The document discusses effective listening skills. It defines the difference between hearing and listening, with listening requiring focus and understanding. It outlines barriers to listening like environment, semantics, personal factors, and socio-cultural differences. Key listening skills include focusing without distraction, reading body language and facial expressions, asking clarifying questions, maintaining eye contact and nodding to show engagement, understanding other perspectives, and listening to implicit and explicit messages. The document provides 10 commandments of effective listening like stopping talking, making others comfortable, concentrating on verbal and nonverbal cues, avoiding assumptions, being patient without interrupting, controlling emotions, and empathizing with the speaker.

1. Presented by Tania Aslam

2. “If speaking is silver, then listening is gold.”
Turkish Proverb

3. Hearing Vs Listening
Do not get confused between hearing and listening.
Hearing: If you are not deaf, then you hear. It is
simply the act of perceiving sound by the ear. If you
are not hearing-impaired, hearing simply happens
Listening: includes paying real attention and
focusing with the intention of understanding and
responding appropriately.
Listening requires concentration so that your brain
processes meaning from words and sentences.
Listening leads to learning.

4. "We were given two ears but only one mouth.
This is because God knew that listening was
twice as hard as talking.“

5. BARRIERS TO LISTENING
 Environmental
 Adverse conditions like hot weather
 Semantic
 Speaker’s style of speaking & mannerisms.
 Use of difficult words, jargon & repetition.
 Personal
 Fear, Anger & Anxiety.
 Boredom
 Beliefs, Attitudes and Pre-conceived Ideas.
 Hunger ,Tiredness & Pain.
 Socio-Cultural
 Different cultural backgrounds – personal space, sense of
time, etc.

6. Essential Listening Skills
 Focus
 Be Able to read one's emotional state
 Ask questions
 Show that you are listening
 Listen to your Customer Point of View
 Listen with your Eyes

7. Essential Listening Skills
Focus
 Accept that listening is hard work.
 Prepare to listen & have a positive attitude.
 Start with an open mind
 Focus and listen carefully to what the speaker has to say.
Don't get distracted by what's happening around you. The
speakers tone and accent. The kind of words being used
and the way he is behaving
Remember:
“You cannot truly listen to anyone and do anything else
at the same time.”
- M. Scott Peck

8. Essential Listening Skills
Listen with your Eyes and Heart
 Attention on not only what is being said, but also the
manner in which it is being said, should be noted
 Recognize that people communicate on many levels.
Watch their facial expressions, eye contact, posture,
hand and feet movements, body movement and
placement, and appearance and passage as they walk
toward you. Every gesture is communicating something
if you listen with your eyes.
Remember:
“The most important thing in communication is
hearing what isn't said.”
Peter F. Drucker

9. Essential Listening Skills
Ask Questions
 To seek information and gather facts and rationale
 Be patient. Don't interrupt the speaker. This is
disrespectful and suggests you want to talk instead of
listen. Be courteous and allow plenty of time for the
speaker to convey ideas and meaning.
 Use a language that is acceptable and will help you
gather data. Do not jump the gun, Assumptions are
dangerous
 Hold your tongue & delay judgment.
Remember:
"We do not grow by knowing all of the answers, but
rather by living with the questions."
— Max De Pree

10. Essential Listening Skills
Show that you are Listening
 Maintaining eye contact with the speaker
 Using effective body language to convey attentiveness
 Keeping hands at side and not folded
 Nodding to indicate approval or recognition
 Leaning toward the speaker to indicate interest in the
content
 Showing empathy for the speaker
 Taking notes on the information
Remember:
"You learn when you listen. You earn when you listen—
not just money, but respect."
— Harvey Mackay

11. Essential Listening Skills
Listen to your Customer Point of View
 By understanding things from the customer's point of
view
 People don't buy what you wish to sell. They buy what
they need. Selling is not happening when you are
talking. Selling is happening when your prospect is
talking, and you are listening actively and passionately.
Remember:
"A bore is a person who talks when you wish him to
listen."
Ambrose Bierce

12. Essential Listening Skills
Listen with your Eyes
 An authority on nonverbal language says that 55 percent
of the message meaning is nonverbal, 38 percent is
indicated by tone of voice, and only 7 percent is conveyed
by the words used in a spoken message. Few people know
how to listen to the eyes; what a tapping foot means; a
furrowed brow; clenched fist; the biting of nails. These
often reveal the key feelings behind the words.
Remember:
“Words have no meaning - People have
meaning." Larry Barker

13. Ten Commandments of Effective
Listening
1. Stop talking! You cannot listen when you are talking.
You will only be thinking about what you are going to
say next instead of paying attention to what the other
person is trying to say.
2. Put the speaker at ease: Relax, smile, look at the
speaker and help that person feel free to talk. Look
and act interested. Remove distractions: playing with
papers on table etc
3. Pay attention to the nonverbal language of physical
gestures, facial expressions, tone of voice, and body
posture.

14. Ten Commandments of Effective
Listening
4. Listen for what is not said. Ask questions to clarify the
meaning of words and the feelings involved, or ask the
speaker to enlarge on the statement. People often find
it difficult to speak up about matters or experiences
that are very important or highly emotional for them.
5. Know exactly what the other person is saying. Reflect
back what the other person has said in a "shared
meaning" experience so you completely understand
the meaning and content of the message before you
reply to it. A good listener does not assume they
understand the other person. You, as the listener,
should not express your views until you have
summarized the speaker's message to his satisfaction.

15. Ten Commandments of Effective
Listening
6. Be aware of "tune out" words. These are words which
appear in the media that strike an emotional chord in
the listener and interferes with attentive listening (e.g.
abortion, nuclear war, communism, homosexuality).
Avoid arguing mentally.
7. Concentrate on "hidden" emotional meanings. What
are the real feelings behind the words? What is the
tone of voice saying? What does the emphasis on
certain words mean
8. Be patient. Don't interrupt the speaker. This is
disrespectful and suggests you want to talk instead of
listen. Be courteous and allow plenty of time for the
speaker to convey ideas and meaning.

16. Ten Commandments of Effective
Listening
9. Hold your temper! Try to keep your own emotions
from interfering with your listening efficiency. When
emotions are high, there is a tendency to tune out the
speaker, become defensive, or want to give advice. You
don't have to agree to be a good listener. Don't argue!
Even if you win, you lose.
10. Empathize with the speaker. Try to "walk in the other's
moccasins" so you can feel what that person is feeling
and understand the point of view the speaker is trying
to convey.

17. “Opportunities are often
missed because we are
broadcasting when we
should be listening.”
Author Unknown