Effective Listening

Differences between hearing and listening

Hearing occurs when your ears pick up sound waves transmitted by a speaker or some other source. Hearing requires a source of sound and an ear capable of perceiving it. It does not require the conscious decoding of information. Listening, on the other hand, involves making sense out of what is transmitted. Listening involves not only hearing; it involves attending to and considering what is heard. As you listen, you receive sounds and you consciously and actively decode them.

Critical listening

Listen to judge—to evaluate a situation and make decisions. Listener actively analyzes and evaluates the message and listening success requires understanding the message and assessing its merit

Empathic listening

Listen to understand and help others in situations where emotions are involved and the speaker, not just the message, is important. Listen with the primary intent to understand the speaker and his or her frame of reference. Empathic listening is often useful when communication is emotional, or when the relationship between speaker and listener is just as important as the message

Informative listening

Listening to collect information from others. The listener's primary concern is to understand information exactly as transmitted

Barriers to listening

Recall why this listening situation is important, Identify and correct barriers to listening motivation, look for common ground, treat listening as a learning opportunity and an intellectual challenge

Better listening techniques

Willingness to develop better listening techniques is linked to our motivation to listen. Ask questions such as: Do I pretend to listen? Do I criticize speakers? Do I get emotionally charged up about miner points a speaker has made?