When practicing active listening, the first thing you need to learn is that hearing is not listening. How do you enhance your active listening skills? Related: Understanding The Importance Of Listening For Effective Communications The more employees feel heard and seen, the more important they feel. Practiced active listening can positively affect productivity, workplace mental health, communication across diversity walls and even employee retention rate. Tactful follow-up questions could yield golden moments of insight.Īctive listening should be included in the corporate culture as a respected tool for all employees. It breeds creativity and trusted communication. Active listening and responding with inquisitive questions keep the speaker talking and exploring their thoughts.
You may not have to interact with children in your professional life, but you will earn the respect of your colleagues if you treat them as individuals with valid opinions rather than cogs in a machine. For example, being an active listener to a child could mean repeating and responding to a silly comment or pride of accomplishment on a spaghetti creation. Giving them the correct type of attention grows healthy bonds and teaches them to be stable and empathetic adults.
However, the most affected people in our lives can be our children. So, here's when active listening is important:Ī spouse, family member, parent or child deserves a moment of uninterrupted time. Mastery of all situations leads to better communication in the future during unique or unusual events. However, each moment of life could require a slightly altered version of active listening. Most likely, you've encountered active listening in all aspects of your life and potentially every day of your life. Your silence empowers them to be more open and trusting. Past actions don't have to define future decisions. Here are the rules:įocus the intent of your interaction with the speaker on understanding their perspective and message before requiring them to understand yours.Įnter the interaction without judgment on what could be communicated. However, it can be difficult for management to deploy these skills without practice and intentional interactions. There are only four rules to active listening. The "why" is, by far, more critical than the actual words. Active listening involves both listening and understanding why the speaker communicates these ideas or thoughts. However, it's more than just hearing the words.
By definition, it requires your full attention to the purpose and meaning of the speaker's intentional communications. Active listening is taught to teachers, liaisons, aids, interpreters, police officers, social workers and religious leaders.