Listening well is as powerful a means of communication and influence as speaking well. -John Marshall.

Listening is an indicator of open-mindedness. It prepares the ground for the understanding and solution of problems. Listening helps to gather and absorb a wide range of information. A careful listener has the influence to win the cooperation of all those who are part of the problem. Knowledge is not added when one speaks, but listening adds new knowledge. Play hearts keys. A listener is part of the solution and never part of the problem. Words have no meaning, but people do, which can only be understood when one listens. A clever maxim “A wise man listening to a fool will learn more than a fool listening to a wise man” clearly explains the importance of listening. The provision of two ears and one mouth to a human being symbolically explains the importance of listening as double that of speaking.

The average time spent listening is 53%, while that spent writing, speaking and reading together is 47%. Ironically, all training programs tend to focus on the second and almost nothing on the first, even though it is essential and takes up a large part of the communication.

The importance of listening in organizational communication

While listening is very important for interpersonal relationships or social life, it is more important for all those who run the organization while pursuing its goals. Organizations run not only on the information rails with all the various dimensions, but also on emotions and non-rational human angles. The understanding of the full range of information and the proper treatment of human expectations are possible only with the best listening. One would devote himself to learning the best listening skills only when he is convinced of the importance of listening. A discussion on the importance of listening is now attempted.

Meenakshi Raman and Prakash Singh (2006, pp.90-91) have listed the benefits of listening to leaders and teams.

a) Listening helps to know the organization.

b) Listening helps to make better policies.

c) Listening placates complaining employees.

d) Listening is important to the success of the open door policy.

e) Listening helps detect sensitive areas before they become explosive.

f) Listening forms a bond of respect.

g) Increases accuracy, confidence and productivity.

h) Innovative solutions evolve through listening.

Listening helps to obtain fairly complete information, which does not happen with bad listening. Bad hearing acts like a piece of cloth with many holes. A problem with more than one dimension can be solved only when information on all dimensions of the problem is taken. Full understanding of a problem is only one step in solving it. Listening is a tool to understand. and establishes the missing links of the problem. A solution based on half the information would not work or might not last any longer.

Listening helps plan for the future and formulate better policies. Listening gives clarity and precision about the problem and also gives confidence to those involved. Try this technique of listening carefully to all unresolved issues and see the difference. Hear all the points and all parts of the problem and you will see the solution instantly.

The listener can get clues about future problems from the way the presenters gesture or express their thoughts. An insightful listener not only gets full information about the current problem, but also enough clues about future problems. Due to a full understanding of the problems, efforts to solve them can be launched long before the problem becomes too difficult to handle if one listens correctly.

Listening gives nonverbal clues to the original intent of the speaker’s message. An attentive listener perceives the real and complete meaning of what the speaker communicates. The speaker’s tone, facial expressions, gestures, etc., which the listener can effortlessly read, would fully confirm or contradict what the speaker says orally. This is why people would travel thousands of miles to communicate face to face, although the same can be done over the phone, fax, or video conference. In face-to-face communication, where it is possible to listen carefully, not only do you have a complete understanding of the problem, but you also know the attitude of the parties on the issue.

Listening establishes bonds of trust and respect. Problems and their solutions are highly dependent not only on pure facts but also on non-factual dimensions such as emotions, respect, affection, etc. Listening dissolves the defensiveness of the other party. Active listening generates respect in the other party and can give in to doubt. Listening causes complaining employees to back off and go easy on the problem and the listener. Listening, in a way, reduces tensions. Even when no solution is found, listeners can relate to it, as they perceive that everything that needed to be done was done. On top of this, listening motivates speakers to say nice things and take immediate action on what the listener suggests.

Causes of poor listening

There are many and varied reasons for poor hearing besides the lack of awareness that listening is important.

Dan Bobinski, (Seven Deadly Sins of Not Listening http://www.hodu.com/not-listening.shtml) has summarized seven deadly sins that lead to poor listening. Filtering, guessing, discarding, relating, rehearsing, forecasting, and placating all contribute to poor listening. Filtering refers to the acceptance by the listener of what is desirable and the rejection of what is not suitable. To question is to look for ulterior motives. The discount is born out of disrespect for the speaker and mocks the content. To relate is to imbibe that it has references to the listener’s experience or background and to lose the rest as useless. Rehearsing is being busy thinking about what to say when the speaker finishes his point. Forecasting is thinking well in advance about an idea given by the speaker. Placing is agreeing with what others say to avoid conflict, the result of which is loss of understanding.

Similarly, prof. Mathukutty (2001, pp.68-72) has identified nine contributors to poor listening. they are

1) inappropriate language

2) difficult physical conditions such as external disturbances

3) listen not serious

4) lack of interest

5) antipathy towards the speaker

6) Over-enthusiasm for the speaker

7) lack of confidence

8) impatient

9) strong beliefs on the subject

Teacher. Asha Kaul has mentioned eight impediments to the listening process. Lack of interest, ego, self-concern, back and forth between past and present, fear, preconceived notions, feeling you already know (familiarity trap), and stress.

We will discuss the most prominent reasons for poor listening in the following paragraphs.

Mismatch between speed of thought and speed of speech: A mind (of any human while listening) can process 400 words per minute, while a human can speak only around 125 words. During this space of free time available to the listener’s mind, it is diverted to other topics as it has idle capacity and is distracted from the speaker’s topic. This is one of the reasons why the mind wanders quickly from one topic to another.

Lack of Awareness: While there are various and numerous training programs conducted for reading, writing, and speaking, no training program is ever conducted for listening, which on average constitutes more than reading, writing, and speaking together in total training time. communication.

Mistaken belief that others would expect you to solve their problems: It is a mistaken belief that others would talk to us only expecting some contribution and ask us to solve their problem. But some may ask for help, but most want to share their feelings, achievements, complaints, information, etc. It is better to listen with an open mind than to turn a deaf ear.

Filter installation: Communications come from different angles with different types of inputs. An individual does not have the capacity to absorb everything nor is it good enough to take everything that comes. Therefore, an individual innately establishes filters in his mind to pay attention to some and discard some by filtering the information that arrives. In the process of ignoring the presumably useless matter, he may also pay attention to some useful information.

Second, the filter has another form when the listener thinks he knows the subject and doesn’t have much left to learn from the speaker. This condition is known as closed-mindedness. Also in this condition, the listener fails to capture what is communicated to him. In such a situation, he would only occupy his mind in criticizing or denying the speaker’s views or framing his argument in opposition to the speaker’s. That’s how he misses the point.

Third, the speaker may already have an opinion about the speaker. This condition is known as premature evaluation. If it’s a negative opinion, he would close his mind and miss the point. If you have a very positive opinion, you may be overly enthusiastic to confirm your impression, and thus you may miss the point.

Fourth, some people have a low opinion of them and take any input as an attack on their weaknesses. They would not allow the information to get through and kept busy defending themselves.

Distraction: the listener is distracted from the subject due to external disturbances, poor public address systems, disinterested co-audience, etc. Certain personal factors, such as a disturbing situation in the family, etc., would also distract the listener. All these distractions are attributed to the ‘noise’ that surrounds the listener.

Lack of interest: If the listener has no interest in the topic or the speaker, they cannot listen.

Inappropriate language: Inappropriate language of the speaker or listener would hinder the listening process. The language of the speaker must match that of the listener.

Bad listening habits: The listener fails to get the speaker’s point as a result of their bad listening habits. These habits are also barriers to listening. If the barriers to listening, some of which have been discussed above, are person-specific and if practiced continuously by an individual, they become habits. Here is a brief mention of them.

1) Labeling the topic as uninteresting just because you know the title of the topic turns a person away from the important points.

2) If the presentation is found to be poor, one may conclude that the topic is not worth listening to.

3) If you get overstimulated and upset by one or a few unpleasant points, you will miss the rest of the topic.

4) Some people focus only on the facts and not on the principles underlying those facts.

5) A habit of listening is to look for a logical order in the presentation. But some speakers don’t seem to be tidy, although they do have strengths, which can be overlooked if one is too concerned with tidiness.

6) Some people fake attention, even though their minds are elsewhere and therefore they lose points.

7) Some listeners tend to create or tolerate distractions, which will not allow them to capture the intended meaning.

8) Some people try to follow the easy points and avoid the difficult ones, which can actually connect the whole.

9) The attitude of criticizing the speaker or his speech hinders listening and understanding.

10) Some people wait to catch and attack the speaker when the speaker’s opinions are contrary to those of the listeners.

11) Another similar habit is that some people are busy rehearsing what they have to say without listening to what the speaker is communicating.

All the mentioned barriers appear throughout the stages of the listening process. Familiarity with the stages of listening and the attendant pitfalls would help overcome them while listening.