COMM 1004 week 4 Essay Assignment

Effective Listening in Interpersonal Communication

Listening skills is one of the most important factors of successful communication. Non-verbal listening skills, as a part of the whole listening process, have a great influence upon mutual understanding of all subjects of communication. There are several categories of barriers that make truly effective listening difficult. They can be psychological, environmental, physical (i.e., hunger or fatigue) or even speaker barriers where our inability to listen has something to do with the person doing the talking, just consider the psychological side of listening and what stands in the way of us really being in sync with someone we are communicating with. Some psychological barriers include self-absorption, impatience, apathy and the inner voice.COMM 1004 week 4 Essay Assignment

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For the exercise I take two examples of effective communication, which can be used as an example for finding methods for proper communication. One example is my communication with a neighbor John in his garage. I came up with a problem of leak of break liquid in my car and needed John, who is experienced in car repair, to help me solve the problem. I stated the problem while John was listening using his non-verbal skills. His face expressed the deep understanding of the problem and from time to time he waved with his hands upon particular places of my car, thus finding the place of leak. The leak appeared to be under the trunk, nearby the main brake mechanism. The whole conversation took around 20 minutes, the problem was identified and solution of changing a part of brake hose evolved, which was performed by John later on. From this communication I experienced several important factors for successful understanding, among them are eye contact and facial expressions, which help to operate within the problem, not somewhere else. Thus John, who I know for several years, understood the situation very quickly and the solution was found.

The second example of effective communication that I want to bring is resent conversation on a bus stop with a man that I first time saw. I wanted his help in explaining me about one particular bus route, which I was not too familiar with. The conversation took about 3 minutes, because the person knew well the bus route and explained it to me quickly. In this situation I was using my non-verbal listening skills, trying to understand the person’s message in full. My gestures were calm and I was just waving with my head, when the information sounds familiar to me. Also I used eye contact well to present my personal interest in the answer. My behavior in the situation was closer to high interest level, because I needed to get to my destination and did not know which bus to use. That appeared to be a problem and my conversation partner helped me with it.COMM 1004 week 4 Essay Assignment

By these two communication cases I learned a great deal of the importance of non-verbal communication skills. First, you must get yourself in the right frame of mind to listen. I can call it my “listening mode” for better understanding. If you go into a conversation or a meeting thinking, “This is going to be so boring. I wish I could get out of here,” you’re in trouble. I find that when I make a decision to listen because I think there might be something said that can be helpful; I inevitably find something of value. If I take the opposite approach, it is as bad as I thought it would be. Concentration is another important aspect of effective communication. Let’s not kid ourselves- this is hard stuff. I’m not talking about simply hearing what is said, but listening. The hardest part is not concentrating on what you are preparing to say in response or in rebuttal to what you think is being said. Because when it is done, important information may be missed. Another key to effective listening is keeping your eyes on the other person. Focused, steady eye contact is vital. Further, it is necessary to how your interest, and keep your arms and hands open and relaxed. When it comes to being a great communicator, listening is often more than half the battle.

Communication has various parts which could be effective with a view of improving the productivity and effectiveness of interaction. Listening is one part of communication that must also gain huge priority by an individual. Whatever is useful and beneficial must be interpreted in proper and way and reacting upon it accordingly is an art which is required to learn in proper way. The development of listening skills could be result oriented at various large scales in order to avail various advantages. It is to acknowledge that the listening skills help in two ways first is that the relationship within the organization could be build very easily and second factor is that it might help with respect to understand the mindset of person who is conveying the message. It is clear that the through effective hearing the thought process, the tone, gestures should be recorded and the idea of their actual message could be interpreted easily (Housel, 2001). Once an individual is able to understand the real reasons behind the message then the essence of effective listening comes into existence. Further for the purpose of building the personal as well professional relationship the huge consideration must be given to the development of listening skills. COMM 1004 week 4 Essay Assignment

Listening and its role in clarifying communication:

As mentioned above that the effective listening helps in interpreting the message that has been conveyed by other person. Effective listening is not only a task restricted to focus on words but it also involves reading the gestures, facial expression and tone of voice. Most importantly it is also clear that the people should understand as well that in what kind of circumstances the message has been delivered. All these aspects are part of effective listening and if one is clear with all these aspects then the communication could be established in proper manner. Therefore the interpretation of message is something which makes the communication very much effective.

Further it is also clear that the meaning of words never remains the same for different people. The difference in their meaning and message could be noticed at very large scale. It could be understandable with the help of example. For instance if a manager has asked help from experience employee then it definitely means guidance and if the help has been demanded form sub ordinates then it represents the assistance (Downs, 2008). It is clear that manager wants help only but the age difference, position difference and most importantly the level of experience creates lots of difference. Thus it becomes clear that words could never be presented in same manner for all people.COMM 1004 week 4 Essay Assignment

Benefits of listening in organizational setting:

There are various benefits of effective listening skills within the organization. The major factor is that whatever strategies and policies have been stated by the managers verbally those could be followed by the sub ordinates in proper manner. Ahead sometime the situation occurs that managers pass the instructions only through some normal or light discussion topics at that time if the employees are perfect listeners then the essence of message could be catches by them and positive results could be availed in proper manner. Ahead it is also clear that in scenario of confusion the listening could be effective. The organization that follows the informal communication structure they normally have the people who are good listeners and grasp the message in simple manner. ahead the organizational settings normally arranges the seminars and conferences which could have various benefits and purposes to come into existence., It is to acknowledge that purpose of seminars and conferences into increase the motivation of employee or to pass some set of instructions or providing the information about future opportunities within the organization (Kratz, 2005). So if the audience is effective listeners then the motivation could be boost easily and the purposes of seminars and conferences could be easily passed on. Further the effective listeners always remain attentive and disciplined as they understood situation as well. Thus in this way the organization can definitely increase their efficiency through effective listening.

Barriers to effective listening:

It is to acknowledge that listening is not very easy task that every person can develop this skill overnight. There is huge requirement of focusing on the fact that the listening should be developed in painstaking way and continuous practice is also required at very large scale. The major barriers are related to the low level of concentration. If any person doesn’t have good concentration then troubles could be experienced with respect to understanding or interpreting the message of another person (Burley-Allen, 1995). Further other barriers could be related to giving less importance to any conversation or discussion. So many people have this tendency that they never give adequate amount of consideration to the talks of other people and didn’t listen it in proper way. Thus this kind of lenient and unprofessional approach could create barriers in effective listening. Further as mentioned above that effective listening has its relevancy with the concentration so high level of stress is something that can minimize the concentration and problems in active listening could be noticed. The aspects can definitely affect the listening abilities of people in negative manner (Burley-Allen, 1995). The worst of the entire situation is that if people think themselves always right and the feeling of ego take over their emotions. At this situation people don’t listen to others. Therefore giving respect and minimizing the ego both should work parallel to each another with respect to increase listening skills.COMM 1004 week 4 Essay Assignment

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Non verbal messages as listening skills:

The whole discussion already states that the understanding of gestures and facial expressions is also a part of effective listening. Hearing and understanding both work together. It is clear that when people show their facial expressions then also they have certain emotions behind their expressions which are required to be understood in proper way. It helps in two ways; first that the situation or emotion of people could be understood and the changes in behavioral aspects could bring accordingly (Vowels and McMahon, 2002). For instance if manager is getting angry with their staff the people who read their anger can try to bring some change and try to impress them. Further if someone is putting their trust on other individual then reading the trust or faith could deliver the confidence into another person. In this the message which is coming from other side, no matter verbal or non verbal communication, must be understood effectively (Vowels and McMahon, 2002). It increases the efficiency and the major aim of listening, building the personal as well as professional relationship could become possible.

Conclusion

Thus on the basis of four discussed areas the importance or the role or challenges associated to listening skills could be portrayed in proper manner. It is clear that listening is equally important as passing the instructions has gained within the organizations. Further the role of non verbal communication as part of listening skill is the interesting factor that can help in gaining the knowledge form this study (Everest, 2007). Ahead after identifying the barriers related to improving the communication skills the proper strategies could be developed to deal with problems and issues.COMM 1004 week 4 Essay Assignment