This document discusses techniques for active listening in a business environment. It defines active listening and outlines three types of listening: content, critical, and active. It then details learning objectives and defines active listening skills like acceptance responses, repeating, paraphrasing, clarifying, and summarizing. Examples are provided for each of these skills.

1. Active Listening Objectives, Types and Practices.

2. Active Listening The purpose of this is to present techniques that will allow you to provide feedback to the speaker in your business conversations. Customer service professionals, sales representatives, and anyone who communicates with people in a business environment will benefit from this course.

3. Learning Objectives: Differentiate between the three types of listening. Define and demonstrate the following Active Listening Skills: Acceptance Response Repeating Paraphrasing Clarifying Summarizing

4. Facts We listen at 125-250 wpm, think at 1000-3000 wpm 75% of the time we are distracted 20% of the time, we remember what we hear

5. Types of listening There are three types of listening; Content Critical Active

6. Content It deals with understanding and retaining information. The objective here is to understand the content of the message and retain it.

7. Critical The objective here is to evaluate or analyze the message and figure out what is important or what is not, so that you can proceed to deal with the situation at hand without spending time on what's not relevant.

8. Active Used to actively provide verbal and nonverbal feedback to the speaker about your understanding of what is being communicated.

9. Definition Effective listening is listening to the words of the speaker and the meaning of the words. A ctive listening is a process in which the listener takes active responsibility to understand the content and feeling of what is being said and then checks with the speaker to see if he/she heard what the speaker intended to communicate.

10. In active listening we: Listen to the content of the message Listen for the feelings of the speaker Listen without making judgment Respond to the feelings of the speaker Ask open-ended questions Reflect back to the speaker what you think you are hearing

11. Elements to Active Listening Content: The subject the speaker is addressing Feelings: The emotions the speaker has when discussing the subject Process: The manner in which the speaker delivers the subject matter Clarification: The ability of the listener to ask questions and seek understanding of the subject

12. Active Listening Skills Using an acceptance response is inserting simple verbal utterances or words into the conversation. Non-verbal communication can also be used. This provides a mechanism to communicate that you are listening without interrupting the speaker's flow of thought and speech. Examples – Okay, I see, I understand, uh-huh, yes, etc. Acceptance Response

13. Open Ended Questioning An open-ended question is designed to encourage a full, meaningful answer using the subject's own knowledge and/or feelings. Open-ended questions typically begin with words such as "Why" and "How", or phrases such as "Tell me about...". Often they are not technically a question, but a statement which implicitly asks for a response.

14. Repeating The purpose of repeating is to highlight key words or phrases that indicate you have identified the most critical components of the message. The Customer says , "The phone number where you can reach me during the day is 0410 111 111.“ Tone of understanding – “Ok so that’s 0410 111 111? Tone of expectation for additional information – 0410 111 …….

15. Paraphrasing Is stating, in your own words, your understanding of what you heard. Customer say “ I have been an Optus customer a long time ago and my internet was slow” Paraphrase : ‘ So, you have been disappointed with the internet products Optus had in the past?” It is important to paraphrase when you want the speaker to know that you understand him or her.

16. Clarifying Is used to gain a clearer understanding of the speaker's situation and to move the conversation from broad generalizations to specific facts. Customer says – “I sent in a check a few weeks ago, but it still hasn’t been credit on my latest statement” . Clarifying question – ‘When did you make your last payment?’ or ‘What was the date on your statement?’

17. Summarising Assures both the listener and speaker that a complex message was received and understood. To summarise, restate the key components of the conversation. Example – “Okay, lets put all this together. You had a dial-up plan with Optus 6 years ago and you were not happy with the speed of the service?”