Listening: What must be done to make this art effective?

Do you know that it is listening, what people do most of the time. Whether listening intentionally or unintentionally. But there are not even 10% of the books written on this lost art of communication. When we talk about communication we will find heaps of books on Verbal, Non-Verbal, Tone of Voice, etc but what about listening.

This element of communication which covers almost all its process is not worked upon. People take it for granted. When listening is what should be thought and work upon then why people are just in their talking zone? It is because we love to share our ideas, opinions and feelings more than to listen to someone.

Here are 3 important steps that we need to take to make this art effective for us and others.

#1. Consider others equally important

We often don’t like to listen to people because we are kind of perfect in our eyes, we think we have a bigger problem then others, we think that our complications need urgent solution so people have to listen to us. But what about their point of views? what about their problems? We need to think and consider others equally to us and try to understand people as individuals like us. This will help us to regain the lost art of listening and listening effectively

#2. Don’t fall into prejudice

We do not like to listen to some people or make an effort to listen to them because of our prejudiced attitude. The dictionary defines Prejudice as, ‘preconceived opinion or thinking that is not based on reason or actual experience‘.  When we fall into this trap of prejudice we tend to exalt ourselves and demean others. How can we ignore others without even knowing them and how can we know them properly if we don’t listen to them in the first place?

#3. Practice Listening with babies

One of the best things that I do with my listening is I talk to my 14-month young boy. I don’t know how much he understands me but whatever he tells me I surely can’t understand properly so I listen even more and more to get something meaningful out of our conversation. Try this with your children or children of your relatives. Why this exercise? Because listening to people when it is hardly making any sense is the top level of listening. This practice with toddlers will definitely improve your listening skills.

I hope you like this article and will share with your friends and family, especially with people whom you think needs some work on their listening.

SkillUVA, India’s one of the top eLearning platform and professional coaching company is committed for your personal development and professions success, and for that, we have a special ebook combo pack on Personality Development which will help and guide you in communication, listening and other soft skills.

For Your Success, Always!!

Dr Ashish Parnani

Founder & Principal Trainer

SkillUVA Learning Academy