Examples of not active listening
If you want to gain respect and have people trust you, being an active listener is a good start. Active listening is a combination of body language and utterances to confirm with the speaker that you are interested in what they have to say and summarising what they have said either as a statement or combination of statement and questions. Different degrees of summarising result in different levels of active listening as perceived by the speaker. A listener may simply repeat what they hear. This is the lowest level of active listening and is generally not very effective. A listener may paraphrase using many of the same words and same sentence structure. This demonstrates at least some internal reasoning about the subject matter. Listeners who paraphrase are likely to be seen as engaged by the speaker. A listener who reflects on what the speaker says and the emotions which the speaker displayed and uses their own words and own sentence structure, sometimes in the form of questions, demonstrates total engagement. That perceived high level of engagement earns them trust from the speaker. Active listening is a good thing to do when we want to communicate well with people and earn their trust and respect. From the foregoing, it is also a simple thing to do. Then why do so few people do it? Why are so many people poor at listening? What are the barriers to being an active listener? Barriers to Active ListeningBarriers to active listening are generally different kinds of noise. Some specific examples of noise in the office are:
The more you know about noise, the more you can learn about how to eliminate it. There are five main types of noise that can easily prevent active listening. These are: 1. External Distractions
2. Speaker Distractions
3. Message Intent/Semantics
4. Emotional Language
5. Personal Perspective
Overcoming these barriers of noise can be difficult. Practising some simple techniques will take away the difficulty and the rewards for doing so are great. Techniques to practise1. External Distractions
2. Speaker Distractions
3. Message Intent/Semantics
4. Emotional Language
5. Personal Perspective
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