Effective Listening Can Save You Time
Effective listening can be learned. Click To Tweet
Poor listening habits are a major component of poor communication. Poor communication is a time-waster. In order to succeed, it is crucial that you avoid prejudging, daydreaming, interrupting, reacting to, or being distracted by emotional words.
Therefore, you can learn effective listening. The ability to do so can be developed with practice. By listening effectively you will save time. If you can answer yes to the following five questions, you will qualify as a good listener.
1. Are you able to concentrate in a noisy room in order to comprehend everything that is being said?
2. Can you remain focused on the speaker’s ideas during a lengthy speech instead of letting your mind wander?
3. A speaker’s speech can be processed four times faster than your mind can. Are you pondering the words that are being spoken?
4. Is it possible to block out the speaker’s physical appearance and delivery when listening?
5. Do you pay attention to something of value if a talk is boring?
In other words, “Listening is so important that many top employers provide this as skills training for their employees. This is not surprising when you consider that good listening skills can lead to better customer satisfaction. This skill also helps with greater productivity with fewer mistakes and increases sharing of information that can lead to more creative and innovative work.
Many successful leaders and entrepreneurs credit their success to effective listening skills. Want to learn more listening skills? Read the rest of the article at SkillsYourNeed.com.
Get Organized Today
Are you looking for ways to reduce the clutter in your life? Need doable solutions and examples that will make your busy life less stressful and more organized. This is the book for you!
A collaboration of many professionals, to provide inspiration that affirms the power and importance of getting organized. The book provides practical ideas that you can use immediately to live a better, more effective life.
You can order your paperback or ebook copy here today!
Subscribe by email
Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
Janet Schiesl
Janet has been organizing since 2005. She is a Certified Professional Organizer and the owner of Basic Organization.
She loves using her background as a space planner to challenge her clients to look at their space differently. She leads the team in large projects and works one-on-one with clients to help the process move quickly and comfortably. Call her crazy, but she loves to work with paper, to purge what is not needed and to create filing systems that work for each individual client.
Janet is a Past Board Member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals and a Past President of the Washington DC Chapter of NAPO were she has been named Organizer of the Year and Volunteer of the Year.
Janet Schiesl
Janet has been organizing since 2005. She is a Certified Professional Organizer and the owner of Basic Organization.
She loves using her background as a space planner to challenge her clients to look at their space differently. She leads the team in large projects and works one-on-one with clients to help the process move quickly and comfortably. Call her crazy, but she loves to work with paper, to purge what is not needed and to create filing systems that work for each individual client.
Janet is a Past Board Member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals and a Past President of the Washington DC Chapter of NAPO were she has been named Organizer of the Year and Volunteer of the Year.
[…] Being an Effective Listener Can Save You Time (basicorganization.wordpress.com) […]
I hear you! =) Sometimes, listening can be difficult in larger crowds. When I get distracted, it’s important to own up to the distraction and admit to the person that I missed what they said. Honesty is so essential when listening and communicating with others.
Yes you are right. I get easily distracted as well.
Good listening skills are essential for all healthy relationships and interactions. I always thought I was a good listener until I took the Coach Approach courses with Denslow Brown. Wow. Did I learn a lot! The listening that happens in a coaching relationship is different from regular interactions. You listen not just for content but to vocal tone, body language, what’s NOT being said, colorful language, and so much more.
As you said, listening is a skill. The beauty is we can continue to learn, practice, and experiment. Because during the holiday season and ALL seasons, what better gift can we give than the gift of truly listening to and understanding another human being.
Julie mentioned listening courses. I’m going to see if I can find one. I know that I could improve my listening skills.
I think it is pretty interesting to contrast the speed at which my mind takes information in vs. the speed with which people talk. I know I am guilty of hearing part of what someone is saying, and then jump to start formulating my response. I do this more commonly in social settings than in work settings, when I am focused on listening.
I’m going to try and work on not interrupting or cutting people off this year. Thanks for the reminder!
Good idea. I have to work on this as well. I find that I get impatient when someone is talking and I need to give them more space.
I majored in communications in college, and so many classes focused on outbound communication — writing, public speaking, PR and journalism, electronic (radio/TV in the pre-internet days) — but with the exception of organizational communication for business and journalism classes, too little time was spent on effective communication skills. But when it was taught, it was in the beginning of the era of “active listening,” which I hear is a huge element in marriage and relationship counseling/therapy, coaching, and HR training. Imagine if active listening were part of the curriculum from kindergarten onward!
As you note, some of the key sub-skills involve concentration, focus, eliminating extraneous details, and deeply considering the content. That’s hard for everyone in this digital-distracction era, and I’m sure it’s especially hard for folks with ADHD and other executive dysfunctions. We all need more help developing our listening skills.
I agree that we all could improve our listening skills. I find that I have to repeat myself for my ADHD clients and ask them what they heard me say.
Listening is so important! Listening without reacting emotionally can be so difficult but it’s one of the most important skills to learn.
Yes. It’s definitely something to practice.