This document discusses effective listening skills. It defines listening as an active process of receiving, understanding, remembering, evaluating, and responding to communications. There are several purposes of listening including learning, relating to others, influencing others, enjoyment, and helping others. The stages of listening are outlined as mindfulness, physically receiving messages, selecting and organizing material, interpreting communication, responding, and remembering. Several obstacles to mindful listening are also discussed such as message overload, complexity, prejudgments, lack of effort, and not recognizing diverse listening styles. Guidelines for effective listening include being mindful, adapting listening appropriately, listening actively, controlling obstacles, organizing information, asking questions, using aids to recall, suspending judgment, and paraphrasing.

1. BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
Listening in
Communication
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2. HEARING
LISTENING2
It is wise beyond the art. The left side of
the symbol represents an ear. The right
side represents the individual- you. The
eyes and undivided attention are next and
finally there is the heart.This symbol tells
us that to listen we must use both ears,
watch and maintain eye contact, give
undivided attention, and finally be
empathetic.

3. Listening
• What is listening?
• Listening is an active process of receiving., understanding,
remembering, evaluating, and responding to communications.
• What purposes does listening serve?
• Listening enables you
• (1) to learn, to acquire information;
• (2) to relate, to help form and maintain relationships;
• (3) to influence, to have an effect on the attitudes and
behaviors of others;
• (4) to play, to enjoy oneself; and
• (5) to help, to assist others.
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4. Stages of Listening (MR SIRR)
LISTE
NING
MINDFU
LNESS
PHYSICA
LLY
RECEIVI
NG
MESSAG
ES
SELECTI
NG AND
ORGANIZ
ING
MATERIA
L
INTERPR
ETING
COMMM
UNICATI
ON
RESPON
DING
REMEMB
ERING
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5. Stages of Listening contd…
Being Mindful:
• Deciding to focus on what’s happening; i.e.
making the choice to pay attention.
▫ Mindful listeners focus on people w/ whom
they’re interacting.
▫ You can’t be a good listener if you’re not mindful
▫ (internal noise)
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6. Stages of Listening contd…
• Receiving Communication:
• Involves hearing & seeing messages; i.e. verbal
& nonverbal
▫ Average person can understand 300 words per
minute
▫ Average person can speak 100 words per minute
▫ Free time = internal noise vs. mindfulness &
interpretation
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7. Stages of Listening contd…
3.Selecting and Organizing:
a.Choosing what to pay attention to
b.Using schemata to organize
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8. Stages of Listening contd…
• Interpreting: Making sense of what we’ve
selected and organized.
▫ Effective interp. depends on your ability to
understand others on their terms.
▫ Understanding is not same as agreeing
with.
▫ Don’t impose your own meanings on another and
tell them how they feel.
▫ “Good listeners stay out of the other’s way” to
learn how the speaker views a situation.
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9. Stages of Listening contd…
• Responding:
▫ Expressing interest, asking questions, showing
attentiveness.
▫ Posture, nodding, etc., vocal responses, taking notes, etc.
• Remembering: Final aspect of listening process
▫ We cannot remember literal messages; we remember our
interpretation of messages.
▫ We remember less than 50% of a message immediately
after we hear it.
▫ After 8 hours, we recall only 35% of our interpretation of
most messages.
•
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10. Obstacles to Mindful Listening
External obstacle
• Message Overload
• Message Complexity
• Noise
Internal Obstacle
• Prejudgment
• Lack of Effort
• Failure to adopt listening
Styles
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Tip:
If you're finding it particularly difficult to
concentrate on what someone is saying, try
repeating their words mentally as they say
them – this will reinforce their message
and help you stay focused.

11. External Obstacle
▫ Message overload: occurs when we receive more messages than
we can effectively process (academic settings: complex verbal
lecture combined w/ complicated overhead).
▫ Message complexity: occurs when a message we are trying to
understand is highly complex, packed w/ detailed information, or
involves intricate reasoning (academic settings / work / lots of
jargon: the phenomenological epistemological euphoria of the
rhetorical protagonist epitomizes the spyro-gyra of the Bat-belt’s
interconnectivity with the super califragelisticexpialidotiousness
of Mahatma Ghandi’s toga).
▫ Environmental distractions: Occurrences that interfere w/
listening (noise, temperature, environmental factors = find ways
to reduce to increase listening).
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12. Internal Obstacle
▫ Prejudgments: Assuming we think we know what
someone will say (mind reading); deciding in advance
others have noting to offer us. Prejudging = denying
others their voice =  grrrrrrrrrrr!
▫ Lack of effort: Self-explanatory (too many steps in the
listening process).
▫ Not recognizing diverse listening styles: Different folks
have different ways of responding (i.e. call & response,
eye contact, vocalizing vs. not, perceptions of
politeness, etc.).
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13. Styles of Listening
?
• Empathic-objective listening refers to the extent to
which you focus on feeling what the speaker is feeling.
• Nonjudgmental-critical listening refers to the extent
to which you accept and support the speaker.
• Surface-depth listening refers to the extent to which
you focus on the obvious surface meanings.
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14. Styles of Non-Listening
1. Pseudo listening… pretending
2. Selective Listening….. finance
3. Defensive Listening…. perceive attack or hostility
4. Literal listening…. only for content , no relationship level
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15. Styles of listening effectively
Determine your reason for listening…
1. Listening for pleasure
2. Listening for Information
 Be Mindful
 Control Obstacle
 Ask Questions
 Use aids to recall
 Organize information
3. Listening To Support Others
 Be Mindful
 Be Careful of Expressing Judgments
 Understand the Other Person’s Perspective
 Express Support
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16. Guidelines for effective listening
1. Be Mindful
2. Adapt Listening
Appropriately
3. Listen Actively
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17. Improving Listening Skills:
• Be Mindful
• Control Obstacles
• Think About Organization
• Ask Questions
• Use Aids to Recall
• Suspend Judgment
• Paraphrase: clarify by stating your interpretation of a
message back to a speaker; use “I” language
• Use Minimal Encouragers: responses that invite others to
elaborate
▫ Tell me more
▫ Really?
▫ Go on!
▫ Then what happened?
▫ No, really, I want to know more about listening Ms. Borger!
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18. 18
Key Points
It takes a lot of concentration and determination to be an active
listener. Old habits are hard to break, and if your listening habits are
as bad as many people's are, then there's a lot of habit-breaking to do!
Be deliberate with your listening and remind yourself frequently that
your goal is to truly hear what the other person is saying. Set aside all
other thoughts and behaviors and concentrate on the message. Ask
questions, reflect, and paraphrase to ensure you understand the
message. If you don't, then you'll find that what someone says to you
and what you hear can be amazingly different!
Start using active listening today to become a better
communicator, improve your workplace productivity, and
develop better relationships.

19. References
• Julia T Wood , . Everyday Communication,
2008