Perfecting listening skills

Have you ever thought about how you listen to someone?  I know we all have been disappointed from time to time regarding other people's listening or not listening to us. Did you ever stop to think of listening as a skill? It isn't just as simple as not being distracted.  Listening is actually a talent you can improve on that will help you do a better job in your business with the added benefits of improving your personal relationships.

This exercise will show you how to improve your skills of listening to help you thrive in your career as well as your life. As we are speaking about business, by improving this skill you will be able to maximize your desired results in marketing, sales, customer service, supervision, and management of staff. In event planning specifically, you must be able to achieve a high level of listening. Clients want you to carry out their wishes and without listening properly you will be setting yourself up for mistakes and an unhappy client.

Depending on the study you are researching there are several different levels of listening.  For this discussion, we will study six of them.

Ignoring

The lowest level of listening is called ignoring – not listening at all. If you are distracted by anything while talking to a user, they can get the impression that you are ignoring them. This level of listening can have some added benefits like there is a lot of chaos around you and you need to have an intense focus.

 Pretend Listening

Pretend listening is most easily explained in face-to-face conversation. This happens often on the phone when you can't see the person's focus. While you are working on some sort of task, others can tell you are distracted.

Selective Listening

While practicing selective listening, we will pay attention to the speaker only if they are talking about things we like or agree on. When they begin to talk about things we disagree with or are uninterested in transfer into the ignoring stage.

 Attentive Listening

Attentive listening occurs when we carefully listen to the other person, but while they are speaking we are thinking of our response. This is a dangerous way to listen because we may miss very important information and only see one perspective which could be totally wrong. 

 Empathic/Active

Empathic listening is a way of listening with the intent of understanding the person's feelings, thoughts, and what they are trying to convey. You respond to either gain a deeper understanding, receive clarification or confirm what you believe they are communicating.  When you develop this skill you will gain the trust and respect of your clients.  

Comprehensive

Understanding the listener begins when you can use appropriate vocabulary and language skills. Make sure you don't complicate things using language or technical terms that are not easily understood by the recipient.  Comprehensive listening is can become complicated by the fact that two different people listening to the same thing may understand the message differently or from subliminal signals, like; the tone of voice, hand gestures, or body language.  

It is important to develop your skills to provide excellent customers service.  Consider watching some Youtube videos or do a simple google search to find some programs that will help you develop your skills to the best of your ability.

Members can find additional support in your Ebook library and on our Podcasts.