Hearing is biological and listening is attitudinal.
Many say listening is a skill.
Listening is all about attitude first and then a skill.
You must want to listen and do so effectively.
You must want to develop it to a skill.
Or you may not want to and care less. It is still all about your attitude.
Some points that show you are not an effective listener.
1. You listen with a reply already in mind. This means that whatever the person is saying goes over your head.
It also means you are not being objective and what you are “looking for you will find.” You are thus prevented from grasping something that is a revelation.
2. You listen “autobiographically”. Stephen Covey uses this term in his book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
This means you listen and prepared to respond with your past experiences and what you have learnt from these experiences.
3. You are always interrupting the person while they are talking. This has got a lot to do with assumption. You do not let the person finish talking because you assume what the rest of the persons sentence is or what the person means.
4. You are condescending in your listening through attributes like class, culture, education and status.
5. You don't care less.
Why do you need to be an effective listener?
Because it is the first step of being an effective communicator.
And it is vital for building trust and being influential.
5. You don't care less.
Why do you need to be an effective listener?
Because it is the first step of being an effective communicator.
And it is vital for building trust and being influential.