presentation

1. EFFECTIVE LISTENING AND
COMMUNICATION SKILL
BY : ARFAT SHAIKH
ROLL NO : 9128
CLASS : SYBMS
SUBJECT : FOUNDATION COURSE

2. CONTENT
Active Listening
Tip for Active listening
Effective listening skills
Becoming an active listener
Key Points
Top 10 communication skills
Poor Communications in Workplace

3. Active Listening
Hear What People Are Really Saying
Listening is one of the most important skills you can have. How well you listen has a major
impact on your job effectiveness and on the quality of your relationships with others.
For instance:
• We listen to obtain information.
• We listen to understand.
• We listen for enjoyment.
• We listen to learn.

4. Tip:
• Good communication skills require a high level of self-awareness . Understanding your
own personal style of communicating will go a long way toward helping you to create good
and lasting impressions with others.
• 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 to stay focused.
• Be aware that active listening can give others the impression that you agree with them even
if you don't. It’s also important to avoid using active listening as a checklist of actions to
follow, rather than really listening. It may help to practice Mindful Listening if you find
that you lose focus regularly.

5. Effective Listening Skills
• Discover your interests’ field.
• Grasp and understand the matter/content.
• Remain calm. Do not loose your temper. Anger hampers and inhibits communication. Angry people jam their
minds to the words of others.
• Be open to accept new ideas and information.
• Jot down and take a note of important points.
• Work upon listening. Analyze and evaluate the speech in spare time.
• Rephrase and summarize the speaker’s ideas.
• Keep on asking questions. This demonstrates that how well you understand the speaker’s ideas and also that
you are listening.
• Avoid distractions.
• “Step into the shoes of others”, i.e., put yourself in the position of the speaker and observe things from his
view point. This will help creating an atmosphere of mutual understanding and improve the exchange of ideas
in communication process.

6. Becoming an Active Listener
There are five key active listening techniques you can use to help you become a more
effective listener:
1. Pay Attention
• Give the speaker your undivided attention, and acknowledge the message. Recognize that
non-verbal communication also "speaks" loudly.
• Look at the speaker directly.
• Put aside distracting thoughts.
• Don't mentally prepare a rebuttal!
• Avoid being distracted by environmental factors. For example, side conversations.
• "Listen" to the speaker's body language .

7. 2. Show That You're Listening
• Use your own body language and gestures to show that you are
engaged.
• Nod occasionally.
• Smile and use other facial expressions.
• Make sure that your posture is open and interested.
• Encourage the speaker to continue with small verbal comments
like yes, and "uh huh."

8. 3. Provide Feedback
• Our personal filters, assumptions, judgments, and beliefs can distort what we
hear. As a listener, your role is to understand what is being said. This may
require you to reflect on what is being said and to ask questions.
• Reflect on what has been said by paraphrasing. "What I'm hearing is... ," and
"Sounds like you are saying... ," are great ways to reflect back.
• Ask questions to clarify certain points. "What do you mean when you
say... ." "Is this what you mean?"
• Summarize the speaker's comments periodically.

9. 4. Defer Judgment
• Interrupting is a waste of time. It frustrates the speaker and
limits full understanding of the message.
• Allow the speaker to finish each point before asking questions.
• Don't interrupt with counterarguments.

10. 5. Respond Appropriately
• Active listening is designed to encourage respect and
understanding. You are gaining information and perspective. You
add nothing by attacking the speaker or otherwise putting her
down.
• Be candid, open, and honest in your response.
• Assert your opinions respectfully.
• Treat the other person in a way that you think they would want to
be treated.

11. 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 skills are as bad as many people's are, then you'll need to do a
lot of work to break these bad habits.
• There are five key techniques you can use to develop your active listening skills:
• Pay attention.
• Show that you're listening.
• Provide feedback.
• Defer judgment.
• Respond appropriately.
• Start using active listening techniques today to become a better communicator, improve
your workplace productivity, and develop better relationships.

12. Top 10 Communication Skills
• 1. Listening
• 2. Nonverbal Communication
• 3. Clarity and Concision
• 4. Friendliness
• 5. Confidence
• 6. Empathy
• 7. Open-Mindedness
• 8. Respect
• 9. Feedback
• 10. Picking the Right Medium

13. Communication Skills
six areas of communication:
• Understanding the Basics.
• Planning Your Communications.
• Communicating Powerfully in Writing.
• Communicating Effectively Face-to-Face.
• Running Productive Meetings.
• Delivering Great Presentations.

14. 1: Understanding the Basics
• It's important to take a systematic approach to communication, given the wide range of channels that are available, such as
emails, marketing materials, presentations, and other written and spoken forms.
• A good place to start is with our article, The Communication Cycle , which covers the basics of using any medium. It
explores a six-step process for organizing and presenting a message, and then learning from the feedback that you receive in
return.
• Remember, communication is a two-way process: as well as talking or delivering a message, it's important to listen to the
other person's response. You can test how good your listening skills are with our quiz , and there is plenty of help available for
boosting your understanding of what people are trying to communicate to you.
• For example, you can learn how to listen empathically, which demonstrates your attentiveness and understanding of what's
being said. It can also help to listen actively , which involves deferring judgment until you've heard everything that the other
person has to say.
• As you acquire these skills, you'll discover that developing your communication skills is as much about improving the quality
of your relationships as it is about expressing yourself.
• Success in business often depends on your ability to be tactful , developing empathy , and making the effort to appreciate
other people's points of view . The more you arrive at shared understandings with colleagues and clients, the better you'll
be able to create high-quality connections with them. Taken together, these skills can make your workplace happier, more
cohesive, and more productive.

15. 2: Planning Your Communications
• The purpose of Communications Planning is to get the right message to the right people, in the right way.
It sounds simple, but many people fail to plan their communications properly. This can lead to
misunderstandings, frustration and missed opportunities.
• One effective approach is to use a strategy framework to identify and understand your audience, and think
about how best to reach it. Don't make assumptions. Listen intelligently to what your audience needs. Ask
the right questions in the right way, to get as much information as possible during the planning phase.
• When you're ready to compose your message, use tools like the Rhetorical Triangle to take account of
people's expectations, the context of the message, and what you want your message to achieve. Also, you
can use Monroe's Motivated Sequence to grab your audience's attention and create a compelling call to
action.
• You can also try to engage people's emotions with storytelling . This is a powerful, persuasive technique
that can be used both to inform the audience and to establish some common ground.
• Whatever the medium or style that you choose, remember to keep your message simple , and to avoid using
jargon . Our article on the 7 Cs of Communication can help with this. Keep the information that you're
presenting tightly organized in self-contained chunks that are easy to understand, and let simplicity and
clarity be your guide.

16. 3: Communicating Powerfully in Writing
• No one wants to waste time decoding badly written emails, rambling reports, or over-
complicated messages. That's why effective writing skills are a must.
• Your written communications compete with many other messages, so you need to grab your
readers' attention and ensure that they get important information as quickly as possible. This is
where Inverted Pyramid Writing is useful, as it puts the key points at the top of your
message.
• Brevity, clarity and use of intelligent subject lines are essential strategies for effective email .
Avoid rambling, using the wrong tone, and other common mistakes . This advice also applies
to instant messaging (IM) , but you must be even more concise with this, because lengthy
blocks of text can be difficult to read and digest on IM.
• Longer pieces of writing, such as business reports , also need to be organized clearly and
logically, so that the reader knows exactly where to look for the information that he or she
needs, and isn't put off by a mass of unstructured data.

17. 4: Communicating Effectively Face-to-Face
• Face-to-face communication offers the best opportunity to build good relationships and engage with people
personally.
• Using small talk can put the other person at ease, but be sure to listen carefully to his responses. They can teach
you a lot about his interests and values, and you can learn what kind of language to use to build rapport .
• There may be times when you get "caught on the hop," for example if you find yourself having to answer an
unexpected question, or being asked to cover for someone at a presentation at short notice. Our articles,
Thinking on Your Feet and Impromptu Speaking Skills , can help you to handle these situations with
confidence.
• Similarly, you may get an unexpected chance to pitch your product or service to a potential client. While you may
not have been prepared for the encounter, you can still take advantage of the opportunity if you have a
compelling elevator pitch ready.
• It's also worth remembering that you communicate with your appearance and body language long before you say
a word, so it's important to make a good first impression . In fact, when people are talking about their feelings
and emotions, the verbal part of their message may amount to as little as seven percent of the whole. A skillful
communicator learns both to read and to use body language and visual clues to reinforce her message.

18. 5: Running Productive Meetings
• A meeting can be a forum for sharing great ideas, making bold decisions, and inspiring one another. However, in organizations where they're
mishandled, people often consider them to be a poor use of their time. Effective meetings don't just happen, they require a specific set of
communication skills. This Expert Interview podcast explores how to get more done in less time by simplifying and streamlining meetings.
• Chances are, you've sat through meetings that drifted off topic, didn't have a clear objective, or were dominated by overbearing attendees.
That can be tiresome, frustrating and unproductive, but it doesn't have to be that way. Our article, Running Effective Meetings , looks at
how to keep your meeting well structured, focused on its goal, and efficient.
• There's often a trade-off between paying attention to detail and keeping meetings streamlined. As a result, not every meeting will run to plan.
If your meetings tend to wander off topic, you can use Dialogue Mapping to "restore order." This involves a facilitator, who records new
ideas and comments on a whiteboard. Having a record of what was said is useful for future meetings. Also, when people see their statements
written down, they feel that their points have been heard and don't need to repeat them.
• You also have a better chance of enjoying brief, productive meetings if they are run by an experienced facilitator or chairman. He is usually
skilled at:
• Designing and planning a meeting .
• Getting people involved with suitable ice breakers .
• Guiding the dynamic of the meeting .
• Recording the key points efficiently.
• Making sure that the participants understand what they need to do after the meeting.
• There are a number of pitfalls to avoid with group communication. The foremost danger is that constructive disagreement may turn into
conflict. Learning how to manage conflict will make you a more confident manager and can also ensure that the conflict is resolved
positively. You should also avoid groupthink and cognitive bias .

19. 6: Delivering Great Presentations
• Being able to deliver a presentation is a key communication skill for managers, or for anyone with leadership
ambitions. And even if you consider yourself to be an experienced "performer" in front of an audience, you should
still look at areas where you can develop your skills further.
• The first step is to plan thoroughly. You'll find delivering a great presentation much easier if you've taken the
time to craft what you're going to say. It's also vital to pick a structure and style that suits your audience. Think
about what visual impact you can make, too.
• Before you "take the stage," prepare the room and test any equipment or props that you intend to use. Nothing will
break your concentration and distract from your message more than an unexpected technical glitch!
• You need to keep your audience engaged, so you may find it helpful to use the techniques described in our article,
The Ladder of Abstraction . This involves moving continually between tangible details and abstract concepts as
you speak.
• If your presentation is well-rehearsed, your confidence in public speaking will grow, and you can think more about
your body language . Having a calm demeanor means that people can focus on your message without being
distracted by any nervous movements or gestures.
• Familiarize yourself with common presentation mistakes ahead of time, rather than learning about them through
bitter experience. Also, remember that even the slickest presenter experiences presentation nerves , but learns to
overcome them.

20. Key Points
The best communicators listen actively, inspire people, help them to take effective action, and remove obstacles
to their understanding. Unfortunately, effective communication isn't as common in business as it should be.
Chances are, we've all been confused and frustrated by incomprehensible, jargon-filled messages.
However, by focusing on these six key skill areas, anyone can begin their journey to
becoming an exceptional communicator . When you're ready to take it further, the Communication Skills
section contains more than 130 useful communication tools – more than 200 for Club members – grouped into
the following sections:
• Planning and Structuring.
• Communicating in Person.
• Feedback.
• Meetings.
• Presentations.
• Communicating in Writing.
• Negotiation, Persuasion and Influence.
• Difficult Communication Situations.
• Understanding Others Better.

21. How to Improve Your Communication Skills
Here are some pointers to look out for when looking to improve your ability to effectively communicate with others:
1. Listening
• To become a good communicator, it is important to be a good listener. It is important to practice active listening – pay close attention to what others are
saying and clarify ambiguities by rephrasing their questions for greater understanding.
2. Conciseness
• Convey your message in as few words as possible. Do not use filler words and get straight to the point. Rambling will cause the listener to tune out or be
unsure of what you are talking about. Avoid speaking excessively and do not use words that may confuse the audience.
3. Body language
• It is important to practice good body language, use eye contact, utilize hand gestures, and watch the tone of the voice when communicating with others. A
relaxed body stance with a friendly tone will aid in making you look approachable to others.
• Eye contact is important in communication – look the person in the eye to indicate that you are focused on the conversation. But make sure to not stare at
the person as it can make him or her uncomfortable.
4. Confidence
• Be confident in what you say and in your communication interactions with others. Being confident can be as easy as maintaining eye contact, maintaining a
relaxed body stance, and talking with concision. Try not to make statements sound like questions and avoid trying to sound aggressive or demeaning.
5. Open-mindedness
• In situations where you disagree with what someone else has to say, whether it be with an employer, a co-worker, or a friend, it is important to sympathize
with their point of view rather than simply try to get your message across. Respect the opinion of others and never resort to demeaning those who do not
agree with you.
6. Respect
• Respecting what others have to say and acknowledging them is an important aspect of communication. Being respectful can be as simple as paying
attention to what they have to say, using the person’s name, and not being distracted. By respecting others, the other person will feel appreciated, which will
lead to a more honest and productive conversation.
7. Using the correct medium
• There are several different forms of communication to use – it is important to choose the right one. For example, communicating in person about serious
matters (layoffs, salary changes, etc.) is more appropriate than sending an email regarding the matter.

22. Poor Communication in the Workplace
• Communication drives workplace success. Although the detriments of poorly
communicating with others may not be apparent in the short term, it has a
crippling effect on the workplace in the long term. Here are some signs of bad
communication:
• Lack of specific communication
• Using the incorrect mediums to convey important messages
• Passive-aggressive communication
• Lack of follow-through and consideration
• Blaming and intimidating others
• Failing to listen