.

Don’t become a father, everyone listens to everything, because not always what other people say is the truth. But don’t be so skeptical that you forget about empathy and understanding when listening.

Always be an objective character who can give appropriate and correct comments and advice in conversations!

Do not judge and impose 

Not imposing a personal opinion on anything from the other person is the bare minimum you can improve your listening skills.

We are not them, and each person will have a different disposition to solve things, have different circumstances. So, before thinking about one-sided personal thoughts, try to put yourself in the shoes of others and sympathize with their thoughts.

After all, not everything we think is true will always be true. Being receptive and open to new ideas, limiting your ego, and learning to look at problems from multiple perspectives will help you become more insightful and communicate more effectively. 

Pay attention to body language

When listening attentively, people with good listening skills will know how to show the other person that they are paying attention to their story. 

It’s a way for you to show respect for the speaker, as well as signal your interest and want to listen.

Body language can be expressed through focused eyes, nods of agreement, a slightly inclined posture to show attention, concern, etc.