The importance of listening skills in communication

What are listening skills? It is a means to help you communicate successfully in everyday life, regardless of the office environment or meetings with friends. To learn how to listen more effectively in communication, please refer to the following article

What are listening skills?

Listening is the passive process of receiving sound. Listening is an active process when we focus and want to receive and understand the speaker’s information, to analyze the other person’s words and respond appropriately.

Listening skills in communication need to be practiced over a long period of time to become proficient, helping you thoroughly apply them to the work environment, family life, confiding in friends…

The importance of listening skills

The importance of listening skills is expressed in many aspects. If you want to be successful in any profession, you must know how to listen, especially when working as a manager, salesperson, consultant, lawyer… Listening helps you grasp the feelings, emotions, implications, and opinions of colleagues and customers. customers, partners, bosses… create effective cohesion and cooperation at work.

In everyday life, knowing how to listen will help build and develop relationships. If you know how to receive opinions, support and encourage properly, the conversation will be more comfortable, creating more intimacy and trust. At the same time, when a conflict occurs, listening helps calm the situation and wisely come up with an amicable solution.

How to listen effectively in communication

After learning the role of communication skills, we will look at a few ways to help improve listening skills:

Listen actively
You should direct your attention to the speaker and make them see that you only care about one thing right now: what they are saying. While listening, you should not focus on thinking about what it is your turn to say because it will distract you from what the other person is saying.

Concentrate
It is necessary to show respect for the speaker. Consider their opinions carefully, do not underestimate or disregard what you hear. Facial expressions should also not show disrespect. You don’t have to agree with everything they say, but wait for them to finish talking before presenting your point of view.

Make a question
Asking questions to confirm information and ask for more details is a way to show your interest. When asking questions, you should focus on the topic you are discussing, not suddenly switch to the topic you want.

Encourage the other person to continue
You can respond to the speaker by showing that you are paying attention by saying “So what you mean is…” or “Let me see if I understand you correctly…” and repeating what you heard.

Use body language
When chatting, face them face to face, nodding in agreement moderately. Don’t let objects create distance between you and the speaker. Do not cross your arms over your chest, look at things around you, glance at the computer screen, read the newspaper…

Records
This is how it applies in meetings. The best way to not miss necessary information is to prepare yourself a notebook and a pen. Those are the most important tools to help you remember important information in a communication.

Don’t rush to give opinions
Interrupting in communication is a bad habit that makes the other person uncomfortable and does not provide enough information. And the consequences will be unpredictable if the information you miss is important and has “vital” meaning for the project you are about to undertake.

We have just learned what listening skills are and how to listen effectively. Hopefully with the above advice, you will succeed in building and developing everyday relationships.