Obstacles to Effective Listening

Successful professional life of an individual depends upon various factors most of which are based on the personal behavioural traits, skills and approach of the individual. One of the most important aspect of effective communication is listening to others. If it is not understood or known properly what the message is that is wanted to be communicated, the communication from the other end will be useless. The following are the obstacles towards effective listening.

1. General idea that Speaking is more effective than Listening- The general held belief is that the people who speak more is stronger. However the fact is that an effective speaker is only effective when that person has the ability to hear properly. When person A is communicating with person B, it is imperative for person A to be hearing to what B has to say, without doing which the communication from A would be meaningless.

                                                                                     Barriers to Listening

2. There are no formal training for listening effectively- Though there are various classes, coaching and training about effective speaking but there are no training of hearing effectively with patience. Therefore people do not have learning experience in this aspect and they have to slowly develop the skills with time and experience. Listening skill is not just the way one hears but the way one understands what have been said.

3. Bias towards the source of the communication- There are various filters that keeps one person away from properly listening or comprehending something that has been spoken. Some of the filters are dislike or disagreement, bias, lack of concentration, disinterest and confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is the process in which people do not give a heed to the information that does not conform to their philosophy of the world. It is seen that the people only watch TV News channels which matches with their own political ideology, other TV news channels are avoided, and this is also impediment to effective hearing.

4. Impatience to hear- People these days are very impatient to properly invest their energy in hearing what the other person has to say. It is held that thinking is a task similar to breathing which automatically happens. Listening also involves understanding of those words which are not said. In fact the process of hearing is not just going on recording what has been said but to delve deep into the intentions behind[1].

1. Thinking about what next to say- One of the difficult choice for the listeners is to determine whether to listen to what has been said with full concentration or to start thinking about the next answer without comprehending what is being said by the person with whom interaction is going on. When a debate is going on it is seen that the participants start countering even before a statement has ended.

1. General idea that Speaking is more effective than Listening

Conclusion

Most of the leaders who speak well like Abraham Lincoln also have recommended to listen first before speaking. However it is important to understand that listening involves serious comprehension and understanding

Excellence Consultancy International is known for the perfection in training the new comers towards effective listening and effective speaking. This includes talking over telephone. Talking over telephone is different from speaking directly face to face, because face to face speaking involves body and hand gestures, which makes it easier for the participants to communicate. The gestures supplements the spoken words, which is not available in the telephonic conversations. The most important aspect of communicating over phone will be discussed shortly in the following paragraphs.

The starting of a phone conversation must include a positive greeting and introduction of one self. Whether it is an incoming call or an outgoing call it is important for the speaker to identify the self, greet the other person and then start the conversation on a positive note. The next step is to first listen patiently what the other person has to say if it is an incoming call and ask politely if the questions that has been raised are not properly understood by the call receiver. If it is an outgoing call then the caller must explain properly the reason for calling and then wait for the call receiver to respond positively or negatively to the proposal of the caller. The caller must be aware about the pronunciation of each of the words over telephone because there are various accents used by various people, therefore the caller must be aware about the accent being spoken by the person on the other hand, if there is a problem in understanding then the caller must speak slowly and emphasize on each of the words that are spoken[2]. The caller must also maintain a very positive attitude while speaking and may also actually smile because the attitude of the speaker is translated through his or her voice.

The caller must have a persuading way of speaking so that the person hearing can relate and have confidence on what has been said by the caller. Otherwise there may be a lack of trust which will lead to a failed conversation. In short a few things like introducing oneself, listening properly, being polite and positive, pronouncing properly, being slow while speaking and being patient, are followed the call conversations will be successful.

Reference:

Caspersz, Donella, and Ania Stasinska. “Can we teach effective listening? An exploratory study.” Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice 12, no. 4 (2015): 2.

Miritello, Giovanna, Esteban Moro, Rubén Lara, Rocío Martínez-López, John Belchamber, Sam GB Roberts, and Robin IM Dunbar. “Time as a limited resource: Communication strategy in mobile phone networks.” Social Networks 35, no. 1 (2013): 89-95.

Tyagi, Babita. “Listening: An important skill and its various aspects.” The Criterion An International Journal in English 12 (2013): 1-8.

Warnecke, Emma. “The art of communication.” Australian family physician 43, no. 3 (2014): 156.

Youtube.com. “How To Speak Effectively Over The Phone? – English Lesson – Telephone Skills”. Youtube, 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmXAqMQe0AI.,