Effective Listening: How would you score?

Effective Listening: How would you score?

To be successful at our jobs, we must be able to write, speak, and listen effectively. Of these three skills, effective listening may be the most crucial. Unfortunately, listening also may be the most difficult skill to master.

Effective listening is challenging, in part, because people often are more focused on what they're saying than on what they're hearing. According to a study in Harvard Business Review, people think the voicemail they send is more important than the voicemail they receive. Generally, senders think their message is more helpful and urgent than do the people who receive it.

Additionally, listening is difficult because people don't work as hard at it as they should. Listening seems to occur so naturally that putting a lot of effort into it doesn't seem necessary. However, hard work and effort is exactly what effective listening requires.

As HR professionals we listen to explanations, rationales, and and sometimes defenses of an individual’s actions. We are constantly communicating with fellow employees whose backgrounds range from finance to marketing to information systems to operations to warehousing.

Not everyone has to possess the same style of listening, but individuals who use "active" listening will likely become much better listeners. Active listening demands that the receiver of a message put aside the belief that listening is easy and that it happens naturally and realize that effective listening is hard work. The result of active listening is more efficient and effective communication.

The Listening Quiz

Are you an effective listener? Ask a peer (outside of HR), that you communicate with regularly and who you know will answer honestly, to respond "yes" or "no" to the 10 questions below, Do not answer the questions yourself. We often view ourselves as great listeners when, in fact, others know that we are not.

• During the past two weeks, can you recall an incident in which you thought I was not listening to you?
• When you are talking to me, do you feel relaxed at least 90 percent of the time?
• When you are talking to me, do I maintain eye contact with you most of the time?
• Do I get defensive when you tell me things with which I disagree?
• When talking to me, do I often ask questions to clarify what you are saying?
• In a conversation, do I sometimes overreact to information?
• Do I ever jump in and finish what you are saying?
• Do I often change my opinion after talking something over with you?
• When you are trying to communicate something to me, do I often do too much of the talking?
• When you are talking to me, do I often play with a pen, pencil, my keys, or something else on my desk?

Use your peer's answers to grade your listening skills. If you received nine or 10 correct answers, you are an excellent listener; seven or eight correct answers indicates a good listener; five or six correct answers means you possess average listening skills; and less than five correct answers is reflective of a poor listener.

The answers most often given for effective listeners are: 1. no, 2. yes, 3. yes, 4. no, 5. yes, 6. no, 7. no, 8. yes, 9. no, 10. no.

Copyright 2006 Great Lakes HR Now and CBS Radio Inc.  Used by permission.  All Rights Reserved.

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