The document provides guidance on effective listening skills, types of listening, barriers to listening, and improving nonverbal communication skills. It also outlines the purpose and steps for creating meeting minutes, including preparing the document, gathering information discussed, selecting and confirming key details, and finalizing the minutes for distribution. The overall document offers advice and templates for taking and drafting meeting minutes to create an accurate record of discussions, decisions, and follow-up tasks.

1.  Week 11 – Minutes & Presentation Skills
 Week 12 – Final Proposal & Presentation

2. Improving your Listening
Skills and Meeting Minutes

3. ‘80% of top executives say that listening is the
most important skill needed to get things done in
the workplace. Plus, today’s younger employees
place a high premium on being heard, so listening
is becoming even more vital for managers.’
(Rubel, 2010).

4. Effective listening
 Strengthens organizational relationships
 Alerts the organization to opportunities for innovation
 Allows the organization to manage growing diversity
both in the workforce and in the customers it serves
 Plays a vital role in the process of building trust
between organizations and between individuals

5. “When you talk you merely provide information, but
when you genuinely listen you show respect, create
trust, and develop rapport.” – John Boe, sales
training professional

6. Types of Listening
 Content listening
 Critical listening
- To understand and retain the information in the speaker’s message.
- You ask questions to clarify the material but don’t judge or ague.
- To understand and evaluate the meaning of the speaker’s message on
Several levels: the logic of the argument, the strength of the evidence, the
Validity of the conclusions, the implications of the message for you and your
Organization, the speaker’s intentions and motives, and the omissions of any
Important or relevant points.

7.  Emphatic listening
 Active listening
- To understand the speaker’s feelings, needs, and wants so that you can
appreciate his or her point of view, regardless of whether you share that
perspective.
- Making a conscious effort to turn off their own filters and biases to truly
hear and understand what the other party is saying.
- They ask questions or summarize the speaker’s message to verify key points
To encourage the speaker through positive body language and supportive
feedback

8. The Listening Process
Receiving
Decoding
Remembe
ring
Evaluating
Respondi
ng

9. Barriers to effective listening

10. Overcoming Barriers to Effective Listening
 Selective Listening
 Prejudgment
 Selective Perception
– if your mind wanders, you may stay tuned out until you hear a
word or phrase that gets your attention once more. But by that
time, you’ll unable to recall what the speaker actually said;
instead, you’ll remember what you think the speaker probably
said.
- making up your mind before truly hearing what another
person has to say.
leads listeners to filter incoming messages to fit what they
already believe about a given subject.

11. Effective Listeners Ineffective Listeners
Listen actively Listen passively
Take careful and complete notes when
applicable
Take no notes of ineffective notes
Make frequent eye contact with the
speaker
Make little or no eye contact- inappropriate
eye contact
Stay focused on the speaker and the
content
Allow their minds to wander, are easily
distracted, work on unrelated tasks
Mentally paraphrase key points to maintain
attention level and ensure comprehension
Fail to paraphrase
Adjust listening style to the situation Listen with the same style, regardless of
the situation
Give the speaker nonverbal cues Fail to give the speaker nonverbal feedback
Save questions or points of disagreement
until an appropriate time
Interrupt whenever they disagree or don’t
understand
Overlook stylistic differences and focus on
the speaker’s message
Are distracted by or unduly influences by
stylistic differences; are judgmental
Make distinctions between main points and
supporting details
Unable to distinguish main points from
details.
Look for opportunities to learn Assume they already know everything
that’s important to know

12. Improving your Nonverbal
Communication Skills

13. What is nonverbal communication?
 is the process of sending and receiving information,
both intentionally and unintentionally, without using
written or spoken language.

14. Six major categories of nonverbal
expression
 Facial Expressions
 Gestures and postures
 Vocal characteristics
 Personal appearance
 Touch
 Time and space

15. Meeting Minutes

16. Minutes of a meeting
 serves as a permanent, official record of those who
attended the meeting, significant discussions taking
place during the meeting, any decisions made, and
follow-up actions to be taken and is distributed to all
individuals who attended the meeting.

17. Meeting Minutes is a written record of decisions
and discussions that are verbally shared.
Top 5 reasons for meeting minutes
1. To record those who attended the meeting,
2. To record significant discussions taking place
during the meeting,
3. To record any decisions made
4. To follow-up actions to be taken
5. To be distributed to all individuals who attended the
meeting.

18. Step 1 Preparing your Document
 If you have a Meeting Agenda use the agenda to guide
your note taking
 Choose to write or type bring at least 2 pens and lines
paper (it is recommended you type the minutes)
 Get the names of those who will be attending
 Record the start time of the meeting
 Record the meeting purpose E.g. Monthly Staff
Meeting
 Check the main issues to be discussed
 Get the name of the person who approved that minutes
from the last meeting

19. Step 2 Gathering Information
 Note the names of everyone present
 Note the meeting start time
 Note if there is a Chairman or President
 Write down the main topics
 Write the date, time, and location of the next
meeting

20. Step 3 Selecting Information
 If you do not know the main topics summarize all
arguments and decisions that are made and organize by
topic/time
 Note any tasks assigned to employees
 Note any deadlines or important dates
 Note any important changes
 Note anything to be followed up at the next meeting
 Note any reports presented

21. Step 4 Confirming Information
 Ask to summarize the information with the group
 Ask if any important information was missed
 Confirm the staff present
 Confirm the staff absent
 Make sure you have the e-mails of all staff
members to send out the final draft

22. Step 5 Finalizing Information
 Provide your Manager/Supervisor the first copy
 Check your minutes for spelling and grammar
errors
 Make sure you have captured all the main topics
 Make sure you BOLD the date, attendance, start
time, end time, tasks, deadlines, chairperson and
the date of the next meeting

23. Meeting Minutes Template