Soft Skills Active Listening Skills

hello everybody welcome to this video on tutorials point today our topic of discussion is going to be on active listening skills well active listening skills is one of the most important life skill today because if you do not know how to listen well to your people you can never be a effective manager or a leader so today let's explore active listening skills God has given us to yours and one mouth so that we can listen more and talk less but we as human beings do right the opposite we talk more and we listen less so today I would urge you to pay a lot of attention to this video and let's really understand the nitty-gritty of active listening skills let's get started the agenda today is going to be on defining active listening skills difference between listening and hearing and this is something which is the most important part of our module today types of listening signs of active listening reflecting clarifying mirroring and paraphrasing these are important aspects of listening skills barriers to effective listening so this is all something that we are going to talk about in terms of listening skills today so what exactly is active listening skills let's understand the definition according to the dictionary well effective listening or active listening is this process of analyzing the sounds organizing them into recognizable patterns interpreting the patterns and understanding the message inferred by the meaning well if I have to put it very simply to you all listening is a process of receiving interpreting and reacting to the messages received by the speaker well according to a very top-notch management guru mr. Tom Peters listening is an essential management and a leadership skill today listening is not only done through the years whereas listening can also be done through the eyes mind heart and imagination of a person so it is not that you only need to involve your ears in the process of listening listening can be done in a lot many other ways as well listening comes first where if you have to talk about communication as a whole listening is of the topmost priority after listening comes speaking then comes reading and then the last is writing well if listening is such a top priority I would really urge all of you listening to this video today to start making an effort of genuine effort to start listening well to your people let's understand if there is any difference between hearing and listening we all have been brought up in some or the other connotation understanding that hearing and listening are both the same when these are two different aspects and let's understand in detail what exactly is hearing and what exactly is listening well hearing is a very mechanical process it's something that you do not really involve yourself completely into hearing whereas listening is completely focused meaning you do not have to do any kind of multitasking when you are listening to your people whereas when you are hearing it's very very accidental it's no rocket science to hear I can be typing a message on my mobile or even writing an email on my laptop at the same time listening or hearing to somebody who might be saying something to me well hearing is accidental whereas listening is more focused that's the number one point of difference between hearing and listening the second difference is curing is involuntary well I might be doing a lot many other tasks I might be physically present but mentally absent and that is what is hearing I am involuntarily involving myself whereas in listening I am hundred percent there with the person voluntarily physically as well as mentally the third point of difference in hearing is hearing is effortless you do not really need to make any effort to ly hear somebody where as in listening you actually have to intentionally leave come on towards the person give you a hundred percent attention and focus and listen to somebody and that is what listening is all about so hearing is very very mechanical and listening on the other hand is very very intentionally focused done hearing what is listening you need to understand the person perceive the person whatever the person is seeing we need to perceive all the information and really understand the person why we are listening to them we need to sense what the other person is seeing when you are listening to somebody you are not only hearing the words you are also sensing the emotion behind those words and that is the crux of listening to your person in listening we are actually feeling what the other person is think so when I say feeling I'm seeing that you are really trying to put yourself into the other person's shoes you are empathizing with the person and that is the crux of listening well to somebody well active listening involves six major steps let's understand what the six steps of active listening are the first is hearing wherein you are mechanically just hearing everything whatever the other person is seeing you try to take in all the information and then you actually filter the important information out of that important things that the other person is seeing so you hear you filter out the important messages in that person's communication you try to comprehend well what I really mean to say by comprehending is trying to grasp the important messages in that information trying to grasp with your mind imagination and that's what is comprehending you remember the important information so out of the important things that the other person might have said you try to remember few things which you think are the most important crux of the information the person is trying to really tell you you try to respond to the person and that's important in listening you cannot be a statue you need to respond to the person letting them know that you're actually listening to them and you complete the entire process of listening by understanding what the other person is seeing completing it summarizing it for him these are very very important steps of listening or rather I would say active listening we will now understand the types of listening well there are six types of listening and we will understand all of them in a lot of detail now the first type of listening is known as discriminative listening well this is the first form of listening which started at a very very early age perhaps even before your birth when you were in your mother's womb discriminative listening means not listening to the meaning of the words or the phrases the speaker is seeing understanding the sounds and the differentiation between the different sounds that the person is sharing with you and that is what is discriminative listening once you have understood or rather differentiated between or identified between the different sounds the next thing is comprehension listening that means understanding the meaning behind those words and phrases that the speaker has said well comprehension listening is also known as full listening content listening meaning you try to understand the information that the person is seeing the third kind of listening is evaluative listening evaluative listening is also known as critical listening because here you are trying to critically understand what the person is saying to you you try to evaluate the person or the speaker and when you are a listener you try to understand whether what they are saying is in line with your own beliefs values and principles if it is not you try to not listen to them or try to be very judgmental of the listener that is not a correct thing to do so that's evaluative listening the fourth type of listening is known as attentive listening well this is a very nice kind of listening because you're really trying to put all of your 100% attention into the speaker and really focusing on what they are seeing and that's giving your attention to the speaker that's a very very important part of a listener to give your full attention the next kind of listening is known as selective list well selective listening means listening to only a part of the information or part of the content which the particular speaker is seeing to give you an example of selective listening I once had a friend who went who also wanted to go out with her friends in the night and she asked her dad for permission that can I go out in the night with my friends well the dad said yes please go out but be back by 2:00 p.m. and you know what happened at 2:00 p.m. the daughter did not return back the father kept calling up on her mobile phone and when she finally turned up at 3 o'clock her father asked her why were you not here at 2 o'clock she said that you said go but he said I told you go but also come back by 2:00 p.m. the daughter did not look our rather listen to the second half of the message of the father and that is known as selective listening meaning you try to only listen to the part of the information which you feel like listening to and you let go of the other part of the message so selective listening is not a very good type of listening the last and the foremost is empathetic listening this is a kind of listening I would urge all of you listeners to really try and attempt to do empathetic listening empathetic listening means trying to understand the speaker from his point of view meaning trying to put yourself into their shoes and understanding the feeling behind those words and sentences that the speaker is really sharing with you empathetic listening is the best kind of listening because you are really tuned into the person and the person understands that you are listening to them heart and soul when anything cannot be left behind with regards to barriers barriers are present in each and everyone's life and in terms of listening also there are different barriers barriers are nothing but obstacles which come in the way of your listening well in terms of barriers for active listening there are two types physical barriers and psychological barriers let's understand both of these well physical barrier is something which really comes in the way which does not let the other person or rather the speaker or the listener comes in the way and does not really help you to understand the person very well so in terms of noise when you are talking to someone and if there's a lot of background noise you tend to not listen well to the person because it creates an obstacle in the way and that is not good poor acoustics if the person who's speaking speaks in a very low volume or a very very loud volume it can become a barrier to listening defective mechanical devices so in terms of technology there is a power failure or if the presentation is stopped because of any other reason it becomes a barrier in physical listening frequent interruptions well the person you are speaking to if you keep interrupting that person in the way of the person's speech it can lead to one of the barriers the person is mentally switched off and does not really wish to speak more because you keep interrupting them uncomfortable environment and a lot of message overload can become a barrier or rather physical barrier to active listening skills psychological barriers you might be physically present in person in front of the person but not really psychologically tuned to them and that can be a important barrier with regards to psychology state of health if you are not somebody who is keeping well well health is equal to wealth if you are not healthy you're not able to have a healthy mind because of which it can come in the middle of your active listening skills disability any kind of physical disability might also prevent you from listening well to the person wandering attention well friends today we are living in a kind of an environment where in we are surrounded by interruptions and distractions one ping on our whatsapp or one ping on our social media can really lead to lack of attention and interruption which can prevent us from listening well to a person personal anxiety a lot of people are always anxious all the time a lot of stresses are there because of which you might not listen to the person that can be in a barrier and the last but not the least having a negative attitude can also be one of the barriers which might not let you listen to particular person when they are speaking well you listen to a person non-verbally also meaning with the help of your body language you sure to a person whether you're really listening to them or you're not listening to them so let's understand what are the nonverbal or rather body language signs and symbols which show to a person you are listening to them or not listening to them smiling also lets the other person know that you are listening to them smiling is a very nice connotation and helps really to unmake the other person understand whether you want to listen to them or known so smiling really helps having an eye contact with the speaker as a listener if you are having an eye contact with the speaker it shows to the person that you are really listening to them so smiling and eye contact helps having a correct posture well if you are listening to person you want to lean forward towards the person when they're speaking to you if you lean back or if you show in your posture you are not interested in listening it can not really be that favorable to you as a listener so having a correct posture standing properly or sitting down properly leaning forward showing them through your year that you're listening to them all of these are important postures which show that you're actually listening to a person distractions well today mobile phone is the biggest distraction in this age of technology and that when you are speaking to somebody if you fidget on your mobile phone shows that you're really not listening to the person so when you are listening to a person you need to keep away all technologies and these are all nonverbal signs of active listening so friends the next time when you are listening to someone please be mindful of these body languages well if you're talking about nonverbal mobile signs and symbols cannot be far behind can they now so wobble sign of active listening you need to show positive reinforcement now what I really mean to say by positive reinforcement means when you are listening to somebody use some phrases or fillers like mm-hmm really did that happen these are positive reinforcement which shows to a listener that you are truly and 100% ly listening to them so positive reinforcement is important remembering we at times become very forgetful while you are listening to a person it's important to keep remembering things that they're saying probably you can even jot down the important points on a notepad when you are talking to someone that can really help remember the important points in the person's conversation questioning ask the person who's speaking asked them a lot of questions that really helps make note that the person is listening to you so ask them questions while they are talking how did this happen what happened after that this shows that you are truly interested in what the other person is saying and you're listening well to them reflection try to reflect on the mood and the senses the person is trying to say read beyond the lines or rather I would say read between the lines of what the person is saying clarification when the person is speaking you might want to clarify a couple of things while they're speaking but not interrupting them too much at the same time so clarifying or clarification also shows to a speaker that you're really trying to tune in you're really trying to understand them by actively listening to them and last but not the least summarize the entire information or the message the person has told you or shared with you try to summarize it in a few simple words which shows to a speaker that you are really actively listening to them well friends these are all verbal signs of active listening I would like to share with you certain tips for being an active listener so if you are a person who is really having challenging times trying to be an active listener this will really help you so certain tips are risk and appropriately it's important when you are talking to somebody try to respond as much as you can by nodding your head by saying mm-hmm really did that happen these other things which really try to say to the person that you are responding and you're not really standing like a statue and listening to somebody so talk pay attention to them that's another important tip of being an active listener try to pay attention to the small details try to really leave everything and be with the person whom you're listening to sure that you are listening how do we show that we are listening through the nonverbal signs that we discussed some time back so show that you are listening by nodding your head by leaning forward having a correct posture talking to them smiling to them and also maintaining an eye contact with your speaker provide feedback as much as possible it's very essential and important to keep giving positive or negative feedback while you are talking to somebody this will show to the speaker that you are genuinely making an effort to listen to them and last but not the least when you are with a speaker avoid judging them try not to evaluate them try to not be critical of what they're saying try to just listen with the open mind without really judging a person and these are important tips for being an active listener well certain facts of why importance of listening is there as I mentioned to you earlier also in this video tutorial that listening is the most important life skill today so importance of listening is because no communication process is complete without listening listening is a priority business people actually spend about 45 percent of time in listening if you want to be an effective leader it's important that you listen to your people will spend maximum time not speaking but actually listening to your people and you will be a world-class leader a good listener understands the value of words and emotions so I would rather say go one step ahead and not really judge a person by what their saying but try to listen to the feeling and the words that the person is really telling you about misunderstandings and misinterpretations are ruled out if you listen well to your people because when you are listening to them any kind of miscommunication is taken care of so try listening well today active listening skills can be learned and developed so friends is not very difficult to really actively listen to your people it's something that can be learnt and something which you can develop over a period of time so start actively listening today to conclude the entire module on active listening we have understood that hearing and listening are two different components well hearing is a very mechanical process listening is more important and can be developed over a period of time learn how to listen well to your people and learn how to really empathetic Lee listen to them today that is the end of our module friends and I hope you have enjoyed listening to this we had a lovely time teaching you thank you very much and have a lovely day

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Views: 59,238

Rating: 4.87538 out of 5

Keywords: Soft Skills Active Listening Skills, Active Listening Skills, Soft Skills

Id: EyPwKwVhyw4

Length: 20min 59sec (1259 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 12 2018