One of the topics of this week’s reading is the process people use to listen to what is communicated to them and what they do with that information internally once it has been communicated to them. I found this interesting list out of the University of Minnesota-Duluth student handbook. Although this list applies more to a classroom environment, you could also apply this to a meeting at work or to the presentations your classmates will be giving this week.
- Maintain eye contact with the speaker.
- Focus on content, not delivery.
- Avoid emotional involvement.
- Avoid distractions.
- Treat listening as a challenging mental task.
- Stay active by asking mental questions.
- Use the gap between the rate of speech and your rate of thought.
I think my favorite one out of the list is the one about treating listening as a challenging mental task. While it is easy to tune out poor communicators and blame them afterwards for their lack of skills, there are some occasions where what we are listening to is important to our jobs or even our lives. If a 911 operator sounded like he or she didn’t know what you were talking about, wouldn’t you take the time to actively listen to the person on the line and make sure they understood your location and situation? And, vice versa, those types of people are trained to decipher what a person in a highly emotional state is saying so they know what type of help to send and where to send it.
There’s a really good video on improving your listening skills in the Bachelor’s curriculum. I’m going to see if I can grab it for Workshop 4. I know a lot of people were bothered by the video choice this past week, although I think it was good for review.
