Face Is the Index of Mind
"We were given two ears but only one mouth, because listening is twice as hard as talking."
Listening
Of all the communications skills, listening is arguably the one which makes the biggest difference.
The most brilliant and effective speaker utlimately comes undone if he/she fails to listen properly.
Listening does not come naturally to most people, so we need to work hard at it; to stop ourselves 'jumping in' and giving our opinions.
Mostly, people don't listen - they just take turns to speak - we all tend to be more interested in announcing our own views and experiences than really listening and understanding others.
This is ironinic since we all like to be listened to and understood. Covey says rightly that when we are understood we feel affirmed and validated.
He coined the expression: 'Seek first to understand, and then to be understood', which serves as a constant reminder for the need to listen to the other person before you can expect them to listen to you.
Listening Process
Listening is the process of making sense out of what we hear. Listening is an active process of receiving, processing, and interpreting aural stimuli. Firstly, listening involves taking in meaningful sounds and noises and in some way, retaining and using them. Just as we speak for different purposes, we also listen for different purposes. We listen for enjoyment, information, and evaluation.
levels of listening -
There are different types of listening. Typically they are presented as levels of listening. 1. passive/not listening - Noise in the background - you are not concentrating on the sounds at all and nothing is registering with you. Ignoring would be another way to describe this type of listening. There is nothing wrong with passive listening if it's truly not important, but passive listening - which we might more aptly call Not Listening - is obviously daft and can be downright dangerous if the communications are important. 2. pretend listening -You
Listening
Of all the communications skills, listening is arguably the one which makes the biggest difference.
The most brilliant and effective speaker utlimately comes undone if he/she fails to listen properly.
Listening does not come naturally to most people, so we need to work hard at it; to stop ourselves 'jumping in' and giving our opinions.
Mostly, people don't listen - they just take turns to speak - we all tend to be more interested in announcing our own views and experiences than really listening and understanding others.
This is ironinic since we all like to be listened to and understood. Covey says rightly that when we are understood we feel affirmed and validated.
He coined the expression: 'Seek first to understand, and then to be understood', which serves as a constant reminder for the need to listen to the other person before you can expect them to listen to you.
Listening Process
Listening is the process of making sense out of what we hear. Listening is an active process of receiving, processing, and interpreting aural stimuli. Firstly, listening involves taking in meaningful sounds and noises and in some way, retaining and using them. Just as we speak for different purposes, we also listen for different purposes. We listen for enjoyment, information, and evaluation.
levels of listening -
There are different types of listening. Typically they are presented as levels of listening. 1. passive/not listening - Noise in the background - you are not concentrating on the sounds at all and nothing is registering with you. Ignoring would be another way to describe this type of listening. There is nothing wrong with passive listening if it's truly not important, but passive listening - which we might more aptly call Not Listening - is obviously daft and can be downright dangerous if the communications are important. 2. pretend listening -You