Why Dont We Listen Better?

One of the question that I continued to ask myself about Mr. Petersen is “How was he able to but all of these functions together when it comes to communication and listening”. How was he able to make these correlations with communication, better yet what made his think that all these parts play a valuable role in his book? Now some of the questions that also had when reading this book is “Stephanie do you really pay attention to others like I say I do, and how in world do people still like to talk to me?”. Another question that pops into my mind a lot is “How are we supposed to take everything that I am reading into consideration when I’m trying to communicate with others. How am I supposed to remember all of this and try and become a better listener?”. But I have found out about myself is that I could use the technique code start to actually use my gut, head, and emotions when I’m listening to people, and it can still effect the way that I perceive it. But on the same end of this if I use decode and summarize what they said to me, there won’t be any miscommunication between us. But I can say after reading his book I know have a game to play with my children and husband, so we are able to communicate with each other, “Talker and Listener”. This technique Talker and Listener, will help me as a parent and wife when it comes to my home life, and hopefully someday as a career

The second article I found is 'active listening, more than just paying attention'. Kathryn Robertson largely adopted Carl Rogers' theory on active listening. She discusses communication

During the summer while taking Critical Listening (Communication 240), my goal was to not over-think questions, evaluate with a clear response, and become a comprehensive listener. I have observed and analyzed that I was not being honest with myself due to bad listening habits through conversations or functions. Sometimes during a speech, lecture, and meetings, I tend to selectively listen to interesting facts than relevant ones. Partial listening occasionally occurs when I’m speaking to two or more people in a group setting. Although, I did not pay attention as much as I should to understand concepts for some task, I have practiced new strategies to build into a great listener. Through this reflection, I will discuss what I have learned in this course and plan to grow in the future.

I decided to write about the responding part of the listening process. Before you are able to respond to someone you must first be able to evaluate what is being discussed, and then you can give an appropriate response. According to Dr. John A. Kline and his book Listening Effectively he said, “Many times a nonverbal response is all that is needed; indeed, it may even be prefeed type of response. The knowing nod of the head, an understanding smile, or thumbs up.” (Ch.3 process of listening)

It did not take this class for me to realize that I have poor listening skills. I have the bad habit of interrupting or not fully listening to the entire message. Instead I concentrate on how I am going to respond. With the assigned readings, videos and class exercises it does help give me the tools to fix my problem. Some of the benefits of active listening are “showing the speaker that you are concerned” and “encourages further communication.” (Janasz, Dowd, Schneider, 2015, p.136). Active listening will also help develop a better relationship between you and the speaker. I believe that the most important thing in any relationship, not just leadership, is communication. Good communication is a two-way street. Listening to what is being communicated to you

It is important to understand my listening approaches since they are vital for effective communication. Having effective listening skills are critical in enhancing a communication process that is productive both within and outside an organization. A personal listening profile is essential since it may enable one to emerge as an active and purposeful listener within a wide variety of instances resulting in a productive or efficient communication (Watson & Barker, 1995). This reflective paper is concerned with my listening style profile where I have summed the scores from the survey and demonstrating my most preferred listening style.

I also feel that all of the topics that explained proper communications are very valuable to me. I have always struggled with communication, because I have been a shy, quiet person all of my life. However, I have always loved written communication, because it gives me time to think about what I should say to someone. It is hard for me to interject when I’m engaged in a conversation, because I hate being rude to people. Consequently, when I talk with people in person or verbally, I have the tendency to let them control the conversation. On the other hand, this also makes me an excellent listener and helps me to assess people’s motives behind what they say. This course has taught me the importance of attuning professional verbal communication with professional written communication and listening skills.

Listening is a skill that requires active, rather than passive, participation to advance shared understanding and minimise misinterpretation. Active listening strategies such as analysing and displaying non-verbal body language, clarifying meaning and accuracy, expressing understanding for the speaker’s feelings through empathy and moments of silence contribute to effective communication. These methods encourage the speaker to convey his or her thoughts and minimises misinterpretation between sender and receiver.

Two important aspects of the communication process are hearing and listening. While both are fundamental to the process, they have two separate and distinct functions. Often, people use these terms interchangeably. To do so is incorrect, their true definitions are different. Understanding the differences can enhance relationships with employees, co-workers, and superiors. Knowing the difference can even improve job performance. Here is a good analogy of the terms: “Hearing is the physical sense of perceiving sound. Listening is a mental exercise requiring diligent intention and constant practice. One is a sense we are born with; the other a skill to attain” (Meiners, July). Wallace and Roberson wrote a list of tasks a good listener performs. They are concentrates on a speaker, interprets the speaker’s words, evaluates the meaning, and responds effectively. There are four variables that will affect this list of tasks; a listener must be able to take in what is being said, the speaker must be able to have the ability to keep the listener’s attention span, the speaker must also be able to keep the listener’s interest peaked, and the environment in which the communication is taking place should be conducive to listening.

They need to put their own thoughts aside, be there mentally not just physically, make a conscious mindful effort to listen, take adequate time to listen, don’t rush the speaker, be patient, and lastly be open minded (Beebe et al., 2001). It is important to stop and think about all the distractions that prevent you from listening. The biggest distraction is your mouth. The authors state “you have been given two ears and one mouth” (Beebe et al., 2001, p. 126). Listeners need to shut one and use two in order to listen more efficiently. The book references a key solution to helping listeners stop with the distractions and listen to the speaker. They suggest that listeners stop their own thoughts and put themselves in the speaker’s shoes. Ask yourself this question “If I were the speaker, what should I be thinking right now?” To be aware of your own thoughts and actions calls for more efficient listening.

Listen up! Are people really listening? What is listening and why is it important? This paper will address the viewpoint of listening skills and its outcome. Listening is an essential tool, which is one of the constructive aspects in the communication process, for communicating with other people. To listen well is a talent that is learned. However, for people to listen effectively, they would need to practice to obtain the skill. ”As with any new skill, learning to listen takes effort, attention, and practice” (Stewart, 2006, p. 202).Listening skills allow people to make sense of and understand what another person is saying. In other words, listening skills allow people to identify with the meaning of what

The textbook connects to what we learned in class in many ways. One way that the text connects to what we learned in class is when we discussed active listening. In class we discussed the importance of active listening such as during active listening we increase the listeners understanding of the other person. We can also help the speaker clarify his or her thought. Moreover, we can reassure the others that some is willing to listen to his or her point of view. Whereas in the textbook it discusses a similar concept however it mainly focuses on how the leader should actively listen. Such that the leader need to have extremely excellent active listening skills in order to sustain the group in order and to maintain a successful group. The text also states the leader has to be able to activity listen to every member within the group not just a specific members. Furthermore, the textbook also says that the leader has to be aware of member’s feelings and notice the different gestures or facial expressions that group members may be making. Another way the textbook connects to what we learned in class is when we discussed in class how if we don’t understand something we should say that we are lost or “sorry I didn’t get that in stead of lying. This relates to the textbook where it mentions that during counseling we should be able to reflect or restate a comment that some said. This will help members know that you understand there content and

There is an old parable about why human beings have two ears, but only one tongue. Many people may ask well, why do we have two ears and only one tongue? The answer to this question entails simple math; so we have to listen twice as much as we speak. Listening and communication is critical to learning. According to a study, approximately 70% of students scoring high on listening tests are considered honors students or excel in learning and life (Janusik). Today listening and communication is a struggle because of the judgment, electronic fallbacks, and the simple misunderstanding of communication.

Listen up! Are you really listening? What is listening and why is it important? This paper will address the viewpoint of listening skills and its outcome. Listening is an essential tool, which is one of the constructive aspects in the communication process, for communicating with other people. To listen well is a talent that is learned. However, for people to listen effectively, they would need to practice to obtain the skill. ”As with any new skill, learning to listen takes effort, attention, and practice” (Stewart, 2006, p. 202). Listening skills allow people to make sense of and understand what another person is saying. In other words, listening skills allow you to identify with the meaning of what people are talking about.

Listening is a very important part of interpersonal communication. Even though it may seem like a simple term or task, it is often a difficult skill to accomplish. What is listening? Listening is “the dynamic, transactional proves of receiving, recalling, rating, and responding to stimuli, messages, or both” (West & Turner, 2009). More simply put, listening is a process of hearing information, being aware and paying attention, organizing information taken in, and making it useful (Anderson & Lynch, 1988). For listening to work effectively, it uses a combination of mental processes and observable elements (Brownell, 2013). In the past, listening has been thought of as a passive skill in language (Anderson & Lynch, 1988). However, hearing is a more passive activity, while listening is active process, which involves cognitive process as well. Listening goes beyond hearing (Petress, 1999). Hearing is just passively receiving and recording information (Anderson & Lynch, 1988). Listening involves active interpretation of what is heard to make meaning to the message (Clark & Moss, 2011).