Effective Listening Skills example essay topic

Every business consists of a variety of communication activities such as listening, speaking, questioning, gathering and participating in small work groups. The listening skill is one of the most important aspects of communication process. It helps to understand and read the other person's message. Effective listening skills create positive workplace relationships which influence our opinions and responsiveness to one another. There is a big difference between hearing and listening.

Hearing is a physical ability that the ears receive feelings and transmit them to the brain while listening is a skill. Listening skills allow one to make sense of what another person is saying. In other words, listening skills let you to understand what someone is 'talking about". It requires concentration so that your brain processes meaning from words and sentences. Listening and understanding what others communicate to us is the communication process needed for interpersonal effectiveness.

If you listen well, you will understand the meaning of the message. If you are unfocused, you will not know most of what the other person is saying. However, there is a range of listening skills that can be learned to develop the communication effectiveness. Firstly, encouraging listening points to the listener that is willing to do more than listen. Usually it provides feedback that supports speakers to say more. Furthermore, attentive listening is where we are fully interested in hearing and understanding the other person's opinions.

We are attentive and passively listen. We show them that we listen and understand correctly. Finally, there is active or reflective listening. In active listening we are fully interested in understanding what the other person is thinking or what the message means. After they finish talking, we restate our understanding of their message and reflect it back to the sender for confirmation.

On the other hand, barriers to listening will always happen in any communication process. This may occur due to the listeners when some aspect of their own background obstructs with their view of the speaker. For example, the listener might get bored of listening to the speaker which does not interest them at all or the listener dislike of the speaker's personality. Another barrier is when the listener is only willing to hear the part of the message they agree with or they tend to judge the speaker with their own opinions.

Moreover is that the listener thinks that the speaker lacks reliability. However, it can be overcome by the listener if they just avoid the barriers or use two-way communication. In two-way communication the speaker encourages the listener to ask questions, to debate and to consider what is said. This way, the listener comes to have the information, to remember it and to act upon it. Such active listening overcomes many of the barriers to communication. Effective listening skills are extremely needed in daily life, especially in business.

It helps to interact with another person successfully. In addition, listening can be used as a part of people's option and judgment. A good listener is always in a better position to deal with the problems. They are accepted every where and welcome into every conversation. They have nothing to lose but only gain more of his understanding.