1. Listening “Seek first to understand… Then to be understood.”
(Covey, 1997)

2. Listening is not a communication action, it is a human action.
Understanding how to listen effectively
is an essential skill that benefits
everything from family life to business.

3. Introduction and Overview
What listening is not:
Hearing vs. listening
Faulty listening behaviors
Reasons for poor listening

4. Introduction and Overview
What listening is:
Stages of successful listening
Personal listening styles
Situational listening

5. What listening is not Hearing vs. Listening:
Hearing: “Sounds waves strike the ear drum and cause vibrations that are transmitted to the brain.”
Automatic and effortless
Listening: “The brain gives the sounds meaning.”
Unnatural, requires effort

6. Faulty listening behaviors
Pseudo listening: imitation, or fake listening. Pretending to listen.
Selective listening: responding only to the parts of a speakers remarks that interest the receiver and rejecting everything else.
Defensive listening: taking innocent comments as personal attacks.

7. Faulty Listening, cont.
4. Ambushing: using listening skills to collect information to use for an attack on the speaker.
5. Insulated listening: avoiding a particular topic.
6. Insensitive listening: unable to look beyond words for other meanings.

8. Faulty listening, cont.
7. Stage Hogging: attempting to turn the conversation to oneself.

9. Reasons for Poor Listening
Effort: listening is hard; it is not natural
Message overload
Rapid thought
Psychological noise
Physical noise
Hearing problems
Faulty assumptions

10. Reasons for Poor Listening, cont.
Cultural differences
Media

11. What Listening is: Listening Defined
Listening: Occurs when the brain gives the sound transmitted meaning.
Listening is not like breathing. It is unnatural and requires effort.

12. What listening is: Stages of Successful Listening
Attending: paying attention to a signal
Understanding: making sense of a message
Responding: giving observable feedback to the speaker
Remembering
Residual Message: what is remembered

13. Personal Listening Styles
Content-Oriented: interested in the quality of the message. This style is useful when looking at a wide range of perspectives and options.
People-oriented: concerned with creating and maintaining positive relationships

14. Personal Listening Styles, cont.
Action-Oriented: concerned with the task at hand. Useful when business needs to be attended to.
Time-oriented: most concerned with efficiency.

15. Situational Listening
Informational listening:
Used when one wants to understand another. The goal is to receive the same thoughts the other person is trying to convey.

16. Informational Listening, cont.
Listen first
“Don’t kill the messenger”: separate the message from the speaker
Look for big ideas and main points
Paraphrase: restate what the speaker is saying in one’s own words
Take notes

17. Critical Listening
Judging the quality of a message and deciding to accept or reject it.
1. Listen for information first
2. Evaluate the speakers credibility
- check the source
3. Examine evidence and reasoning
4. Remove emotion

18. Empathetic Listening Stages of listening (Covey, 1997) Ignoring
Pretend listening
Selective listening
Attentive listening
Empathic listening: the first step in beginning to understand someone

19. Empathetic Listening
The goal is to build a relationship or help solve a problem.
This style of listening has the most respect for the other’s point of view.

20. Empathetic Listening Ways to practice empathetic listening:
1. Advising: offering suggestions
2. Judging: look for constructive judgments
3. Analyzing: offers and interpretations of the speakers message

21. Empathic Listening, cont.
4. Questioning: helps sort out problems
5. Supporting
6. Prompting: The goal is to help the speaker draw conclusions for him/herself
7. Paraphrasing: rewording