Listening skills are very essential for personal
enlightenment and appropriate response to situations in all walks of life. To
improve one’s listening skills one has to follow certain principles. These are:
Look for areas of interest
Identify your areas of interest and seek information
on those areas to improve the subject knowledge, entertain new topics as
potentially interesting.
Overlook minor errors of delivery
Attend to meaning and content, ignore minor delivery
errors. Be sensitive to any message in them. Do not focus on the personal
attributes of the speaker.
Postpone judgement
Avoid quick judgements; wait until comprehension of
the core message is complete. Quick evaluation and passing of judgement before
the complete message is conveyed will lead to contrary meanings.
Listen for ideas
Listen carefully for ideas and themes and not only for
facts and details. Identify the main points being communicated.
Take notes
Take notes for important ideas, themes, facts and details
depending upon the topic and the speaker. Carry writing pad and a pen with you
while attending any lecture, discussion, meeting or a conference.
Be actively responsive
Respond frequently with nods, or short responses
through sounds of ‘uh’ ‘hmm’ etc to convey that you are listening. It shows that
you are actively listening. Passive demeanour, few or no responses will put off
the speaker.
Resist distractions
Maintain log concentration span and resist
distraction, this will help in getting the complete message being communicated.
Challenge your mind
If the speaker uses difficult material to communicate,
seek to enlarge understanding to broaden knowledge base.
Capitalise on mind speed
Use listening time to attend to implicit message as
well as explicit message. Do not be preoccupied with other thoughts.
Assist and encourage the speaker
Ask for clarification or examples on difficult message
conveyed, this will assist the speaker to understand that the message is not
understood. Do not make distracting comments.